Wedding Blog
Wedding planning has been slowing down significantly for me. It’s not that I don’t have things to do; my Knot checklist is about a million items long. I’ve just been a bit overwhelmed with all the pending details and don’t know where to start. Instead of creating a plan of attack, I’m sticking my head in the sand and avoiding everything. Snap out of it, Miss Eggplant! Denial is not a river in Egypt! 
I did work on one thing this weekend–our reception guestbook.
I first discovered the Guestbook Store while attending my cousin’s wedding last fall. At their reception, I was handed colored markers and a page that they had purchased from the Guestbook Store. The pages were completed during dinner and collected at the end of the event after guests had filled them out with with fond memories and wedding wishes. I loved the experience, however the Guestbook Store requires customers to purchase a storage album per every 60 guestbook pages. With a guestlist of close to 200, our total ran close to $200 worth of materials, which was definitely not in our budget.
Also, since I’m sure Mr. Eggplant and I will be too busy to take pictures of our guests, I really liked the idea of having a Polaroid guestbook. I’d love to have at least a picture or two of each person that joins us at our wedding.
Well, that’s where Adobe InDesign came in handy. Taking the Guestbook Store’s basic idea, I used our wedding logo and fonts and created a nifty little guestbook page. I’ll be be printing the pages on 80 lb cardstock and later organizing them into an simple three-ring binder that I’ll adorn with fabric and ribbon:
The front page has questions like: “Did we miss out on anything today (e.g. what happened at your dinner table)?” and “Your Predictions: Date of first child?” I’m also attaching sticky photo corners to the sheet so that guests can just peel off the backing and adhere their Polaroid to the page.
Mr. Eggplant has a quirky sense of humor. On the back, he created a section titled: “Your Advice for a Happy Marriage” where he included silly situations like: “Mr Eggplant comes home tired after a stressful day at work. Mrs. Eggplant has spent an hour preparing a gourmet dinner. Who should do the dishes?” It’ll be fun to read our guests’ responses. 
And here are a few pictures of the pages from the Guestbook Store. They’re a great option if you want to save time instead of going the DIY route:
Mr. Eggplant has three cases’ worth of Polaroid film left over from his old job that we want to use at our reception, but the film has passed the expiration date. Does anyone know how long expired Polaroid film lasts past its date and what the difference in quality is?
Has anyone else done a Polaroid guestbook or seen one at another wedding? How did it turn out?
|
Share this post: Be Our Guest(Book)!
That’s a great idea! When do they fill it out? When they first enter? Any time hroughout the reception? Placed randomly on each seat to be done before eating? How will you collect it? TIA!
If it has been refrigerated it the expiration date should be extended 6 months- that goes for all film. You should do a test photo, I tried using an old polaroid that was a couple years old and it comes out streaky like chemicals were spilled on it, and it comes out flat- no contrast.
hm: there will be someone “manning” the guestbook when each party comes in. this person will snap a picture of the guest plus date or family and hand them a page. guests will complete the pages throughout dinner. our MC will make a few reminders throughout dinner, and at the end of the meal, make a final mention that someone will be coming around to collect the pages from each table. there will also be a box up front to collect the pages if people want to drop them off as they exit.
hope that helps!
Ooh…got it! It looks like a really fun and meaningful idea.
i am so stealing this idea miss eggplant! i’ve been trying to figure out how best to do this and by george you did the hard part! it looks great 
um, maybe I’m just being the negative nancy…but, are you and Mr. Eggplant positive on having kids? Your guest book questions seem to focus more on potential kiddos than the marriage. Maybe it’s just because I am sooo tired of being asked when I’ll hop on the baby train. Overall though, great idea! Did something similar at a recent wedding, it was lots of fun!
Jennifer: Mr. Eggplant and I definitely want kids and lots of them which is probably why we subconsciously added so many kiddo questions.
thanks for your feedback about the recent wedding you went to! i hope our guests will enjoy the idea also!
awesome idea! can you give us your template?
Great idea.
I think “date of first child” is a little confusing… but after a few readings, I see it means date of birth. I’d be tempted to write “Suri Cruise.” : )
Haha, those are all really cute questions. I love Mr. Eggplant’s and your senses of humor. Great job! =)
Your pages are so much better than the pre-made ones! Much more elegant!
We did this for our wedding and it was such a big hit. Instead of taking pictures of each guest, we asked them to draw a picture of themselves (a lot of our family and friends are artists). Our guests were really creative with their responses. My husband and I had a lot of laughs reading through the guestbook surveys the next day.
I love the idea - only one thing to think about. I was looking through pictures for my slideshow, i found a few polaroid pictures from when I was younger. I remember them being great pictures - but they have faded over the years. I don’t know how you could avoid that without having the immediate benifit of the pictures, but maybe just have the person manning the book take a picture with a digital camera and then print the pictures later on photo-paper and attach them to each page? I think it will be such a great memory, but I don’t want the pictures to disappear in 10 years.
I originally wanted a photobooth at my wedding to make a guest book of the photo strips and also giving guests photostrips as a favor…seems a little too expensive ($1500-2000) so I was considering the polaroid option. You did a great job designing the pages!
When my aunt got married, my father did this for her… it was a huge hit! Since she was getting married later in life (her first marriage, her husband’s second), they didn’t want all the glitz that comes with weddings these days, so they didn’t hire a professional photographer. In order to capture memories, my father rented a polaroid and snapped pictures of each guest. I was his assistant (I was 11) and followed around with a 4×6 index card my mother decorated, and we had each person fill out an index card with a note to the couple, and placed it next to the picture.
My aunt and uncle loved it, and 13 years later, they still have it on their coffee table!
what a great idea! i so look forward to copying this one
duh, delicious, not relicious
I love your guest book page? Do you share your template at all?
thanks!
abby
Hey Mrs. Eggplant, I’d love to see how your completed/signed guestbook turned out!
I did something similar to this and found a simple scrapbook album that housed letter-size pages. It had a window in the cover that allowed our wedding monogram from http://www.truelovelogos.com to show through. I’ve also seen something similar at jennibick.com.
Could you please send me the guestbook template ASAP?!?!
We leave Saturday and the person who was supposed to make a guestbook for me backed out and now I am stuck…
My email is gaitergal@yahoo.com
Thanks so much!!!
Has anyone got the template for this or something like this that they could send me?
Has anyone got the template for this or something like this that they could send me?
Has anyone got the template for this or something like this that they could send me?
[...] both our guests and us. I hadn’t put much thought into it yet, but I came across this post by Mrs. Eggplant at Weddingbee. I love the idea and it looks like another fairly easy diy [...]
I loooooove your idea thanks for sharing it!
[...] first idea I had was this of course jumped off from another bee. It seemed to be something that MB and I could make our [...]
[...] the most inexpensive wedding ideas become the most meaningful. Making our guestbook pages was one of our best decisions. They cost the price of one pack of card stock, but they gave us a [...]
I LOVE this idea! My wedding is Saturday and I still have no guest book because I hate the plain ones & haven’t been able to force myself to get one. This would be perfect. Now sure if you have shared the template but if so, please send it to me. Thanks!
Hi Mrs. Eggplant,
Your guestbook idea is great! If only I were as creative. Do you happen to share templates?
From the get out, the platform has been created with an ear to content creators and artists. ,
| Visit our sister sites | Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Fertile Thoughts Infertility Support |
Mrs. Eggplant, San Francisco
Age and Occupation: 28, Human Resources
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Associate Marketing Manager
Engagement Date: January 19, 2007
Wedding Date: October 20, 2007
Blogging Since: May 31, 2007
Venue: Ceremony at a cement and stained glass cathedral and reception at a boutique hotel ballroom
About Me: I'm a shopping junkie who lives to discover great deals and a craft addict that loves to scrapbook and knit. My profile picture was taken on the day I got engaged which is why my smile is so huge!
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |
Latest Gallery Pics