How to Personalize Your Wedding Guestbook with Photos

A true memento of your wedding is a wedding guestbook filled with the names of those who attended a very special day in your life. Traditionally, wedding guest books helped newly eloped couples keep track of wedding attendees as well as start an address book for traditions such as Christmas cards. In modern times, today's bride looks for fresh ideas and twists on a traditional wedding guestbook. A hip wedding guestbook can be personalized, and displayed year round instead of collecting dust for years to come.

An inexpensive and modern way to personalize a wedding guestbook is by adding digital photos of guests and moments of your special day. A photo wedding guestbook can be a fun project for a DIY bride, or a digital photo project can be something a newlywed couple can do together.

As a modern day bride, my wedding guestbook needed to be unique and personal. My idea for a personalized wedding guestbook was a photo mat signed by all of our guests. This wedding keepsake is displayed on our wall, above the fireplace and we are able to appreciate it every single day.

For this DIY guestbook idea you would need a large frame with a wide or extra-wide mat. Purchasing a wedding picture frame with a wide mat is inexpensive and photo mats can be found at any store. Our wedding photo mat cost around $15.00. Your chosen photo mat needs to be wide enough so each guest can sign it. Purchase an elegant pen that can be placed next to the wedding photo mat.

Most weddings have a designated gift and wedding card table. Since your wedding guests will be headed to that table to place gifts or card it would be best to place your photo mat on that same table. To make sure that each wedding guests signs your photo mat ask a good friend or relative to assist by stand near it and ask each guest for a signature. You can also personalize your wedding photo mat by asking guests to leave a personalized message and a signature.

Your professional wedding photo or a picture of your first kiss as a married couple can be placed in the signed photo frame that is your beautiful, modern wedding guestbook.

Another way to personalize wedding guest books and bring give tradition a face-lift is by purchasing a wedding photo guest book. A wedding photo guestbook is different from traditional text-only guest books because it comes with slots for inserting wedding photos.

A combination of wedding guestbook and photo album allows you to capture special moments, anything from arrival to church to cutting of your wedding cake. Ask guests to fill in pages with favorite memories of the new couple, and ask for more than just a one liner or signatures.

Provide guests with disposable cameras that will be collected after reception and developed by you. Also, most wedding guests now arrive with their own digital cameras. Ask them to e-mail or share online photos of your wedding so that best ones can be selected and printed out. Arrange printed out photos in your wedding guestbook so pictures pair up with guests who signed on that page.