10 UNIQUE GUESTBOOK IDEAS 💡👰🏼📖

Firstly, as a disclaimer, I’d like to say there is absolutely nothing wrong with the classic written guestbook. It’s a great way to keep all the kind words of your close ones in one place and something you can easily look back on! I just personally knew I didn’t want one as I’ve had written guestbooks at my previous events (21st birthday, engagement party etc) and I really wanted my Wedding guestbook to be unique! I searched far and wide for different guestbook ideas and these were the best ones I found. I thought I’d share in case there are any Brides out there like me, who are all for thinking outside the box!

1) AUDIO GUESTBOOK

So obviously I’m going to be biased as I did this for my own wedding, but this really is such a unique idea! If you haven’t already seen the reel I’ve made about it, including the personalised voicemail we made, check it out here. I loved the idea of the old school vintage phone and the ability to hear our loved ones voices rather than just reading their messages. It’s really easy to do, you just pre-record your voicemail, they send you the phone in the week of your wedding, then you use it for your wedding and send it back to them! Shortly after you receive a USB in the post with all the voicemails from your guests! I’ve linked the company I used here incase you wanted to check them out!

2) GLOBE GUESTBOOK

This one is for my fellow travellers. This was a close second to the Audio Guestbook idea for me. If you and your fiancé love travelling, or are having a travel/country themed reception, this is perfect for you. It’s also super cost effective as all you need is a world globe, some sort of ‘Let our adventure begin/You mean the world to us’ sign and some pens! You can also display it in your house after as a great memory without it taking up too much space!

3) BUCKETLIST POT GUESTBOOK

Following on from the travel theme, a bucketlist pot is a great idea especially if you and your fiancé are quite adventurous. This would also work well if you have smaller more intimate numbers for your reception as your guests will know you both quite well and hopefully come up with some exciting things for you to tick off. I’ve seen couples also do variations of this as ‘Date Night Ideas’. This is also another cost effective option that you can DIY.

4) JENGA GUESTBOOK

This is a fun but also practical guestbook idea as you can re-use it for the foreseeable future! Each guest will write a short message on the different jenga pieces and also can have a little game whilst they’re there too! Tip: make sure you test what markers/pens you will be using as basic ones won’t show up/write well on wood!

5) WINE BOTTLE TIME CAPSULE GUESTBOOK

Fun fact: I actually first saw this idea around 11 years ago when I first did wedding hostessing/coordinating as my side job alongside university. It was back before there were that many ‘cool/unique’ things at weddings and I absolutely loved it the concept! You basically have 3 year options for people to write messages for; one year, five years and ten or twenty years. Guests can pick which year they want you to open their message and put it in the corresponding bottle. Not only is this a very sentimental option which gives you milestones to look forward to, it’s also super cost effective. You can easily DIY this with some used wine bottles (or other alcohol bottles if you have a spirit you prefer!), some card and some pens. The labels on the bottles you can also easily make on Canva and stick on too.

6) RECORD GUESTBOOK

This is a fabulous options for any music loving couples. I would also recommend getting a record of either ‘your’ song or your first dance song so that when everyone signs it, you could even display it in a frame in your house as a wedding keepsake. Tip: also check the pen situation with this as regular markers won’t work. Your best bet would a metallic permanent type of marker that will show up on the black record!

7) PUZZLE GUESTBOOK

Another option for those of you who want more of a fun/game type of guestbook! The couple who’s wedding I coordinated last weekend had this as their guestbook and everyone loved it! It’s also a great option if you have a long drinks reception as guests can take their time to find the right piece to fit into the rest of the puzzle etc. However, be aware the pieces are generally quite small so the messages will have to be very brief!

8) VIDEO GUESTBOOK

I haven’t seen loads of these done yet but I have a feeling they will definitely become a thing in the future. I did this for my engagement party and for my destination wedding, where I had one videographer purely in charge of getting messages from the guests that they could put together in one video for us. This seems to be the most popular way of doing it at the moment. The other ways I’ve seen are having a GoPro or an iPad there with instructions for guests to record themselves. However with this you just have to be a bit careful in case it gets broken or lost (or stolen-hopefully not but you can never say never!)

9) POSTCARDS & LETTERBOX GUESTBOOK

Absolutely love this idea and quite a few of you have told me you have done/are planning to do this. There’s a few ways you can make this work. Either you can have postcards with photos of countries you’ve been to on them or if for example you’re doing a destination wedding, you could do postcards with photos of different towns/areas of that country. The postcards don’t all need to be country related either, you can put your own spin on it for example putting bucketlist things you want to do as a couple or your favourite things as a couple etc. In any case, just make sure you have a cute postbox next to it so it can stay within the ‘posting the postcard’ theme!

10) HANGING POLAROID GUESTBOOK

Right I know what you’re all thinking. Priya, why are you ending with a polaroid guestbook when this has been done for years? Whilst that is true, I wanted to show how you can make the way the polaroids are presented unique! It’s a nice thing after all to be able to see photos of your loved ones at your wedding so if you can figure out a way to display them that isn’t in a book then why not! Try using a hanging frame, shelves or even a plant/tree display!

Hope that list sparked some sort of inspiration! Do let me know if you use any of these ideas and if you find these weekly newsletters helpful!

Also just a quick update; I’ve released limited consultation slots for the next two weeks as after this I’m away and when I’m back I will have to start focusing on my August brides. If you wanted to book in for your free consultation to see if I can help with your wedding in some way, whether it be Month of Management & On the day coordination or Full Planning where I’m with you from the very start (#moodboardgalore), please fill in my contact form here and I will get back to you with the remaining slots I have available!

Happy Planning!

Love,

Priya