Wedding Guestbook - necessary?

[passmethewineplease]

Recently started planning our wedding and was wondering if I need a guestbook? What do people write in them? The usual wish you a lifetime of happiness and alike?

We were given one as a gift the Christmas before our wedding. I wouldn't have bothered otherwise.
Most people put a message similar to the you indicated, however a couple of people put some lovely, precious words that I know they'd never have said sober out loud.
So for me, I'm glad I had the guest book.

We are having a photo booth . so with a guest book j am going to lay out double sided tape and scissors so that guests can stick a copy of their photo in with a message .

I think guest books are good to read back on and only need to be a few pound .

We didn't bother, in my experience of weddings people only write in them when drunk!

I've been to a wedding with a photo booth. It produced 2 copies so the couple and us both got the photos. It had fancy dress props etc. it was very popular about 11pm!

Love the photos from it.

At our wedding (8yrs ago) we had a large photo mounted on proper card with really large borders. People then wrote on the borders. We have it properly framed in our hall amid I love this still.

Personally wouldn't have read a guest book and unless you have lots of guests it won't be filled.

Hmm I'm undecided! Still can pick them up for a few pound so if I do get one and it doesn't get written in then least I've not wasted loads!

We didn't do an actual book but had cards for people to write on, most didn't bother but the kids there drew us some nice pictures
If you can get someone to take it round to peoples tables it's probably more worth it.

Give someone the responsibility of making sure it gets circulated - you don't want to end up with just a couple of comments from the first table it reaches. And send it round again for evening guests.

Ask children to draw a message, ask adults to write their tips for a happy relationship or a memory of when you and your fiancé were first together. this will help stop people writing bland and repetitive messages.

Nope.
There are very few things about weddings which are necessary.
Mostly guests don't give a shit (in the nicest possible way) and your friends and family really don't judge.
I had very little nonsense at mine - no favours, no first dance, no band, entertainment, no guest book, etc etc. I didn't have an evening do.
It was a bloody lovely day - beautiful hotel by the river, plenty of great food and wine . No one has ever asked me why they didn't get a box with a chocolate

I made postcards that said "leave us a message, some advice, a memory or a drawing!" so people could choose what they wanted to do. They turned out to be a lot more interesting than the standard congratulations - we had some really funny ones back, so I'm glad I did it.

Actually it's one thing that I completely forgot about at my wedding that I sort of wish we'd had, in retrospect!

I got married in may, meant to do a guest book bit forgot, I wish we had done one.

My friend had willow branches in a pot with fairy lights on and next to it a pile of tags, gift tag type things for people to write on and hang on the tree. That was sweet, looked nice and they put all the tags in a scrap book afterwards.

We did the same as quinandthem with the photo with wide mount for people to write on and had a very pro-active usher encouraging people to put messages on. It hangs in our hall and we love it. Also, people who came to the wedding always stop and look at it when they visit the house to read what they wrote or laugh at what mutual friends wrote. After 8 years it still provokes lots of laughs and attention - imo much better than a book that sits in a cupboard and probably will never be looked at.

Agree that whatever you do you will need someone to ensure it gets passed round.

We had a guest book, but quite a few people didn't sign.

So, because it needed filling up I cut out sections of all our cards so it's now full of lovely messages and keepsakes from everyone

Never encountered one. It certainly Wouldn't affect anything if you didn't have one. So of course it's not necessary.