Guestbook alternatives for creative brides
Decor Porn
By
on August 04, 2010
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Over the years of Offbeat Bride we've seen some really unique guest books that step WAY outside the lines of empty book and pens left on a table. If you're looking for a way to personalize your wedding even more check out this guestbook alternatives round-up…
Instruments as guestbooks
Instruments make awesome guest books. We've seen guitars and drums put to good use as guestbooks, but this is our first blue french horn guestbook. Uploaded to the OBB Flickr pool by marlasinger84, she explains that this horn was covered in silver signatures and it's future home is their mantle.Typewriter guestbook
These have been popping up all over the place. Perfect for vintage-style weddings to set the old-timey tone from the very beginning.
Guestbook trees
Branches sticking out a glass vase provided an easy way to make a tree. Flickr member lutra98685 uploaded this to the OBB pool and explained that their guests hung fall "leaves" for everyone to sign and then hang. The sign is a piece of log that was painted with chalkboard paint. "A fun idea for any teacher."
Guestbook banner
You could have your guests sing something like banner flags, or these letters that spelled out Flickr member outommyboychick's last name, who said, "Now we can hang up our wedding 'guestbook' when we finally get a house."
Wishing rock guestbook and variations there of
Flickr member nurse_jenie uploaded this to the OBB Flickr pool and explains, "The signed seashells in that vase were our guest book at our 'wedding shower/going away/pre-elopement party.' Ever heard of a wishing rock guestbook? We had wishing sea shells."
Guestbook poster
Find a poster of some special significance or a photo of the two of you surrounded by large matting for your guests to sign. Then once it's done you can hang it up in your home.
Guestboard
Along the same lines of the guestbook poster is this guestboard. Just put up a blank piece of poster board for your guests to sign and decorate as they wish. You'll never know what you'll end up with.
Photobooth/guestbook
Your photobooth can double as your guest book as long as you ad a chalk board or a dry-erase board as something to write a message on.
Polaroid guestbook
I used one of these guest books at my wedding and it was a hit. The guests loved it as much as I did and to this day I still flip through it laughing my ass off at the silly pictures and corresponding messages.
Video guestbook
Nita & Rehan's Hello Message Booth from Hello Super 8 on Vimeo.
Personal card guestbook
Sometimes what you want to say isn't either easy or appropriate to write in a book that everyone and their MOM can read through. The note on the table reads: "In lieu of a guest book please select a card from the table and share you thoughts, wishes and advice. Place in an envelope for Meaghan and Joe to save for a rainy day."
Guestball
I could see this being perfect if you guys are into some kind of ball-sport.
Whatever you want to call this LED Throwie Awesomeness
OBB reader Shannon sent her guestbook idea our way and explained, "We used LED throwies attached to vellum tags for the guestbook at our wedding. The throwies were initially attached to a metal 2-tier basket, then were thrown at an eight foot piece of corrugated metal attached to the side of the house (you can see the foot of it in the background). I learned to make throwies here and throwies with on/off tabs (so you can make them ahead) here. The LEDs came from evilmadscientist.com and the batteries came from digikey.com (the magnets came from various sources - mostly hardware stores and China)."
So I know you guys have even more clever guestbook alternative ideas up your sleeves so you know what to do (incase you don't here's a hint: leave 'em in the comments)!
About Megan Finley
Megan Finley is the Managing Editor for Offbeat Bride and the Associate Publisher for the Offbeat Empire. When she's not slaving away for the Empire, she's sharing her dork side on her own blog and on Twitter @meganfinley.
Kimberly said
Because we're the kind of people for whom everything has to serve at least two functions (way before Alton Brown, too! *grin*), our 'guestbook' is part of our place settings, holds our programs together, and will be part of our ring-warming ceremony. We're having our wedding inside our reception, which makes this all work out: When guests arrive, every place setting will have a ceremony program on it, which will be rolled up like a scroll and tied with a length of raw silk ribbon. People will be asked to take the ribbon from the program and sign it and write well-wishes or blessings on it with pens also provided at the table. During the ceremony, we will pass around a box containing our rings on stands, and ask people to put their ribbons into the box to 'warm' the rings. Then we'll do the ring exchange. Voila, multi-purpose guestbook action! We'll keep the decorative box full of ribbons on our mantel.
Cam said
A friend's wedding had Guest postcards.
All guests wrote a little something on one of the guest postcards, then the maid of honor mailed one daily out to the newly married couple.
Andrea said
That's such a fantastic idea! Were the postcards from all over or from the couple's hometown?
Cam said
I think they were just a collection of vintage looking postcards that fit Hawaiian theme of their wedding (they were married in Maui). You can take a look here: http://www.labellebride.com/20…sami-dean/
Jessica_Iowa said
I collect postcards, so that sounds like a great idea!
vjmendi said
Oh! This sounds awesome! We've been trying to figure out what to do about a guestbook and this might just work.
Michael and Anna Costa said
Oh, these ideas are fabulous!
Ivriniel said
At a Chinese wedding I attended, there was a big red tablecloth to sign. Apparently this is traditional.
Unfortunately, the wedding was taking place in a 3 floor banquet hall in Chinatown, on an auspicious day for weddings, so my Mom ended up signing someone else's tablecloth by mistake. There were 2 weddings where the brides and grooms had the same last name, and we were directed to the wrong one. My Mom was just finishing signing it when I looked up and saw the bride. Ooops. Apparently we weren't the only people to do so.
Andrea said
My fiance and I are thinking of having guests make predictions for 5, 15, or 25 years (their choice) and putting them in a sort of "time capsule." I think it's a great idea, but I'm not sure if everyone will get it…
Future Mrs. said
Does anyone know where I can buy a long scroll of typewriter paper? I love the idea of guests writing on a big scroll a la Jack Kerouac.
Marissa said
My idea is to get two adirondack chairs and paint markers and have guests sign their names and maybe a good luck or two.
Stephanie Renaud said
We are having a hockey theme, so we are using two hockey goalie sticks…a white one for me and a black one for him.
apsutter said
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the HIMYM reference!!!! It's so creative and wonderful and I've always wanted to have a string quartet play at my wedding with the blue instruments b/c of that show! It's very dear to my heart because it premiered the same month I moved in with my boyfriend and its been "our show" ever since! All of the other ideas were awesome as well….I love the polaroid and typewriter idea
julie said
we wanted to do something creative that wouldn't take a lot of space to store. i made tags about 2"x3" with greeting cards i scored for 5 cents each at SCRAP by trimming them and rounding corners and adding graphics i cut from a Nikki McClure notepad. i wrapped stripey yarn around some cardboard, and people wrote on the tags and tied them to a bike! we now have them in a very small box.
Jessica_Iowa said
I love love love the shells and the musical instruments! And the leaves and the photo guest books!
Kendochick said
We didn't actually have a guestbook – what we did when we sent the invitations was include an RSVP card that had the lines, "We can't wait to _____ and _____", a line underneath that said, "Don't forget to _________" and then we provided a space for a song request so that people could hear something they'd be guaranteed to like during our "Anything Goes!" iPod DJing. All of the responses we got back were awesome, even from people who couldn't attend; we're going to make a collage (or two) out of them and frame them to hang on our walls. Plus, it ensured that nobody had to stand there the night of, pen in hand, blank of mind and searching desperately for something meaningful to say on the spot, so to speak.
Danielle said
I think the couple that did the blue french horn is a How I Met Your Mother fan
Allie said
I am thinking of punching a whole in some foam board and putting clock hardware through it. With some great saying about time and our start of a life together. Then use deco paper to make the foam board fabulous. Maybe Pre-paint the numbers on the foam, or paint our initial.
Zoe said
We're going to use blank prayer flags! www.tibetanprayerflag.com
Myrtle said
I think I want to do a similar thing to the polaroid guestbook instead give everyone a disposable camera & ask they turn it in before they leave.
Leslie said
I LOVE the idea of the Guestball! My husband and I got married on Labor Day weekend and had a baseball themed wedding (my husband is a college baseball coach). That would have been perfect for us! We could have had guests sign the baseballs and then been able to keep them in a vase at home.
Gina said
We were thinking of putting a big butcher paper on the wall and letting people write on it like graffiti. Definitely something different! But I'm a quilter and I love the quilt square idea, so I may do both!
Terry said
I had an idea to have guests each decorate a glass ornament, and hang it on a tree. It would probably work best for a winter/holiday wedding, but I suppose you could get a fake palm tree, or some other type of tree to hang ornaments on too.
Amanda said
Someone at work had a really neat alternative to a guestbook. They had a large unglazed ceramic platter with minimal decoration around the edges, their names, the date and a blank section in the middle. They invited guests to sign it, then it was glazed after the ceremony. Practical and can be kept forever!
Selkie said
We did a variation on the guestbook. I made a photobook on snapfish, of pictures of us as children, of our favorite places, of us together, and some quotes and favorite recipes (we both love to cook) and called it the "Love Book". I made sure there was lots of whitespace in the layout, and we left out sharpies for people to sign it. It was a hit, and fun for people at the wedding to leaf through as well.
Becky G said
Those are awesome guest book alternatives!
For my wedding we had a guest "book" bench, due to my bench obsession. I figured I'd never look back in an actual guest book and it would just sit around collecting dust, so we went for the bench instead. I'd post a picture to show you, but I'm not sure how, haha!
Lauren said
My husband to be LOVES How I Met Your Mother and I can't believe I did not think of making him a Blue French Horn as a gift. I can't wait to surprise him with one! Ebay and a can of blue spray paint here I come!!
vjmendi said
Our other idea is to the "wedding mad libs" as our guestbook. Each seat would have one and each person would fill one out. (Thank you, Pinterest.)
There are so many great ideas, we just need to nail down one!