Wednesday, July 15, 2009

check in, check out

I don't know what to think about the guest book, as a concept. I'm a very visual person (have to see it, have to touch it) so I like things in writing, books, pictures, stuff. A guest book with pictures seems like the perfect place to write something nice - and bonus, it's there to read later. But it's also a lot of pressure, as a guest, to come up with the perfect thing to say after you've already exhausted yourself on the card.
So while I love the stuff aspect of our photo guestbook, I have to admit that I don't think our guests will care so much. For them it's the last trial before the bar.

Still, I am in love with the stuff, story of my closets. Silver tray from my grandma, picture frame from Kim, thrifted crystal frippery, Blurb book of engagement pictures (still needing library pockets), and library checkout cards for notes.

Do you feel differently about the guestbook as a guest than as a bride? Did you do anything to make it more interesting for your guests?

5 comments:

Harriet said...

As a bride, I was a little disappointed in the guest book. I wish I'd done something to encourage people to write. Because they mostly just signed their names. But as a guest, I do think the guest book can be a problem. It's often hard to get to or to find. There may be a line. And you often find yourself trying to sign it while talking to your great aunt Edna who hasn't seen you in 5 years and wants to hear everything about you and you can't really think about anything good to say. In retrospect, I wondered if it would work better to give each guest something to sign and then paste them all together in a book later.

Carrie @ brick city love said...

We rented a boardwalk photobooth for our Dec. '07 wedding. It was very cool. Guests either took multiple strips or cut a picture or 2 off the strip and kept the rest. The pics were pasted in the book. Some poeple just wrote their names, though some wrote little notes.

I LOVE having the pictures. It speaks so much to the day.

This pictures are in my online scrapbook -
http://mrscarriegrace.wordpress.com/details/photobooth-guest-book/

As a guest, I like ones that aren't your traditionall lined-pages-write-your-name one. My cousin did the photobook and it was fun to look at all their engagement pics.

Good luck!

Jules Someone said...

We didn't have one. They aren't my favorite. I can never be clever enough fast enough.

Anonymous said...

My experience was much like Harriet's - few people signed it and those who did generally signed their names, only. How about a "caption the photo" guestbook? Some friends of mine did that and ended up with some great stuff.

Julia said...

This is all pretty much what I expected. I was told I had to have a guestbook, so - guestbook.

thelass, I think I might stick with the library cards just because they're removable if anything weird is written, and I like Kim's photos too much to invite disfigurement. If the book isn't filled I can always use the remainder of it to scrapbook cards and wedding ephemera.