11 Alternative Wedding Guest Book Ideas

After your big day is over, it’s great to have mementos to cherish and help you reminisce about your wedding. Your wedding guest book is a great memento that you and your spouse can come back to time and again to remember your special day and all of your guests. But, you don’t need a traditional guest book to mark the day. Here are some unique ways for your wedding guests to mark their attendance, give you marriage advice, or send you a note on your wedding day which you can treasure for years.

1. Notes in a Bottle

Provide your guests with small blank pieces of paper and pens at a sign-in table. Have your guests sign their names along with a note or piece of advice for a long and happy marriage. Roll the notes up like tiny scrolls and tie a string or piece of twine around it. Place the notes in a large glass bottle and open some each anniversary. Another variation of this is to have each guest roll up her note and choose a bottle in which to place her note. Mark each bottle with a different number anniversary. For example, you can mark a bottle for each: one year anniversary, five year anniversary, ten year anniversary, etc. Then on each anniversary you open the notes in the bottle marked for that year.

2. Bucket List

At your wedding guest sign-in table, have a large bucket set out. Provide your guests with pieces of different colored paper and ask your guests to make a bucket list for you. Ask them to write down one thing they think you and your spouse should do before you die. At the end of your wedding, you’ll have a big bucket full of great ideas for adventures.

3. Wall Art-Canvas

Get a blank canvas or a canvas with a heart or your initial on it. Provide your guests with permanent markers and ask them to sign your canvas. After your wedding, you will have a piece of wall art that you can hang in your home that will always remind you of your special day.

4. Wooden Bench

Many people keep a bench in the entryway to their home or in their yard for decoration. You can take a plain piece of furniture like a wooden bench and use it as a way to remember everyone who came and celebrated your wedding with you. Near the entry to your wedding reception, set out a plain wooden bench and place a bow on it with a placard asking guests to sign your bench to help you remember your special day. After your wedding, you’ll have a piece of furniture which commemorates the day and a note from everyone who came.

5. Game Piece

Turn a picture of you and your fiancé (an engagement photo would be perfect) into a wooden puzzle. Have each guest sign the back of a puzzle piece. Then you’ll have a puzzle picture that will remind you of this special time. You can use other wooden game pieces in a like manner. For example, set out wood pieces of the popular game, Jenga, for each guest to sign. Whenever you play that game, you can see notes from your guests and remember your wedding day.

6. Wooden Hearts

Have your guests sign in on small wooden hearts. Leave some hearts with examples written on them, like “S + T” or “The Smiths,” so people know what to write. Collect the hearts in a wooden memory box. You can also glue the hearts to a canvas or wood board and create a piece of wall art to display in your home.

7. Wooden Initial

Take a large plain wooden initial and ask your guests to sign it. You can hang it up in your home as a piece of wall art after the wedding.

8. Thumbprints

Have your guests use an ink pad (or several, if you want different colors) to leave their thumbprints on a canvas making up a design, like a tree or a bird. You can order prints to use for this that mark out the design for the tree or bird. You may want to ask someone who knows how it is supposed to look once it is completed to get it started for you so others can follow their example.

9. Scrapbooks

Get a scrapbook and glue small colorful envelopes to each page. You can use all different colored envelopes or use the colors from your wedding. Have guests write notes, well-wishes, or marriage advice on matching stationery and seal it in an envelope. You can open one or more on each anniversary. Along these same lines, have a couple of Polaroid cameras set out. Ask guests to take pictures of themselves and sign their name on the bottoms of the pictures. You can collect the pictures and put them in a scrapbook.

10. Dates In a Jar

Ask your guests to help you build up a stockpile of date night ideas. Provide Popsicle sticks, permanent markers, and a mason jar on a guest sign-in table. Have guests write down their names and a date night idea on a Popsicle stick and place it in the mason jar.

11. Chalkboard Message

Have a mini photo studio area set up at your reception with a backdrop, a chalkboard sign, an eraser, and some chalk. Have guests write down marriage advice on a chalkboard and have their picture taken with their message.