INSPIRATION: Guest Book Ideas

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Ardent Photography, Laramie www.ardentphotographyinc.com

We asked for some feedback from our fans and wedding vendors on our Facebook page on fun guest book ideas and signature ‘thingies’ — technical term — you know, those things that you ask people to sign that attended your special day…  And BOY, did they deliver! Below, the suggestions from fans and vendors, as well as some great suggestions that we found along the way:

From Wyoming Photobooth in Casper:  “A lot of people are replacing their guest books with the scrapbook that they get from the photo booth!!! Every guest is encouraged to get their photos taken in the booth and then we put it in the scrapbook and they sign a message to the bride and groom! It is a lot of fun!”  Kelsey Holloway added:  “We are using Wyoming Photobooth for pictures and a guest sign in. It’s going to be so fun!”

From Nicole Lewis:  “Our guest book is a book put together of our engagement pictures done by Ardent Photography {in Laramie, see next paragraph}. Guests are then encouraged to write and sign their names on the pictures themselves!”

Ardent Photography in Laramie added some details about the books that they provide — and the picture you see on this blog is an example of their nifty guest book creation:  “Our books are 20 pages and custom designed to leave white space and photos with a lower opacity to allow for people to sign right on the book. This allows for both an album of their engagement photos AND a guestbook. Because of all the space and absence of lines guests tend to write personalized messages vs just signing their name. The cover is made of a hard laminate material featuring the couple’s favorite photo; the pages are a thick postcard material, making it pretty durable. The pages lay flat allowing us to span an entire photo over a two page spread.”

From Kathryn Palagonia Holloway:  “In my recent wedding I had a bare tree and guests left a finger print (leaf) and signed their name. Now they are gorgeous canvases to hang on my wall!”

From Ashley Wilkerson Photography in Jackson:  “One of my brides had the great idea to have guests write well wishes on post cards for all the places that the couple hopes to visit someday! At my own wedding, we had a photobooth and scrapbook for all the great and goofy photos our friends took and their messages-LOVE IT!”

Fresh Flower Fantasy in Laramie added an idea similar to Wyoming Photobooth’s:  “A bride last year did one I had never seen….She had a photo album with sticky pages and a Polaroid-type camera…She had costume type things such as play cowboy hats , sheriff badges, mustaches…the guests could put those on and have their pic taken.  They were given a pic and one went in the photo album and then they wrote a message to the bride and groom in the photo album! I really liked this idea.”

Sandsational Sparkle Wedding Sand added a fun idea! “So funny, we just posted a great link we found on this exact topic! We can’t claim it but happy to share 🙂 Love the puzzle piece idea!”  Check out the link that they shared — OH MY GOSH, it’s a treasure trove of fun ideas — thanks Sandsational Sparkle Wedding Sand! http://ohamanda.com/2011/0​4/12/creative-wedding-gues​t-books-top-ten-tuesday/

Sandsational Sparkle Wedding Sand also shared another great idea — check out this link!  An AWESOME idea on Wedding Channel!

Check out this link from Martha Stewart Wedding — TONS of clever ideas!

A couple of things we did for our own wedding:

We planned to make our own scrapbook, so we printed lined pages for the guests to sign. We decorated a clip board with flowers, and had the loose pages on the clipboard for guests to sign. Very easy, however, if you don’t plan to make a scrapbook that these pages could be incorporated into, it could get a little cumbersome.

Besides the blank pages, the most important thing that we did (that I LOVE still, eleven years later), was a blown up copy of our favorite engagement photo, with an extra wide mat for our guests to sign. The frame was made by my father-in-law, who has since passed away, so that makes it even more special.

ONE NOTE that we learned from our wedding day… My husband and I grew up in Laramie, and we’ve been together since we were 12. (Yes, I know — we’re weird.) 🙂  So when we got married, we had teachers from way back in sixth grade through college who wanted to come see our wedding!  It turned out that we had a LOT more people attend than had RSVP’d — so when it came to the guest book and signing our picture, people took their time. A LOT of time. Our wedding started 45 minutes late, due to the volume of guests who wanted to leave a personal message at our ceremony! It was so sweet, but WOW that really delayed our entire day… So if you’re doing something that takes a lot of concentration on your guests’ part, think ahead and plan for how to move people through the process quickly.  Can they sign at the reception? Can you ask them to sign after the ceremony and set up a special location? Any other suggestions you have? I’d love to hear them!

Here’s a new suggestion from Abbydell Photography: “A Guestbook LIVE photobook! Instead of writing a message in a book, you have a few whiteboards or chalkboards that approaching guests right a message on. The photographer then snaps a cute photo of the guests holding the board and pass it along to another guest or family waiting. Have a few boards to keep the guests in line on their feat with the message. Afterwards you’ll have a photobook complete with faces and a message instead of just a signature! I love making these for my brides! Hope you enjoy!” (LOVE!!!) 🙂

‘Til Next Time…if you have a great guest book idea that we’ve missed, please share! There are so many fun and unique ways to incorporate a fun idea into your day — which makes for a special keepsake!

Kati Hime, Editor

editor@wyolifestyle.com

LINK BACK TO OUR WEBSITE & FIND A WY VENDOR:  www.wyoweddings.com