Wedding Guest Book Alternatives

Guest books are an important tradition at weddings. They give wedding guests an opportunity to offer well wishes and advice for a couple on their big day and serve as a precious keepsake for newlyweds. While traditional guest books do help you collect an official record of who attended your wedding, there are plenty of other guest book options out there that are more creative and effective in capturing and preserving memories of your special day.

Let’s take a look at some alternative wedding guest book ideas couples can consider. 

Unique Wedding Guest Book Ideas

Tired of the tried and true traditional guest book? Take a look at these one-of-a-kind wedding guest book ideas that can be cherished for years to come! 

‍Quilt. Couples can pick their favorite fabrics and patterns to create a beautiful quilt with messages of love from wedding guests. Set up a station with blank fabric squares and permanent markers that guests can write warm wishes on (be sure to have plenty of extra squares on hand for any mistakes!). After the wedding, gather the squares and get sewing! Alternatively, if you have a crafty family member ask if they’d be willing to make the quilt as their wedding gift to you! ‍

Puzzle. For the young at heart! There are lots of personalized puzzle options that make fun and creative guest registers: Purchase a blank puzzle and paint or draw a special picture. Have a wooden puzzle engraved with the happy couple’s names and wedding date, or have a photo printed on a puzzle. At the wedding, put each piece in a nice box with fine-tip markers. After guests sign and write their congrats, have them put the pieces in a separate box. The newlyweds can glue the pieces together and frame the puzzle to display at home, or put the puzzle together on every anniversary to celebrate!     

Guest Book Ideas with Photos

What better way to capture the essence of your wedding than with pictures? Let’s take a look at a few guest book ideas that include photos.  ‍

Photo Book. Create a customized photo book for guests to sign. In addition to photos of you and your partner, you can include pics of friends, family, and colleagues that are joining you at the wedding! Upload pics to have a book professionally made or embark on a fun DIY project by purchasing a scrapbook and securing photos to pages yourself. Either way, be sure to include enough blank space for guests to write their well wishes.‍

Personalized Polaroids. Set up an empty scrapbook next to a few Polaroid cameras, some photo tape, and a few pens. Let guests snap pictures of themselves, tape their photo to a page, and write a special message. If you plan to have a photo booth at your wedding, you could also have guests use these pics instead of Polaroids. Decades from now, you’ll enjoy looking through the snapshots of your guests dressed to the nines on your special day!

Guest Book Ideas for Globetrotting Couples

Here are some wedding guest book ideas for wanderlust couples who love to explore new places together!‍

Map or Globe. Purchase a world map that guests can sign based on the country they’ve always wanted to visit. After the wedding, frame the map and display it somewhere prominent in your home to inspire you to keep your adventurous spirit alive! Alternatively, guests can also sign a globe based on their favorite travel destination or their thoughts on where the couple should travel to next! Either option will give newlyweds a beautiful keepsake from their wedding that they will appreciate for years to come. ‍

Postcards. Order postcards that represent all the different places you’d like to visit as a couple and put them on display. Let guests pick a postcard to sign and express their well wishes, or their recommendations of “Must See” spots at that destination from previous travels.  Once guests are done, they can place the postcards in a cute vintage suitcase. Newlyweds can read all the postcards all at once and choose one each year on their wedding anniversary to help plan their next vacation! 

Online Guest Book Ideas

While traditional guest books can be nice keepsakes for a wedding, virtual guest books also offer plenty of perks. Couples should be aware that paper guest books sometimes don’t get signed because guests either don’t see them or would much rather hit the dance floor than try to come up with a heartfelt message on the spot! Digital wedding guest books let guests contribute thoughtful messages when they want to from their own homes. Online guest books also capture warm wishes from loved ones regardless if they can attend the wedding, which means that couples get to hear from all their family and friends! Lastly, digital books let guests share photos and video messages---something you can’t always do with a typical guest book.

Let’s check out a few online guest book ideas couples can explore.

Digital Guest Book. There are plenty of apps, platforms, and wedding website builders that can help you compile an online guest book with photos and messages of congrats. Couples can also easily collect photos for their guest book with Shared Albums on Memento before or after the wedding. Alternatively, they can set up a station at their wedding with a digital device guests can use to record words of wisdom. Some platforms even let couples print digital books!

Video Keepsake. What could be better than actually seeing and hearing loved ones share their advice and well wishes? Couples can create a digital wedding video guest book from Memento to preserve precious messages of love and create a personalized digital keepsake of their wedding. Memento lets couples easily collect and combine video clips from family and friends to create a meaningful group video that they can look back on as the years go by. Best of all, the finished product can be shared with the guests! This modern keepsake can be easily sent to loved ones through email, text message, and any social media platform or downloaded for easy future access.  

Couples should remember that their wedding is a day that they’ll never want to forget, and alternative guest books can offer a creative and personalized way to capture their big day and create a sentimental keepsake they’ll cherish decades from now!