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I can't speak for how successful it is as my wedding hasn't happened yet. But we plan on doing the same thing. The twist is, we're going to be greeting our guests as they come in to the reception so we'll have a quick chat with them and then ask them to please sign the guestbook. We're hoping that doing it that way will catch anyone who wouldn't normally catch onto the alternative guestbook idea.
So my suggestion is, maybe have someone keeping an eye on the guestbook and gently remind people where it is and to wander over at some point? I don't know if you have anyone you'd like to do that.
of all the weddings we photograph - certainly some of the "alternatives" have been very nice but I still see people getting most excited about the photo guest books. People actually go back and look at them - plus you still have the kind words and notes...
PhotoBook300W.jpg (161.7 KB, 166 downloads) 2 years old 
We're doing the photo guest book. Its the only thing I can actually see us looking at years from now.
Instead of a guest book we are doing a picture frame mat. After the ceremony our photographer will get group photo shot of everyone who came to our wedding and then at the reception everyone will have a chance to sign the photo mat that will frame the picture. If your photographer does this make sure he has a ladder or there is some way you can get some height to be able to fit everyone in. I have to get a mat cut because the ones that come precut have too small an opening for such a large picture. I thought this was better than a book that I would shove in the back of some closest:)
We've chosen to do a guest signature platter with our initials and wedding date. We're asking that our guests sign it as they enter the reception venue. Afterwards, we're going to put it in the oven to "bake" in order to seal the names (the pen is a special type of pen). We'll hang it in the kitchen and enjoy it for years to come! 
Here's a pic:
Thanks everyone! I have some ideas of what we will do (our wedding is 2 months away, so too late for a photo book) but I am wondering more about what people will actually do at a wedding.
If your wedding has already happened, how did the guests react to your book/picture frame/cards/etc.?
One of my friends used those little note style guest books from Hallmark at her wedding last year. If you haven't seen them they were prebound books sold in a set of about 8 or 10. I don't think they worked as nicely as you might think. The books were definitely not completed... just a page or two. Most husbands have the wife sign, so that makes the number of signatures limited. I think that the fishbowl of notes might work a little better... MAYBE. I do think that even just looking at the list of names will someday be a memory! I know that my mom's is for her. It's a part of her scrapbook but just is the guests' names. That being said, I was the host of a bridal shower that used a blessing book to write good wishes and special memories for the bride and groom in a book. The guests wrote in it throughout the shower, and we presented it to the bride at the end of the shower. It was big enough that she was able to take it along to her other showers, and so got a very similar keepsake of the guests that are most likely to write special notes to you! It would be easy enough to have your extra special guy guests like your fathers, grandfathers, uncles, etc... to sign it as well at prewedding festivities like the rehearsal dinner.
My BF both are in l-o-v-e with Ansel Adam's photography, so what we're planning on doing is getting one of those coffee table books of his work and have people sign next to a picture that they like. Plus it'll go along with our woodsy/adventure/rustic theme.
What is something that you and your FI do together or something that defines you as a couple? Maybe try to find something that goes along with that for people to sign.
My friend had a less traditional guestbook and with the logistics of the set-up of her reception, the guestbook was in an obvious place. So, as dinner was coming to an end, before everyone got up to dance, her younger cousins walked around to the tables with the guest book pages and markers in the hands and handed out pages. If people took the page then, they filled it out & walked it back to the table (which they were directed to) or if they wanted to do it later, her cousins just told them where to go.
Another friend had a guestbook where you filled out postcards for them. It was very close to the escort card table & in the entryway for everyone to go to the bathroom. It looked like she had a decent amount filled out, I think due to location.
Also a friend did a polaroid guestbook and again, had people walking around taking pictures with the polaroid and encouraging guests to go and fill out the book. I think nominating a few younger cousins with the task of the guestbook might be the best way to go.
We are doing a DIY Photobooth with our mac and the photobooth program. This way not only do our guests get favors that remind them specifically of their fun at the wedding with our date and logo as well as funny/cute pictures of them (without tying up the photographers all night). Not only will it print out the photo strip for our guests but it will automatically save the files to our computer so that we have copies of all the photo-strips ourselves and then we will be sending out the photos after the wedding to make a photo-guestbook. We are including a chalk-board as a prop so that guests can write messages to us if they want.
I feel like this is our most fun and economical option, we not only knock out the favors, and guest book all in one, but we get to provide entertainment and memories for those who aren't particularly interested in dancing. This is one of my favorite ideas so far. What do you all think?
@superstarkid--- i am curious about your plan to DIY a photobooth. I also have a mac but how do you set it up to automatically save and print? i would love to hear more, sounds like a great idea and a great way to avoid the expensive photobooth fees.
we are using a big plate as a guest book. i hope people sign it!!
We're doing a guest quilt. I'm cutting squares and we'll leave them on a table with fabric markers. Then, I'll turn them into a quilt after the wedding :) I'm very sentimental and I love the idea of displaying the quilt on the back of the couch or something so our loved ones' words are always right there out in the open. And actually, I just did this for one of my nursing instructors and all of the students in my nursing class made a square, so it sort of served as my test run, hehe.
We're doing the wedding wishes ala Martha Stewart. It'll be pretty much the same as your except we'll have the book and people will be able to put their finished cards into it.
People better fill those out! I'm counting on that so I can have something to read when I'm old and bored!
I started off with a wishing board.. not a bad idea. Then i thought hmm people arent going to get it, I tested it out on my bridesmaids and some of them as much as I love them, are not the brightest lightbulb. So ive gone back to two small guest books that im scrapbooking the front of - work in progress at the moment, and it has a binder inside that will have cards telling guests to draw a picture or write their best wishes.
I think it is all manly due to location and how you set it out!
Oyster: I went to a wedding last weekend and they had the same setup that you plan on doing and the bride and groom had the DJ announce to the guests not forget to give your wisdom, tips, tricks, congratualions etc etc! I think it turned out very well another thing you can do to make sure your guests don't overlook your creative idea is to have a note on each table that reminds guests of it!! Hope this helps :) Good luck!!
We are going to do sort of 2 guestbook signings:
1. A guestbook/scrabook album. We rented a photobooth so it will print out 2 copies. One for the guest to keep and the 2nd they will paste in the book and write a message.
2. Signature Metal Mat Photo Frame - guest will just sign their names only.i thought this was neat signature are etched into the frame instead of using the one with the pen/marker. It will be something i would love to hang on the wall afterwards. http://cdn2.overstock.com/images/products/P11496360b.jpg
We did the Adesso Polaroid guest book and everyone LOVED It! I will have to take pictures of it to post. I even put out scrapbook stickers and they used them!! I was so proud of it and so happy that they even used the stickers! :) It was yet another awesome part to our wedding!
@Miss Cakeball...we did the signature photo frame and while I do love it, it didn't turn out like we had hoped. The signatures (all of them) are very, very hard to see. I can only read them if I tilt it (we haven't hung it up yet as we're waiting for the professional pics to put one in the frame) and look closely. We had the instructions that came with it (like the pic you posted) telling everyone to press hard-so I'm just not sure what happened. :( We'll still hang it up and at least I'll know the signature ARE on it..but you can barely read them. I wonder if it's just ours or if other people have had this happen?
I plan on doing something like your first picture, so I can't speak from experience. But since I'm also worried that people won't "get it," I'm planning on printing out a few different types of cards. They'll say things like "We wish you . .." or "Our words of advice. . ." or "Marriage is . . ." I'm hoping that people find it easier to finish a sentence than to write something on a blank card.
@Futuremrssteel there is a guy who made the program for his sisters wedding and he will send it to you if you give him a small donation. The website is http://davidcline.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/diy-wedding-photo-booth/
He explains on the website how it all works, you just basically set up the program with your built in photobooth program in your computer and they type in their name, it takes 3 pictures and saves the pictures to a folder on your computer and sends it to a printer to print them a photostrip. I love the idea, and it wont cost us more than $200-300 with the photo printer, photo paper, ink , props, etc depending on how many people use it! Way cheaper than renting a photobooth!
Every wedding I've been to, I've participated in the different guest books. One had a photo guest book, another had guests sign a HUGE vase, another had wish cards...
As for us, we have this huge empty wall in our new kitchen... so I've been toying with this idea (found in MS magazine):
the FI and I are going to pass around an old Polaroid camera, have guests take their own pictures and write messages on the polairoids. we may put them in a book or make a display out of them for our house.
@melisslp I love your wedding pate. Did you make it or did you have it made some where? Please share, I'm looking to do the same thing... except I want to add a starfish, sand dollar or palm tree because I'm doing a beach wedding. i love the plate idea over a typical guest book- because what the heck am I going to do with that after the wedding? LOL
we want to do the cards for well wishes, as well. but we also want a thumbprint tree and a woodslice for signatures! we are fully aware it's overkill... but it's our wedding so we're going for it.
we were definitely concerned that people wouldn't be filling out the well wishing cards at the table, or that it would get a back up and people would just not do it. so what we have decided to do, is have the thumbprint tree and wood slice at the guestbook table and at the dinner tables have the well wishing cards placed at every guests' seat and a jar of colored pencils in the middle of the table - so the guests can fill them out at their seat (and there will be instructions on the pencil jar to place the notes in the card mailbox on the gift table). our hopes is that this way we will get more responses and more thoughtful responses, too.
here are the cards we've made:
We did this at our wedding a few weeks ago and I think it was just as successful as a traditional guest book. The thing that I don't like about regular guest books is that people seem to be hesitant to write how they really feel because they know that other guests will be reading it. It seems like you get a lot of very, very simple notes or just signatures. With our guest cards, we got a wide range of funny, sweet and very thoughful notes from our guests. We even got a wonderfully funny poem from one of my friend's dates! Our guests also seemed to write more thought out notes than in traditional guest book because people could grab a card and take it back to their seat to put extra time into it.
We used one of the larger urn vases we had from our centerpieces and printed basically 3 x 5 cards with "guest name _________________ / note for the couple ___________________" and then we hand stamped the corner with our flower stamp. I am really glad we went this route and now I have a nice stack of cards that I can either put into a book or just tie with a ribbon and flip through occasionally.
Thank you to everyone who told me whether this worked or not at your wedding.
The idea of having the D.J. mention it is nice, as well.
Judging by the response to our website rsvp, I think people will freak out at the idea of something "different." Personally, I don't like guest books, though. Hmm.
At this point I'm thinking to have the regular guest book, and then somewhere at the reception do a wish card type thing or a polaroid guest book. Here's my inspiration for that idea:
We did the wishbowl (cards in a cage) and it went very well! We asked the venue to leave one card on each seat (and pencils) and also have them out at the table with the cage.
I think we have a card from a majority of the guests, and the kids came back constantly for more! it was great to see their drawings of the bride and groom. We are planning on collecting the cards in a wedding scrapbook later on.
We are not doing a traditional guest book. I thought we would do the card, as above, where people can write free hand, thoughts, wishes, etc. I tried this out at a party we had for my FMIL, big party, lots of her friends, family etc. It took alot of work!! In the end we came up with a good number of meaningful responses...but I literally had two young girls going around bugging people. (We really wanted to make a nice keepsake) Alot of people felt put on the spot ("o, i would like to think about it, can I mail it to you?") So I am now thinking about possibly putting a old fashioned mad lib on the talbes...less brain power required. What does anyone think about that???
@ponypj9 - the madlib is a fun idea... in reference to the "o, i would like to think about it, can i mail it to you?" problem from your other party, you could possibly handle this at a wedding with the well wishing cards being postcards and putting postage on them. leave them at the seats and have the dj encourage guests to fill out there, but if they want to take their time, to take it home and pop it in the mail!
We are going to rent a smaller trellis and have it in the walkway. When guests come to the reception, a couple girl friends not in the wedding are going to take pictures of all the guests as they walk in. Then they will sign these decorated 4x6 lined cards, and put them in a photo album (also designed). After the wedding we will print out all the pictures in 4x6 and match them to the notecards so we can remember who celebrated with us on our special day! We are also going to include the picture in our thank you-cards.
We actually bought a black and white heavy coffee table book, "Lights of NYC" and silver markers for people to sign with. We're really afraid that people won't sign it since no one likes to sign the guest book for the most part (I know we don't!).
I'm going to ask someone with the event staff to encourage people to sign it both during cocktail hour and the reception.
@bmore having some sentence starters is a great idea!!! it will definitely cutdown on the deer in headlights feeling of being asked to fill a blank card with something profound and witty!
also for folks doing the cards i recommend pushing the idea early in the evening. my friend did this (without the sentence starters) but didnt really announce it till half way through the open bar. they did not get they results they were hoping for ;)
We did both a fingerprint tree and a wishing tree
We did it during our "cocktail hour" (in quote because there weren't cocktails, lol) after the ceremony and before the reception. We have prints from almost everyone that came--I know there are maybe 8 or so people who didn't do it but the tree looks full and everybody that we really care about did it.
Same with the wishing tree. We got so many lovely little bits of advice and congratulations and fun memories. It was awesome to read those while we were opening gifts a few weeks later.
So, I felt they were both really successful and well received.
We had a traditional guest book at the ceremony and a wishing tree (like above, but we cut out leaves from green paper and tied on a navy ribbon) at the reception. Probably 20 people signed the guest book, but we have TONS of wishes from the tree. Everyone loved it. And they're much more fun to go through and read little wishes than a book of names and "congrats." We have our "leaves" in a large hurricaine in our entryway that not only looks cool, but is a special memory.
I want to get a fabric guestbook- like the aisle runners but shorter and then hang it in your house. But- I am not sure if this will work yet or not.
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I love the idea of having an alternative to a guest book, like basically a table where people can fill out the cards and write their well-wishes and put them into a jar. I absolutely love this idea because we can put the cards into a little book later on, and several people can write at once, instead of the whole "line-up to sign in thing" which I am not a fan of. I love the idea of collecting people's thoughts/suggestions on marriage on our wedding day.
My question is, do the guests actually do this? Or will they bypass it and wander around, saying, "They just had those card things, but where is the sign-in book?"
If you have had a wedding with a guest book alternative, how successful was it?