Is having a guest book really necessary?

Question

I think that its a waste of money, who really ever bothers to look at them ever again. I am trying to decide if I want to do one or not for my May wedding,

Answer 1

No they are not necessary. The one at my wedding was missed by most of the guests and only the first two pages were signed. The remarks were so boring and repetitive too. How many times can you re-read "Best wishes"? And no, I never look at it. It's in a box in the back of a closet. Better to make a scarpbook of your wedding cards. People spend more time writing on those because they do it in advance.

Answer 2

I thought having a guest book would be a total waste..just because they get shoved in the closet, never to be seen again...I did go on guestbooks.com...They are awesome!!! However, we are having more guests than the book would accomodate. I was about ready to give up on the idea all together until I came across a "Photo Guest Book" that someone had talked about on some wedding website...sorry, can't remember which one...
What they did was have a small area set up that contained: A polaroid camera, markers, pens, double sided sticky tape, and a scrap book...They then left little instructions for people to take their picture, tape it into the book and sign it or leave a message for them. Supposedly this couple still pulls out their book to look at it...
I am having almost 500 guests at our wedding, so chances of everybody taking their picture is probably pretty slim, but I am appointing a family member to go around later in the evening to check w/ other family members to make sure that they have "signed in"...She will then offter to take their pic for them if neccesary. I know not everyone will do it, but I know most of our friends would do it, and majority of family as well...I guess we will see! Even if 20 people do it, I'd be happy...I will at least look at that over a bunch of names!!
The only downside is if you don't have a Polaroid, you have to buy it, or borrow...and I just checked at Wal Mart and they are like $40...the film wasn't very cheap either! So we will see....I may not end up doing it when all is said and done...

Answer 3

I think they are a little silly! My husband and I decided to NOT do one for our wedding because we'd never look at it again. My stepmom was not too happy with this, as she thought we should have one. So, she ended up having the best idea! She is a huge scrapbooker and she is very good at it. She made us a scrapbook of our engagement and all the parties and showers and everything. On the last few pages, she just put one pic of us and everything else was blank. So the guests could look at our album and then sign on the last few pages and they would stay in the scrapbook. So now when we look at the scrapbook, we can see what people had to say on our wedding day. We actually look at it quite a bit. I think doing it that way made it seem much less formal so people wrote what they really felt. Some things in there were hilarious....

Answer 4

Having a guest book is not necessary but its a remembrance of who attended your wedding.

A traditional guest book gets signed at the wedding and is never heard from again. I saw that happen to my sister's guest book and i did not want that to happen to me. I still wanted the guests to be able to write their best wishes.So instead of a guest book and pen, I opted for a guest book frame.This is a great alternative. Your guests sign the frame with a regular scrap booking pen and when they are done you stick in a wedding photo and hang it on the wall. That way you can always see the nice things that your guests said and it makes a lovely decoration for your home.

Answer 5

No. O my gosh, I'm married almost 18 years and every once in a while still look at the guest book! It was part of my wedding book, so I guess in that way it makes it special, and has the gift listing in another part of the book, etc. along with other stuff about the wedding.

Answer 6

Hopefully you've got the guest list alphabetized by last name, complete with addresses, in a database on your computer. This removes the need for a guest book as well as making sending Thank You's, holiday cards and other greeting cards a snap. If you don't know how or don't have the time to do it, give all your information to a computer user friend. This way they can make you a cd or email it to you as an attachment. This list will save you loads of time. You can revise and update it as needed and will be great someday for the baby shower!

Answer 7

Guest books are not a necessity to your ceremony or reception. If you are needing the names and addresses, you should probably already have that on your initial guest list that you used to mail out your announcements. You can have a signature mat for guests to sign and include a professional photo of you and your FI. This will be a really great keepsake to frame and hang in your new home! Plus you will have the memory of who was there to share the day with you.

Answer 8

I don't think a guest book is necessary. I don't think i have ever siged one at weddings anyway.

You are better off spending that money on more disposable cameras for each table. The pictures you will get from those cameras will be much more memerable then a guest book.

Answer 9

I loved having a guest book. I look at it every once in a while, people got all creative and drew pictures in it and stuff. My dad wrote a poem. My guest book was being passed around during the all-night reception, so as people had more booze the entries got downright funny. But it's not by any means "necessary", it really is up to you.

Answer 10

I don't know if it's necessary, but it is nice to look back and see who was actually at the wedding. My wedding album had a page in it for guest's signatures, so I didn't buy a separate book, I just used my album.