Wedding Scrapbook Guestbook

Hello!

I don't have much experience in scrapbooking, so I'd love to hear thoughts/suggestions/reco mmendations on this--any input is welcome!

A lot of people are doing guestbook alternatives for their wedding these days, and I was thinking of having the guests make a scrapbook for mine in June. I'm assuming we'd have to stay away from glues (or will I?) or anything complicated, so my initial thought is keeping it very simple with colored pens and stickers. However, I'd love to make as unique and detailed as possible without it being intimidating or confusing to my guests.

For the album I was thinking of getting a 3 ring binder and some plastic protectors that they could slip their decorated pages in a the plastic and be done with it. If money allows, I also think it would be neat to have a Polaroid camera so they could take a photo of themselves and paste it on their page, but I'm afraid people will not want to take photos of themselves and the Polaroids would be too large.

I'm expecting around 100 people and I'm guessing prepare for 100 pages. I'm on a strict budget so I can't to anything extravagant. What do you guys think? I'd love to hear any suggestions or ideas you may have. Also any recommendation as to what to get and where to get it. I'm very new to this and thought I should find some professionals =). Thanks!!

My son had a photo booth at his wedding. The guests got a set and another set went in a scrapbook on a table next to the booth. They also had markers to write a message. It was a bit costly, but lots of fun!
I think the idea of a polaroid camera on a table with a scrapbook is a great idea. If you can, perhaps you could make a sign that explains what to do. Maybe even have your wedding party do a couple of pages first, so other guests will know what to do.
I have a friend's wedding shower coming up and the maid of honor asked if I could make some pages for the guests to write advice for the bride. The first page has the invitaion (of course decorated with "bling"!). The next pages are all decorated around the border and say, "Advice". There will be pens for the guests to leave advice.
Whatever you decide to do... ENJOY the day! Congratulations!

very cool idea be sure they sign the back

I made one for a friends BIL wedding. They picked out pictures from the past of friends and family and I cut journaling cards and left blank spaces on the scrap book where each guest could write. They loved it. I also Made two extra pages that just had some embellishments and no photos in-case guest had long messages and so forth!

However she took the book so she could finish it her self and promised to take pictures and never did. I hope this helps! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions! I would love to help! Your Wedding is something you should remember for the rest of your life!

I had set out some 12x12 matting board for people to sign. I love them! A lot of people left little messages and they are just so much fun hanging up on the wall. Once I'm sick of them in frames, they will fit into my scrapbook for storage.

One thing we did was have all the shower guests bring a recipe on a card that my sister had sent out so that it started a heritage recipe book. Maybe you could do something like that, but with scrapbook pages. I found a kit that had everything for each guest and sent it out ahead of time for a friend's wedding. I sent out about 20 and only got 10 back, but they were able to think about them for a while and find other pictures to add to the pages. Maybe you can have them bring in the pages to the reception? I'm just thinking people won't want to spend too much time being creative instead of partying since most people aren't as creative as us here on the forums. HTH somewhat. I just kinda rambled, but maybe you'll get an idea out of it somewhere.

Oh, BTW, the photo booth idea is wonderful! My sister is doing this, but it is going to be SOOO expensive. There is no way I could have afforded it. If you can afford it, though, I think it would be worth the money.

this sounds like a great idea. i agree with having a template for the first few pages so guests have an idea and maybe instructions posted up or something .. good luck!!

Photo booths are really expensive. Poloriods are hard to find- I thought they stopped making the film???

You will need to assign someone to be in charge of the table and help people figure out what to do.

I would reccommend that your helper take photos of the couple or family with a digital camera, and then give them a journaling spot or 4 x 6 piece of cardstock to write their message. Later you can match them up and make up a scrapbook.

I would do it this way because you can space it out as you want and add embellishments how you want. And you won't be stuck with a mistake or an inappropriate comment (yes, it does happen).

In my experience, if you have 100 guests, you will only need 60 journaling spots. Usually 1 person will write the message for the couple or family. Some people will write a ton, some will just write "Best Wishes".