The guest book - personalised ideas for your wedding

Consider your wedding guest book like your school year book rather than as a list of attendees. Give your guests the opportunity to write lots of detail, and to get sentimental if they wish! There are various personalised ideas that can help you create a wedding guest book you will treasure in years to come.

Firstly, get the basics right. You need to plan ahead and buy your choice of guest book. There are dozens of types of guest book available, from the classic gold-embossed white leather volume, to hand-made works of art with recycled pages. Pick the style that best suits your personality, but ensure that there are plenty of pages and it is large enough to allow your guests to write at length. You may even prefer to provide loose sheets of writing paper and get them bound later.

Next, you must pick somewhere prominent for the guest book to be placed. This is usually at the reception, as people have more time later than at the ceremony. You could place your guest book on a stand next to the cake, or pass it around each table during the meal. An excellent idea is to allocate a member of your wedding party the responsibility for getting your guests to contribute to the guest book. This may mean them approaching people and inviting them to visit the guest bookstand, or by passing the book from table to table. They should also collect it at the end of the evening and make sure it is delivered safely back to you.

There are some creative ways of developing the guest book idea and making it far more personal and unique. You could put a Polaroid camera next to the guest book and invite each guest to take a photo of themselves, and attach it next to their comment in the guest book. You could even use a silver platter as your guest book by providing an engraving pen for guests to sign with. Although this idea does allow you to later display your guest ‘book’, remember that guests will not have the space to write any more than their names.

Less traditional, but extremely memorable, is producing a video version of your wedding guest book. Ask your videographer to film each guest giving you a personal message to camera. Also, consider an online guest book. Your guests can access a website dedicated to your wedding and leave messages for you. This is a wonderful idea if you would like to return home from your honeymoon to lots of lovely notes and digital photographs. You may miss their impressions actually on your wedding day, so consider combining this idea with an actual guest book at your reception.

© The Pink Fridge Online Magazine 2008 - Wedding Guest Books