When you’re tending to all details of planning a wedding, it’s easy for the guest book to become just an afterthought.  There are dresses to buy, cakes to taste, and couples cocktails to create! Who cares about a stupid book?

Well, you should care. If chosen cleverly, guest books can both entertain your guests and become life-long keepsakes.  And sometimes they don’t have to be books at all…

Here are 11 guest book alternatives that really jump off the page. 

1. Game Day

Image Source: disneyweddings.com

This one is perfect for the couple who plans to spend their honeymoon tailgating with thousands of their fellow fans.  Have your guests sign a helmet or ball for a unique wedding keepsake you’ll be proud to display in your home… or man cave. 

2. What the World Needs Now…

Image Source: elizabethannedesigns.com

Can’t settle on a honeymoon locale?  Tell your friends to sign the globe and visit every country that’s covered in Sharpie. 

3. For the Record

Image Source: intimateweddings.com

You guys make beautiful music together. Preserve the memory of your big day with some classic vinyl LPs that are as timeless as the bond you share.

4. Love Letters

Image Source: elegantweddinginvites.com

Your friends will have a blast playing around on this vintage typewriter. Plus you won’t get a headache trying to read their chicken scratch handwriting. 

5. Memories on a Silver Platter

Image Source: blog.theknot.com

Have everyone etch their name and message onto a real silver platter. Now you’ll always think of your friends when you pull it out... once every couple years. 

6. All the Love That’s Fit to Print

Image Source: bethkruse.blogspot.com

Your friends will feel like kids again as they ink up and add their thumbprint to the tree.  But, DON’T let them touch the bride after they’ve left their impression. 

7. Time Capsule

Image Source: buzzfeed.com

Turn back time on your anniversary and look through the postcards your friends wrote you on your wedding day.

8. Words of Love

Image Source: southernliving.com

This one is a great idea for those bibliophile couples.  Put out a dictionary and have people circle words that make them think of you.  Or choose a book of love poems and have your friends mark their favorites. 

9. Wedding Libs!

Image Source: somethingturquoise.com

These wedding Mad Libs are a great pre-dinner distraction for that one table full of shy strangers.  Sure beats awkwardly stating your relationship to the bride while you wait for the buffet to open. 

10. Love Songs

Image Source: weddingomania.com

Display your signature-covered instrument on the wall of your home (or music studio) and think of your friends when you’re practicing your anniversary serenade. 

11. The Art of Romance

Image Source: weddingomania.com

Are your friends more talented than you?  Put them to work and have them create some artwork in honor of the happiest day of your life. 

Still think a guest book is just a boring collection of signatures?  Take a page from these untraditional guest books and come up with creative ways to preserve your guests’ wishes for you.