DIY Guest Book Templates

Wedding guest books are books where guests can leave well wishes and advice for the newly married couple. Traditionally, guest books are large journal-style books the couple purchases before the wedding and sets up on a table at their reception.

While these books usually aren’t very expensive, many modern couples choose to create their own guest books. Making a DIY wedding guest book can save you money, plus provides another way to customize your celebration while showing off your personality. To help you get started, we created printable DIY guest book templates for a variety of wedding styles.

What to Include in Your Guest Book

Depending on the style of the book you want to create, there are various options for what to include in your wedding guest book. Most importantly, you want to give your guests a place to write their names, as well as a message. However, you may also choose to provide them with specific prompts to help them get an idea of how to fill out the book. For example, you may ask how they know the couple, a favorite memory they have, or for a special wish or advice they’d like to share. The best part about making your own guest book is that you can stylize it however you want.

Wedding Guest Book Templates

By creating your own guest book, you will have a lot more flexibility to match it to the style or theme of your wedding. Below we created several templates that fit some of the most popular wedding styles.

Classic and Traditional

This style, typically reserved for a more formal celebration, typically features beautiful greenery and florals, refined color schemes, plenty of clean lines, and an atmosphere of sophisticated elegance. This theme is often associated with a fairytale-style wedding.

The template below is simple and elegant in design and is an excellent choice for a color palette featuring soft greens and white. While the page offers a few prompts for your guests to fill out, it is minimal so as not to overwhelm.

Minimalist and Modern

The minimalist wedding theme is an increasingly popular trend with couples. This style uses limited decoration, sleek lines, and neutral color palettes to keep guests’ attention right where it should be: on the two of you. The stationery, including the guest book, for this type of wedding is often created using clean lines and san serif fonts.

The template created here is straightforward. It contains a minimal border around the page and allows two guests to sign per page. We used a san serif font to keep the lines clean and didn’t crowd the page with too many prompts, opting instead for just the guest’s name and message.

Rustic

Today, one of the most popular wedding themes is a rustic wedding reception. This style pays tribute to the great outdoors and the simplicity of the countryside, usually by using an outdoor venue and incorporating lots of natural or nature-inspired elements. The color palette for a rustic wedding often uses muted colors that you could expect to find in nature, such as soft pinks and greens, dusty blues, and neutrals like Champagne. The style is both whimsical and sophisticated.

For this template, we used browns and greens reminiscent of the countryside. The lines are more uneven and appear to be hand-drawn to further the rustic style. Finally, to elevate the template and give it a touch of sophistication, we used a calligraphy-style font.

Tropical

If you’re having a beach-themed wedding day or heading off to a tropical destination for your wedding, you may want to choose this guest book template to match the setting. Of course, there are a wide variety of beach or nautical themes to choose from, but for this destination wedding guest book idea, we focused on something more tropical in nature. Typically, this theme utilizes bright and bold colors with a more casual atmosphere.

This template is perfect for a tropical beach-themed wedding day. It utilizes elements like a brightly colored floral and a variety of palm fronds commonly found on destination beaches. The theme of the template page is kept casual with a handwritten font.

Putting It Together

Once you’ve selected one of our DIY guest book templates—or created your own—you’re ready to assemble your book. For this part of the process, you have a few different options. First, to keep the book completely DIY, you can choose to put it together yourself. Simply print your selected template and add the guest book pages to a book yourself. To do so, you need to purchase a binder-style book from your local craft store, plus some decor for the cover to match your wedding theme. This method is great for anyone who favors customization.

Alternatively, you may opt to have your guest book professionally printed and bound. For this option, you need to send the template file to a local printer who can print the pages and bind them together using a more traditional method of bookbinding, such as sewn or glued. While this method gives your book a more professional appearance, the money you save by making your own pages with paper will likely pay for the printing and binding services.

Guest Book Alternatives

Rather than putting together a traditional book for your guests to sign, you may decide to make a more creative DIY guest book. Many couples use this as an opportunity to show off their personality with a unique guest book that they know they will cherish and perhaps display in their home. These wedding guest book alternatives include ideas like having guests sign individual pieces of paper and dropping them in a glass jar keepsake that the couple can place on a shelf in their home. For couples who enjoy traveling or are having a destination wedding, a globe is another fun choice for their guests to sign. Learn more about alternative guest books here.

How to Get Guests to Sign

One of the most challenging parts of a wedding guest book is actually getting your guests to sign it, so you don’t end up with a book full of blank paper. Of course, some of your guests will actively look for the book to sign, like your grandparents, who are used to this wedding tradition. However, another wedding guest may need a little more encouragement. Here are our best tips to make sure people sign your guest book:

• Make It Noticeable: To get your guests to sign the book, make sure they see it. Typically, this means putting it on a table in the entryway of your wedding reception, such as by the place card display or on a table along the path to the bathrooms—a place all guests are sure to go at some point during the celebration.
• Announce It: About halfway through your wedding reception, or maybe around the time your guests are having dinner, ask your deejay or wedding planner to make a brief announcement about the guest book. This should encourage your guests to take a moment to sign the book and make sure they know exactly where to find it.
• Bring the Book to Guests: The most convenient way to have the guest book signed is to bring it to your guests. Of course, as the bride or groom, you won’t want to do this yourselves, but you can ask a friend or family member to walk the book around to guests, encouraging them to sign.

We guarantee that with these simple wedding guest book templates, you’ll be able to create a functional and beautiful guest book for your celebration. Simply print the pages and bind them together in a book. Then all you have to worry about is making sure your guests sign them.