Signing The Guest Book

I make sure to sign. I really enjoy the non traditional guestbooks.

View Quoted Comment I agree! If the couple has a guest book, I make sure to sign it. I especially love anything non-traditional, though even the traditional guest books are fun too! What is your favorite non-traditional guest book that you've seen?


I had recently heard about how there are many guests who intentionally don't sign the guest book, and am wondering how common this is, and if they do skip it (no judgement if that's the case, just genuinely curious), what their reasoning is for skipping it.

View Quoted Comment That’s interesting because we were considering downsizing our guestbook because of that reasoning. Some people just don’t care to sign. I’d be curious to know why they don’t sign either. I’d have to say one of my favorite is definitely snapping the polaroid picture.

I sign it!

i think for mine a lot of people signed it - i might have gone overboard but i had one for my ceremony [which was a book my bridesmaids already gave me] and then i had a thumbprint canvas for my reception

the ceremony book was really cause half my guests went to that and i already had the book so i just left it there

I definitely sign them! I don't understand why someone would intentionally not sign either. I get it if there's a line, people plan to sign later, and forget, or if there's some other innocent mistake, but I don't think it's a big ask to take 30 seconds to write your name lol.

View Quoted Comment I love the photo guest book too! We are doing one for our wedding, and I'm really hoping that most of our guests take photos for it and/or sign it. We went to a wedding last fall that had a photo guest book, which was the first time I've seen it in person. It was so fun to take the photo and put it in the book!

I sign them, but I'm usually lost whether to just sign my name, or put in a well-wisher sentence. But then I find someone else already wrote the exact sentence, so I just put my name.


For our wedding, we did thumbprints and display it in our home. I look at it almost every day still, more than I probably would look at a book

I definitely sign guestbooks as a guest. We had a small wedding and I think nearly everyone signed our guestbook. Though my mom did notice early on that not many people were signing it and asked if I wanted the DJ to make an announcement. After he did, everyone flocked over to sign it

We always make sure to sign. When I was growing up, I worked a lot of weddings as a guestbook attendant and it was an eye opening experience. Only 1/3 or 1/2 of the guests signed and no amount of announcements or passing the book around the room would convince the rest to sign. It depends on the crowd.

View Quoted Comment Really nice!! How many cameras are you having?

I sign the guestbook at every wedding I attend, not sure the purpose behind intentionally not signing either. Last wedding I went to they had a photo booth and printed an extra copy of the photos to place in the guestbook along with a note - it turned out really well! For our wedding, we are going to do an audio guest book, where everyone leaves a message on a phone. We got ours from fetephone but I have also seen after the tone with audio guestbook options.

View Quoted Comment Awesome that you had two guest books! I remember you shared a picture a while back of the thumbprint canvas, it looked really cool!!

View Quoted Comment Lol I agree that it takes just a quick second to sign your name! But great point about people planning to come back and sign later if there's a long line at that time, and then possibly forgetting.

View Quoted Comment I also sometimes don't know what to write, so I usually end up just writing ,"Congratulations!!" and then signing my name. I love the thumbprint tree!! Did you let everyone choose whatever color ink they wanted? Or do the colors correspond to anything specific (red for wedding party, yellow for family, etc)?

View Quoted Comment Ooh, great idea to ask the DJ to make an announcement about it! I'm going to ask our DJ to give a quick note about where the guest book is and asking people to be sure to visit that table.

View Quoted Comment That is definitely eye opening! Do you happen to know what the reasoning for guests not signing was? Totally just curious, obviously no one is obligated to sign, but wondering what objections guests might have to signing a wedding guest book.

View Quoted Comment We have two instant cameras! Still trying to figure out how much film to buy, lol. Probably enough for at least the number of guests multiplied by three. Are you doing a photo guest book? If so, how much film are you keeping on hand?

View Quoted Comment The audio guest book is an interesting concept! Do you get the messages in a downloadable file? Or is there a number you'll be able to call from your phone to listen to them whenever you'd like?

View Quoted Comment Unfortunately, we are not. I wanted to because I really love the idea, but we just couldn’t work out the logistics.

View Quoted Comment We had all of the ink pads (archival ink, so it won't fade!) set out and let our guests choose whichever color they wanted. We got married October 1st, so we just had fall tree colors. We also left out some hands wipes so guests could immediately clean the ink off their hand, lol. Small detail, but appreciated!