8 Alternative ideas for your Brides guestbook!

{And here is the first post from Keely Beth Gledhill... the newest member to our team :) } 

A couples Brides day in one of the most important days in their life. It is a happy occasion where you are joined by your closest family and friends where memories are made and experiences shared. What better way to record these memoirs by asking your guests to participate in an enjoyable task that will create a fabulous keepsake that you can look back on for years to come.

Alternates to the traditional Brides guestbook are popping up everywhere as people become more creative and personal with their Bridess. Messages need no longer be stored in a book afterall books tend to get put into drawers or hidden away on bookcases! Here are some of my favourites!

1. Message in a bottle

There is always a romantic association with messages sent in a bottle. What a lovely and novel way for your messages to be written on a scroll and placed into a bottle tied with ribbon. Not only are you able to write a full message on the page but this looks charming and delightful and can be kept around the house almost as ‘an ornament’. It would be especially fitting for nautical or beach themed Bridess.

2. Quilt of Messages

This is a unique idea where you can imagine a quilt being hung off a tree at a Brides at home a or country themed Brides.

I’m sure this would have been partly inspired by ‘How to make an American Quilt’where everyone adds their own special message and it is all sewn together to produce what could become a family heirloom. Guests can write on the pieces of cloth with fabric pen and pin their messages onto the quilt. This could be properly sewn at a later date. It is a pretty twist on the traditional guestbook with a touch of quirky old
fashioned about it.

3. Let’s get the map out!

If you are a couple that have spent a lot of time travelling and have family and friends in all different parts of the world this idea of incorporating geographical messages into your Brides is unbelievably different. Make a large poster version of the map of the world and let your guests pin small messages to where they are from. Not only is it completely distinctive, it will give guests the chance to have some fun and could also create great rapport amongst guests almost as if it’s a game!

4. The Fingerprint tree

A piece of your Brides that will be going straight to the framers post event that would look idyllic in a kitchen, dining room or hallway for years to come. Provide your guests with particular coloured paints, perhaps to match the theme of your Brides and get them to place a thumb or finger print on the branch of the tree and have them sign their name. This may not present you with long messages from your guests which some people feel clueless as what to write anyway but it does detail who was their on the day. There will no doubt be some fun had in this exercise. It could always be used in conjunction with a guestbook!

5. Matching Brides theme or Brides couple!

There may be a few things that you and your new partner have in common but there is usually one thing that really stands out, something that people know you by or it may be how you met! Or you could have a particular theme to your Brides that encompasses something significant to you both. The inspiration really depends on the couple themselves but here are some exceptional ideas I came across.

6. Games

How about using a customised Monopoly or Pictionary board to convey your messages to the happy couple, or perhaps a Jenga tower with each different block a guest shares their hopes for you both. This provides a fun activity for your guest also as you could place a game on each table. My favourite ‘game’ for this is the use of a jigsaw to place all your memories and wishes on that could easily be framed and placed in your home.

7. Bottle of wine

This is my second favourite alternative guestbook choice probably more due to my love of wine! The idea is to take a fairly good wine bottle (or two or three depending on the amount of guests!) and get them all to sign it with white/silver/gold felt tip pen. The future vision of an evening in with your best friends, a candle in the famous wine bottle, whilst reading messages from your special day is truly wonderful!

8. The Wish Tree

Saving the best till last! This is undoubtedly my favourite option! A wish tree sits in the reception room or outdoor area accompanied by little cards for your special wish or message that you can tie to the tree. Another version of this is the ribbon tree, the same idea applies but the messages are written on ribbons. I think the wish tree looks fabulous, elegant and there’s something exceptional about people making wishes for
you in your future together as a married couple. Obviously you won’t be keeping the tree forever so then you could choose how to display these keepsakes yourself afterwards.

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Write by: Unknown - Monday, April 15, 2013