The guest book. A standard part of the big day and a lovely keepsake to be shared in years to come. Despite its importance in the wedding tradition, the wedding guest book doesn’t need to be a book. In recent times, the traditional wedding book has been replaced by a whole host of unique and quirky alternatives. The key to choosing an alternative is to think about you as a couple. Your alternative guest book should be personal to you. Musical couples might opt for a violin to be signed for example. This article will show you some alternative ideas that will make it so much more than a book.
A visual guest book that will add some fun to the guest book tradition. Having a high-quality polaroid camera and a photo album means guests can leave you a picture and a written message. Make this as formal or as informal as you want it to be. Some people have added props for the photographs such as wigs and hats. These could be great fun towards the end of the evening!
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You can take this a step further and hire a photobooth for the evening. Many couples do this alongside the more traditional guest book.
One for the sea-loving couples here. What a statement this is at a wedding reception and one that people cannot claim to have missed. Remember to choose pens that will write on a surfboard and not be rubbed off or smudged. After the wedding, the board can be used to decorate a wall in your home and provide a daily reminder of your big day. There’s no reason that this idea cannot be adapted for other past times such as skateboarding or ice hockey.
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A beautiful option that creates a wonderful piece of art for your home. Have your guests sign their name and a short message onto a heart and then pop it into a photo frame. The hearts fall down the frame and arrange themselves naturally. You can of course take them all out afterwards and arrange them how you want but lots of people like the way they fall in on the actual day. Display them on a wall or shelf and you have a ready-made talking point in your home.
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Collect old vinyl records of songs that are personal to you and have your guests sign them. Choosing gold and silver pens for this adds a real classy feeling to them. As with the surfboard, choose high-quality pens that will not be smudged or rubbed off. These look amazing on display on a wall or shelf.
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A bit different this one. Why not consider hanging a huge piece of material, like a tapestry, for your guests to sign rather than a book. After the wedding, this can be made into a quilt for you to snuggle up with on a cold winter’s day. You will be literally wrapped up in happiness and love from all the people you care about most.
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These are visually stunning and so simple to create. All you need is a large canvas with a silhouette of a tree printed onto it. Make sure it has plenty of branches depending on the number of guests you have invited. Put with it some ink pads with colours to match your scheme and away you go. Guests put their fingerprint onto a branch as a leaf and sign their name under it. The only thing left to do is to frame it and choose where to display it in your home.
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There are so many options available for this style of guest book that you will probably change your mind dozens of times before finalising your decision. The way that this works is you have a print made of a special image for your guests to sign around it.
People choose the spot they got engaged in or a picture from a favourite holiday. It is not uncommon to have a caricature of the couple as the artwork.
Whatever you choose, make sure it is a clear image as any blurring in the photo will be magnified when it is enlarged to be printed.
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A simple, yet effective option for an alternative guest book. Your guests sign jigsaw pieces that are put together in a frame. Colours and styles can be personalised to your theme and there is a real fun element to this. You can allow your guests to put the jigsaw together as they sign the pieces and add them to a box for you to organise in any way you see fit.
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A real outside the box idea involving a typewriter and a letterbox. This allows your guests to type you a message using the old school ‘technology’ of a typewriter. The novelty of this means that everyone will contribute but you will need to have plenty of spare cards available. There is no delete button, so any mistake means starting afresh.
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Signing a bottle as a guest book is something that adds a talking point to the day but is not for the faint-hearted. If one clumsy guest drops the bottle, then all your messages are broken. Attaching the bottles to a stable base would be well advised if this is your preferred method of providing a guest book. Also, check that your pens write easily on glass. Cheaper options tend to be of poorer quality.
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By choosing one of these ideas you will certainly add a twist to the more traditional guest book and give your guests a detail to remember. Also, there is less chance of it being stuffed away in a cupboard or drawer, never to see the light of day again.
Author Bio
Christina Lee is a long-serving, highly respected project manager at Top Canadian Writers and Student writing services. She has recently made the bold move into writing about wedding news and events for such services, as Write my essay, and others.