Anyone NOT doing a guestbook?

[DMBFiredancer]

Is it really necessary if you are only having 70 people?

I dont see it as something I will ever look at. I thought about doing a cutesy "write a nice message on this card" type thing but whenever I have to do that at a wedding I think to myself "But I already wrote something nice inside of your card" and end up just writing something trite on the card because I want to hurry up and get to the party.

Is it really a necessary thing? Will people ask where it is if I dont have one?

 

[cocolaw]

i''m not! i always thought the purpose of a guest book was so that you are aware of everyone who attended your wedding. we only have 40-50 guests, so i don''t see the point! i might look for something different that the guests could sign...not sure yet!

 

[FrekeChild]

I''m not. But we''re having less than 30 guests at a DW, so I don''t think it''s necessary...

 

[zipzapgirl]

We had everyone sign the matte for a frame we bought. We had the photographer take a group picture of everyone who attended and we''ll put it in that frame with the signatures. It seems like a good way to remember who was there without storing those fugly little books in the attic forever!

 

[cocolaw]

and something that really annoys me is the hostile guest book attendants!!!!! i was at a wedding once, where the guest book attendant actually made us arrive into the church late because we HAD to sign the guest book first and there was a line to sign.

 

[jstarfireb]

I wasn''t going to do one (was just doing a signing mat), but then I got a free photo guestbook offer at Shutterfly and decided to try it out. So I had the guestbook attendant direct them to put messages in the photobook but just signatures on the mat. It worked out well.

 

[neatfreak]

We didn''t-don''t regret it.

 

[swimmer]

I figured there was no point to them other than to delay the ceremony or party from starting. Everyone sent in a response card, ours was the old fashioned blank kind so everyone wrote messages on them to us. I could get around to putting them in a book if I get a spurt of energy. But mostly I couldn''t figure out how to do it so that everyone wasn''t standing in line waiting to come up with something pithy under pressure. I love some of my friends'' framed photos and thing that is great if you have both physical and timely space for it, but with our venue and large crowd I just couldn''t figure it out and no one seemed to miss having to sign in or leave us a message other than on their cards.

Will you look at your guestbook a great deal and miss having one after the wedding is over? If you will, do it, if not, no worries.

 

[Inanna]

I don''t think I''ll have a guestbook. We''re also having a DW with only 40-60 guests, so I don''t think its necessary.

 

[Haven]

Most of the weddings I''ve been to recently either didn''t have a guest book, or had some goofy alternative like cutesy little cards or those big mattes to sign for a future picture frame.

We actually used a traditional guest book, it was about $5 and it just has lined paper and a place for each guest''s information. I didn''t care one way or the other, and then we ended up using it and I''ve really enjoyed reading the little notes everyone wrote. We have since reused it for other big events at our house, and it''s been a lot of fun to have.

 

[wannaBMrsH]

Date: 7/10/2009 12:57:53 PM
Author: zipzapgirl
We had everyone sign the matte for a frame we bought. We had the photographer take a group picture of everyone who attended and we''ll put it in that frame with the signatures. It seems like a good way to remember who was there without storing those fugly little books in the attic forever!

What a fabulous idea! I''ve been debating what to do about this for our DW as we are also having just over 40 guests. I think I am going to go with this!

I love PS!

 

[D&T]

my sister and close friend did a matte frame. I loved that idea so you can always see it up, as oppose to a book that will probably sit on the bookshelf. we did the guestbook and its sitting on our bookshelf.

 

[merrymunky]

We haven''t even thought about a guestbook. I don''t know if we will to be honest. As others have said, we will get cards with lovely messages from most guests to keep anyway.

 

[mrscushion]

Upon reading this thread, I just decided I''m not doing a guestbook. I don''t really want another thing lying around my house. Plus, I''ll have a fairly small DW, so I''ll know who was there.

 

[NuggetBrain]

We are having a photobooth at our wedding, and one of the things that comes with it is a "guestbook" where the folks leaving the booth put a copy of their pictures into the book and then write a message next to the pictures. That''s going to be our guestbook.

 

[tigian]

Hi DMB,
I had 65 guests at my wedding and did not have an actual guestbook.
Instead, my sisters boyfriend took polaroid pics of everyone before the ceremony and during cocktail hour while people were mingling and we were taking our professional photos. They wrote their "words of wisdom" next to their photo for us. People took group pics, individual pics, funny pics, etc. It is really precious to us and we look at it way more often than I would imagine a guestbook with just signatures.

 

[Rock_of_Love]

I don''t really plan to do a typical guestbook, but I read about an idea were you use a coffee table book and have everyone sign the first few or last few pages. I was thinking I''d get a nice photography book about where we are having our wedding (the destination) and use that. But, it would also be cool to do a nice book that has a meaning to you...a book about love, romance, etc.

I like the frame idea.

Or, I was maybe thinking about having a polaroid station (or photobooth) with some props related to our destination - like sombreros for Mexico - and folks can take photos and keep some or put some in a book...

...just mulling around ideas, but I know I don''t really want a plain book with everyone''s names in it. What am I gonna do with that???

 

[Italiahaircolor]

We did a serving platter.

It was beautiful, handmade and painted with our monogram...and we bough ceramic pens. Basically, people sign it all night...after the wedding you bake the plate in the oven (the pens come with directions) and wa-la...you have a function piece of serving wear with lovely sentiments and signatures from your wedding that are never going to wear or scratch off.

On the bottom of ours, we had the artist write "served with love"...

We use it all the time for various things, since we did it in the colors of our home as opposed to our wedding.

 

[CDNinNYC]

Hi DMB,

if you don't think you'll miss it, I wouldn't bother.

We had a DW with 30 guests and went with something a little less traditional. We used a White Erase Board and asked guests to write a message (words of wisdom, favourite memory, etc) and snap a photo before passing it along to the next guest.

Our guests had a lot of fun with it and I love looking at the photos. I'm planning on incorporating them into a photo album.

We also provided our guests with stamped self-addressed postcards in their welcome bags and asked them to mail them to us while in Mexico. It was so awesome getting them in the mail (once we were home) and reading all the messages. We loved it.

 

[Dannielle]

Date: 7/10/2009 9:24:35 PM
Author: Italiahaircolor
We did a serving platter.

It was beautiful, handmade and painted with our monogram...and we bough ceramic pens. Basically, people sign it all night...after the wedding you bake the plate in the oven (the pens come with directions) and wa-la...you have a function piece of serving wear with lovely sentiments and signatures from your wedding that are never going to wear or scratch off.

On the bottom of ours, we had the artist write ''served with love''...

We use it all the time for various things, since we did it in the colors of our home as opposed to our wedding.

That sounds really lovely Italia

We aren''t going to do a traditional guestbook but are looking for alternatives. We were contemplating renting a photobooth and the guests stick the strips in a book provided and write a message. I''ve seen this before and people seem to have alot of fun with it, especially as the night progresses and people get a bit more ''loose''

 

[April20]

Never even occurred to me to have one......

 

[Rachie]

Date: 7/10/2009 5:11:00 PM
Author: NuggetBrain
We are having a photobooth at our wedding, and one of the things that comes with it is a ''guestbook'' where the folks leaving the booth put a copy of their pictures into the book and then write a message next to the pictures. That''s going to be our guestbook.

We are also doing this. I think it will be fun to look at all of the funny pics and sentiments from our guests!

A friend of ours had a book of their engagement pictures that they had made on a photo book website (i.e. snapfish, blurb, mpix, etc) and there were various spots throughout the book where people could sign.

 

[Blair138]

We are doing the framed photo mat. I am really excited to hang it on our wall as our friends have one and I LOVE looking at it.

Italia''s idea is also very cool, there are vases and other items you can have people sign if you don''t want the bulk of a large frame at your DW, but want something interesting.

 

[emeraldlover1]

We are doing a polaroid photobooth that we set up ourselves. Its awesome. Anyway, I don''t care about the guest book what so ever. If people want to do it, cool.

 

[pocahontas]

We had a DW with 27 guests and opted not to have a guest book. We don''t regret our decision at all.

 

[gwendolyn]

I want one--not to remember who attends (because I will definitely know), but because my friends will write lots of silly, funny things in it and that will be something nice for me to pull out and look at when I really miss them (I live in another country from most of my friends and only see them about once a year).

 

[honey22]

We are having a destination wedding with 18 guests and we are doing a variation of a guestbook.

For our engagement party, our friends put together a slideshow of pics of us from our childhood and also from the past 13 years together. They showed it after the speeches and there were plenty of tears from the guests, it was really beautiful.

We are going to make a photobook type guestbook, with a few of these pics and space for guests to write stuff. Only about 10 pages, as it''s enough for the number of guests we have.

We thought it would be a lovely keepsake with the pics and comments.

 

[CNOS128]

I didn''t want one at first because I don''t particularly like the traditional kind where everyone signs his/her name on a line -- plus out of the last 10 weddings I''ve been to I don''t think any of them has had a guest book.

But then I saw an idea on the Martha Stewart Weddings website to glue small envelopes inside a scrap book, so each person can write out a card and tuck it inside an envelope and seal it with a sticker seal. I loved this idea, so I created a book with envelopes in our wedding colors.

Most of our guests thought it was great (and I suppose I didn''t hear from the ones who disliked it!). I''m going to use the rest of the scrap book for our favorite of the non-pro photos that I had printed by Snapfish.

As guest books go, it''s pretty cute. It''ll be fun to look at in 25 years!

 

[Fleur]

We only had 24 people and we didn''t have a traditional guest book. I just started quilting last summer which gave me the idea to try this. I cut out fabric squares from the same ivory fabric I used for the chuppah. I bought permanent fabric markers in lots of colors and let people go wild. It was one of our guests favorite parts of the reception. Everyone loved it. People really got creative drawing pictures and writing heartfelt wishes.

I''m still not sure how I''m going to sew the squares but I cut them to finish at 8" or 6" so I have some flexibility.

 

[CoralQuiz]

We''re doing a video guestbook... Everyone will have a bit of facetime with the handicam giving us their wishes, then we''ll put it together into a DVD to keep and look at when we miss our friends.

I do love the idea of using a ceramic platter though... inspired!