There are so many creative wedding trends out there that it is hard to keep up with them all, especially as an already overwhelmed bride-to-be.
When planning I loved seeing all of the neat guest book ideas: the puzzle pieces with your picture on one side and guests sign the other, the wishing tree with guest finger prints as leaves, and the white stones in a jar for your loved ones to sign well wishes on.
Since I had two wedding receptions, I did two different guest books. At my wedding in Wisconsin I bought postcards from all over Door County, WI for people to sign and I plan to bind them together for a keepsake. At my home reception, I had my bestie and bridesmaid Patricia Hedberg make us a scrapbook with photos and quotes on each page for guests to sign.
Guests loved seeing the photos of us from our childhood through our wedding day, and now its a keepsake that I set out in my home for everyone to see.
Both of these options were fun for my guests and easy. Well, the second one was easy for me because my lovely bridesmaid handled it for me without complaint and it came out so beautiful. No one scraps like my bestie and it's a lovely honor to have something she worked so hard on.
The slight problem with the unique guest books is sometimes they go unnoticed. In Wisconsin, I had the postcards set up with a sign telling people what to do right next to the seating assignments, but unfortunately I think my guests were too excited to find their seat because I had many go unsigned.
In Illinois with my scrap/guest book, I was so afraid the same would happen that I designated a bridesmaid and a waitress to stand by it and point it out to my guests as they arrived. In addition, I reminded most of my guests in the receiving line as they entered. Although this helped a great deal, I still had a majority of my guests not sign it.
Since I've never been a bride before I cannot say if this is a common problem or one I ran into because I didn't have the traditional white book and feather pen. But I think there is a solution.
The easiest thing to do is to make sure your DJ knows prior to your wedding day that you want he or she to remind your guests multiple times throughout the reception to sign the book. I did have my DJ do this at wedding #2, but not as often as I should have. And he wasn't prepared to incorporate it since I didn't tell him until the day of my reception.
Regardless of this issue, I do feel both the postcards and scrapbook allowed for my guests to write more. We received numerous heart felt messages that we would have never received on the one designated line they are given in the traditional white book with feather pen.
