Is a guest book necessary?

[selflove]

I don''t think we really need a guest book--do we?

We are expecting 67 guests and I know all of them (except a few dates I may not know). I know all of their addresses so I can send them thank-you cards. Why else would I need a guest book? We''re not planning to do anything cute or creative with it, like signing a greeting by a polaroid or anything like that.

Any thoughts?

 

[DonaBella]

Date: 4/14/2006 12:45:58 AM
Author:selflove
I don''t think we really need a guest book--do we?

We are expecting 67 guests and I know all of them (except a few dates I may not know). I know all of their addresses so I can send them thank-you cards. Why else would I need a guest book? We''re not planning to do anything cute or creative with it, like signing a greeting by a polaroid or anything like that.

Any thoughts?

My son is getting married on May 29th and he and his FI are having a portrait of the two of them in a frame with a huge mat for people to sign. They plan to hang the picture in their home and it will be a constant reminder of those who attended the happiest day of their lives...I love this idea and wished they had had it around when I married 25 years ago...

 

[E B]

Date: 4/14/2006 12:50:33 AM
Author: DeannaBana

My son is getting married on May 29th and he and his FI are having a portrait of the two of them in a frame with a huge mat for people to sign. They plan to hang the picture in their home and it will be a constant reminder of those who attended the happiest day of their lives...I love this idea and wished they had had it around when I married 25 years ago...

That's what we're planning on doing too! Friends of ours have one of those and it's really, really sweet.

 

[flopkins]

of course nothing''s necessary. but we did little cards that ppl could fill out some stuff on.. like advice/wishes for us, and fav memory of us, and predictions of our kids names etc.. and they were so much fun to read afterwards!!

It''s funny I didn''t put a huge amount of thought into it but I think the sig mat thing is good - because a lot of my guests didn''t fill out the cards, and I wish I had something that showed they were there, besides the pictures! I didn''t think I would care much but now the wedding''s over, I realize how fast it goes....

 

[Logan Sapphire]

Date: 4/14/2006 1:01:49 AM
Author: EBree

Date: 4/14/2006 12:50:33 AM

Author: DeannaBana


My son is getting married on May 29th and he and his FI are having a portrait of the two of them in a frame with a huge mat for people to sign. They plan to hang the picture in their home and it will be a constant reminder of those who attended the happiest day of their lives...I love this idea and wished they had had it around when I married 25 years ago...

That''s what we''re planning on doing too! Friends of ours have one of those and it''s really, really sweet.

That''s what we did. We used a B&W matte photo with a black frame/white mat and had guests use a black marker. It looks really nice!

 

[glaucomflecken]

we didnt have a traditional guest book for people to sign name and address because i already had that info!

we used a guest book from guestbookstore.com and it was a HUGE hit.

 

[eks6426]

My wedding was also small. Probably about 75 people. My friend did my guest book for me scrapbook style. She pretcut colored journaling paper in my wedding colors for people to write their wishes on. She had all different sizes. Then at my reception, she took pictures of everyone with a Polaroid that day. Then, she carefully numbered the polaroids with the journaling box the people wrote on so she could match them up later. While I was on my honeymoon, she scrapbooked the whole thing. She made colored paper covers for the Polaroids so you can''t even see the standard Polaroid edges. It looks fantastic and I have a picture of everyone who came to my wedding. I like the pictures so much better than just having people''s names in a book.

 

[XChick03]

I think we''re going to come up with something unique, too. I really like the portrait idea, I read about in a magazine and thought it sounded great. We''re also only going to have about 75 guests. But I want something just for a keepsake.

 

[appletini]

Ours is fairly small too. This idea might be too late for you, but what I did was get a silk covered scrapbook to use as a guestbook for all of the engagement parties, showers, rehearsal dinner, & wedding. I also put in an invitation on the left page, people sign on the right page, and then the pages aftewards I put pictures from the event. The first few pages in the book I put some of our engagement pictures.

 

[jorman]

When we left Texas to move to California in July, our friends threw us a going away party and they gave us a framed photo of us with a matte that everyone signed and we LOVE it!

I plan on doing the matte photo for guests to sign at the BBQ, but I also got the Crate and Barrel wedding Book- which is simple and covers all the bases. I like it because it is fitting for our Texas BBQ approach.






As long as you have something to remember who was there, I don''t think it matters what it was. It just helps keep the memories of the day.
I also love for people to leave notes. It just makes everything mean that much more.

 

[jorman]

Here''s the inside:

 

[Tacori E-ring]

We are doing the photo matte too.

 

[jorman]

Whoops! It didn''t attach!
Here is the inside:

 

[ChargerGrrl]

Photo mat here as well!

I'm thinking of using a silver pen, so that the siggies match the frame.

Jorman- I didn't know C&B had a wedding book! May have to check it out the next time I'm there...

 

[nytemist]

Another one using the framed photo with mat!

From others that I''ve seen, it''s just fun to look up at a framed pic and seeing what endearing or silly things people will write.

 

[gailrmv]

I just occured to me that I have no idea what happened to my (traditional style) guest book.

I have been married 5 years, and this JUST NOW occurred to me when I saw your thread. So obviously the traditional type is not so great, at least not for me! I love the framed portrait idea!

 

[FireGoddess]

Another ditto on the framed photo mat here!!!

We have ours hanging in the house and it''s fun to read and reread what people said - you find something new every time!! Guests are always drawn to it and will go over and read it as well. It is a nice memory piece and, IMO, much better than I book I''d never open again!

 

[teebee]

Date: 4/14/2006 7:37:04 AM
Author: PunchNPie75
we didnt have a traditional guest book for people to sign name and address because i already had that info!

we used a guest book from guestbookstore.com and it was a HUGE hit.

Ditto on the guest book from guestbookstore.com - fun and creative plus it gives guests something to do while they are waiting for us to arrive at the reception.

 

[FireGoddess]

Date: 4/15/2006 6:51:14 PM
Author: SanDiegoLady

Date: 4/15/2006 1:27:24 PM
Author: FireGoddess
Another ditto on the framed photo mat here!!!

We have ours hanging in the house and it''s fun to read and reread what people said - you find something new every time!! Guests are always drawn to it and will go over and read it as well. It is a nice memory piece and, IMO, much better than I book I''d never open again!

I thought it was a cool idea and I''m afraid I have to agree that I''d never open the guest book again.

Now, if you have a huge wedding, that might be a different story..

There were 200 people at our wedding and our mat is chock full, but they make some that have huge mats compared to the picture size. The pic we have inside is 8x10 but the mat is huge!!

 

[Rebemdee]

I don''t know if you have a Michael''s Craft Store near you, but they have a frame with the matte already included for 40 or 50 bucks. I took one of their ever present 40% off coupons in and got it cheap! Even if you don''t like what they have, you can buy a frame there with the 40% off, and then go back the next week and get the matte with another coupon. I have lived at Michael''s for the last year, and all my friends know and give me the coupons every Monday. Good thing there are stores by work and home!

 

[rms]

What we did was get a scrapbook style journal which was just ivory paper with an ivory fabric cover. The cover has a small space in the center for a photo, and we put my favorite photo of us in there from when we first started dating. On each page, I had my DH put a pic of us from our various travels. Then folks signed the various pages. So it''s kind of like the picture mat, kind of like a yearbook, something that people were able to get a glimpse of us from, and we got some really nice messages in return. On other pages I had people from who did readings or special blessings throughout the day write those into the book too. I really like how it turned out overall.

 

[selflove]

Teebee and PunchnPie--I LOVE that idea, I''m going with it!

Can you tell me how you guys passed out the pages at the reception? Maybe put one at each place setting with a little note?

I especially love this because we can take it Slovenia with us for the second wedding and have all those guests sign as well.

 

[moon river]

Date: 4/15/2006 12:34:14 AM
Author: SanDiegoLady
Instead of a guest book, we are going to have a picture of us matted, for our guests to sign around, and then we''ll have it framed.

I''ve seen this done. I think it''s a great memory maker. Just be sure to keep the pen away from the Dragon Lady.