Guest books are great because spending quality time with each of your guests at your wedding can be a challenge. It allows loved ones to pen special sentiments to you and your spouse on your big day. However, the downside is that they tend to get stashed away after the nuptials and are rarely looked at ever again.
Especially in recent years, brides have used the guest book tradition as an opportunity to get creative and do something unique and memorable to represent the bride and groom's union. My fiance and I intend to honor this by setting out five bottles of wine at the wedding - one for each of our first five anniversaries. The idea is to include vintages that improve with age until their scheduled opening time. We'll invite our guests to cover the bottles with well-wishes for that anniversary.
A popular guest book alternative I have seen is framing an engagement photo and leaving room on the edge for guests to sign and leave messages. Pre-printed questions on cards is another way to avoid the generic messages and get a bit more personal with your guests. Include questions for the guest to answer about how they met the couple and what they think is the secret to a great marriage. The key is to make it fun and light, and not make the guests feel like they're doing a homework assignment!
images via Pinterest
