15 Creative Wedding Guest Book Ideas For Quirky Couples

These creative, crafty and cool wedding guest book ideas will capture your guests’ gorgeous memories and love.

When attending a wedding or walking into the reception, you often encounter a wedding guest book. The guest book is where your loved ones can leave a note, a message of encouragement, or just a reminder of the guest’s love for the couple. Sure, the idea behind a guest book is wonderful. It’s a truly special memento, but… There are so many other creative ways to have the people you love share the day with you and leave you a little something to remember the day by.

Read on for 15 unique wedding guest book ideas that are not your typical run-of-the-mill guest book. These are excellent options to suggest to clients when planning the decor, style, and theme.

1. A wedding guest quilt

If you want to display your wedding guest book messages in your new home, a quilt is a gorgeous idea. Set up a little table with a sewing machine (just as decor). Then place fabric squares and a few sharpie markers on the table. All you have to do is ask your guests to write a note on your fabric squares. After the wedding, you can take these squares and turn the love notes into a quilt yourself or send them to someone and have them do it for you.

2. Polaroid selfies

Maybe having the guests at your wedding leave you a note doesn’t suit your style as a couple. Place a polaroid camera or two out on a table and invite the guests to take selfies and pin them up on a board. It’s a wedding guest book plus photo album for you to take home afterward. You could also have them stick the selfie in a guest book and leave a note. This interactive and fun activity will surely make your guests smile and give them something fun to do while waiting for the reception to begin.

3. Crafty mementos

This wedding guest book idea is similar to the quilt idea. How about letting your guests’ creative juices flow and let them help you create a picture to hang up in your home? Place a few colored ink pads matching your color scheme on a table, place a poster or photo of you and your loved one near it and ask the guests to leave a few fingerprints to complete the picture. Having them sign their print with their names can also add a bit of character to their painting. A fingerprint tree, balloons, or just randomly distributed are a few ideas.

4. A map or globe with pins

If home decor that doubles up as a guest book is what you are looking for, try this. Ask guests to pin their favorite places along with a note to a globe or world map that suits your home’s aesthetic? If a world map or a globe is not what you had in mind, many small businesses create maps based on where you and your loved one met for the first time, had your first kiss, or first date. These small businesses specialize in the creation of a map that commemorates a moment of your choosing. It may be a sweet idea to have your guests add their little bits of love in the form of notes to this memorable moment.

5. Wishing tree

Here’s another wedding guest book idea that has to do with little notes. Wishing trees can be found across many cultures. They symbolize a spot specifically chosen to guard the wishes of all those who visit these special places. It is beautifully symbolic to have a tree, living or decorative, at your wedding, upon which guests can hang their well wishes for you as a couple. Placing the tree in your home or garden can help you keep your loved ones close.

6. Etsy wooden slices

Etsy is a world filled with out-of-the-box ideas and custom-made crafts that could enrich your wedding and reinforce the uniqueness of this day. This wedding guest book idea is wooden slices upon which guests can write their names and then pin onto a board to grace the walls of your family home. It’s just one of the many Etsy options for when it comes to picking unique decor pieces for your special day.

7. Make a modern calendar

Thanks to modern technology, making your own calendars, books and notebooks has never been easier. You can design and print a calendar that matches the event decor of your special day and leave a note for your guests asking them to find their birthday and leave a message on that day. A sweet way in which you can keep your new married life organized and find little notes of love as the year goes by.

8. Travel recommendations

Wanderlust is defined as having a strong desire to travel, see the world, and experience new things. If this sounds like you as a couple, then having your guests give you personalized travel recommendations could be the perfect way for you to celebrate your day. Have then jot down a destination, a reason for the recommendation, and a little note to send you on your way. Now you have a long list of places to see, and no need to brainstorm about “where next” once your trip is done.

9. Ask for adventure ideas

If staying at home or in your local area is more your style or suitable for your budget, have your guests give you adventure ideas. Ideas for dates, weekends, and spontaneous moments. These have the double purpose of serving as a go-to lucky draw if you need an idea for date night and you aren’t in the mood for that Italian place you go to every time.

10. Message in a bottle

Moving to a nautical theme, have your guests write notes and drop them in a bottle. Have multiple bottles, with different years allocated to them, which will be opened and read on the corresponding wedding anniversary. A special way to spend your anniversary reminiscing about your wonderful wedding day. It also has the added bonus of piquing your curiosity until the day you can finally open that 10-year bottle.

11. Snail Mail display

If opening notes at a later stage appeals to you, have your guests write a letter, stick it in a cute envelope and clip it onto a string, stick it in a book or even have a little mailbox in which they can “post” it. You can open them at your leisure, attach all the candid photos from the wedding next to each guest’s note or use it as in a scrapbook where you collect all your wedding mementos.

12. Typewriter

Handwritten notes make for lovely wedding guest book ideas, but how cool is a message typed on a vintage typewriter? Really cool! It is a fun talking point that is promised to keep your guests entertained as they try out the big, clicking keys. If your wedding has a more vintage or retro feel, this is an excellent way of having your guest book tie in with the rest of your day.

13. Dictionary

As notes and little letters are no more than a bunch of words strung together, why not find a stunning vintage dictionary and have your guests find their favorite words and leave a sticky note with their thoughts in the margins? They can pick words they want to say to you, their own personal favorites, or even just a word that hasn’t been used yet. By having them mark the words they picked with a sticky note and why you create an instantaneous talking point before the reception.

14. Audio wedding guest book

When it comes to thinking out of the box, why not have them leave you a message to listen to when you come home. You can rent a vintage phone that records messages. These can then be incorporated into your wedding video or just listened to when you need to. It is entirely different from the typical writing in a wedding guest book.

15. I remember when

Lastly, as a wedding day is all about creating memories and enjoying a truly memorable day, why not have your guests think about the times gone by that they remember and cherish. This could have the potential for a few embarrassing stories to come to light, so be warned and enjoy the giggles that will ensue.

Wedding Guest Books Are Treasures

With a long list of new and unique options that could replace the more traditional guestbook at the reception entrance, we are sure your thoughts have begun to churn. This list, although long-ish, does not begin to cover all the ideas out there. With so many small businesses nestled in niches, there is a world of unique crafts for you to explore and delve into. There is bound to be a perfect match for that idea you have cooked up.

And when planning events, check out our event planning software – the client portal is the perfect place to share wedding guest book ideas and inspiration.