The Ultimate Guide to Unique Wedding Guest Books

Everything you need to know to design the perfect personalized wedding guest book

An elegant wedding guest book is one of our favorite ways to capture well wishes from your guests and create a cohesive aesthetic throughout your celebration. It also makes a beautiful keepsake. But with all the wedding guest book ideas floating around on Pinterest, how do you know if you should choose a wedding guest book alternative or stick to a traditional wedding guest book for your big day? Today, we’re breaking down all you need to know about the ins and outs of unique wedding guest books. Read on, brides-to-be, for guest book essentials and answers to all of those pressing sign-in book FAQs. 

First things first:

What is a wedding guest book?

A traditional wedding guest book is a beautiful journal that your guests fill out on your wedding day. Historically, your wedding guest book was a legal requirement. Your guests had to witness your union and testify to the ‘reality’ of your marriage by signing your guest book and marriage documents. Once this law was changed, couples continued to use a wedding guest book as a keepsake and memento of who attended their wedding.

Are guest books still used at weddings?

Absolutely! While they are not a requirement, many couples use personalized wedding guest books to capture the contact details of their wedding guests (so you can stay in touch and thank them for their gifts later) or, alternatively (and our favorite), capture their thoughts, feelings, and advice.

In either case, it’s a beautiful way to remember who shared your most special day with you.

Is it worth having a guest book?

Some couples worry that they won’t appreciate and use their personalized guest book after the wedding, while others wonder if it’s worth the effort.

From our perspective, we love the sentimentality of a wedding sign-in book and the idea that you, or your children, can sit down and read through those well-wishes 20 years after your wedding. A lot of keepsakes focus on immortalizing the memories made between you and your husband or wife-to-be. Yet there are plenty of other individuals involved in making your special day so significant. And while photos capture how everyone looked … a custom wedding guest book captures how everyone felt.

That’s a little bit magical, don’t you think?

Couples that have chosen one of our customized wedding guest books tell us that they feel more confident knowing that every wedding detail has been addressed. They also adored reading over the notes their loved ones wrote for them and the warm, fuzzy nostalgia made it well worth the investment!

What can I use instead of a wedding guest book?

While many couples get creative with wedding guest book alternatives like puzzles, globes, or Jenga blocks for their guests to sign, we love personalized wedding guest books as a more practical alternative. When deciding between wedding guest book ideas, consider the purpose of a guest sign-in book and how you will use it after the wedding. What are you going to do with all of those puzzle pieces? Do you really want a signed globe sitting on your mantle in perpetuity? Are you ever going to pull those Jenga blocks out of the box in the closet?

A beautiful, elegant guest book is much easier to display on your coffee table or bookshelf and will likely be perused more frequently and stand the test of time better than those unique wedding guest book ideas you’ve been collecting on Pinterest.

How much should you spend on a wedding guest book?

Big-day budgets are unique to each couple. As with all things wedding related, we feel that you should prioritize your investments on the parts of your day that mean the most to you. A unique wedding guest book is not only a beautiful decor piece, it’s one of the few lasting, sentimental heirlooms you will keep long after the music stops and the flowers wilt. So, you may want to consider spending a bit more on a personalized wedding sign-in book that you will cherish for years to come.

What should be included in a wedding guest book?

For the most elegant wedding guest book, we recommend keeping it simple. Include your names and wedding date on the cover. For the spine of the book, consider adding the name of your wedding venue or a short quote that has meaning for you and your partner. The inner pages should be blank or have simple lines so your guests have plenty of room to leave their thoughts.

If you love a bit of luxury, our foil printing makes a beautiful addition to your guest book cover. Print your names in gold foil, silver foil, or rose gold foil for a dramatic yet elegant effect.

How do I make a guest book online?

Our unique guest books are super simple to order online. Just select your favorite style, tell us your details and we do the rest! You’ll have a beautiful, keepsake at your doorstep in no time.

Can I use this wedding guest book with photos?

We create traditional wedding guest books, not photo albums, however, some of our clients do use them as photo guest books. If you'd like to try this please note:

Our wedding guest books have a fixed spine. This means that the pages will begin to fan out once photos are added. To prevent this, we recommend limiting the number of photos added and securing the photos in a way that does not add bulk (ie. washi tape instead of photo corners).

The book pages are quite sturdy, but they are not thick like scrapbook pages. If you want a photo guest book, we recommend adding photos to just one side of the page, not front and back.

Convinced? How to choose a personalized wedding guest book:

At Lily & Roe Co., we create custom-designed wedding guest books rich in elegance, quality, and beauty for brides ready to stylishly preserve their love story.

The ultimate marriage of style and substance, every Lily & Roe Co. wedding guest book is meticulously printed and bound with love in the USA by skilled craftsmen using only the highest quality paper.

Shop the Lily & Roe Co. guest sign-in book for wedding collection here.

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Ready to start shopping? You sound like our kind of bride—head to our wedding guest book shop to start customizing your guest sign-in book today!