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The Add-On · Weddings

The Bespoke Guestbook

Most guest books collect signatures from people you can’t place a year later. This one collects a studio portrait of every guest, with their message written beside it, bound into a 10 × 10 layflat book and shipped to you after the wedding.

01 · The Idea

A signature tells you someone came. A face tells you who.

Open a traditional guest book five years on and you get a page of handwriting, half of it unreadable, none of it attached to anyone in particular. Open this one and there’s your uncle, photographed under studio lighting against our white backdrop, with what he wanted to say to you sitting right next to him.

02 · How It Works

  1. Your guest gets their portrait

    Exactly as they would anyway: a real photographer, sculpted lighting, the white backdrop, and an 8 × 10 print in their hand a few minutes later.

  2. A concierge captures the moment

    A third member of our team works the station with an iPad, taking a placeholder shot the moment the portrait is made, so the right message ends up with the right face.

  3. They write to you, by hand

    Still at the station, still holding the print, they write a message to you on the iPad with a stylus. Their handwriting, not a typed note, and the concierge keeps the line moving while they do it.

  4. We build the book after the wedding

    Each retouched portrait is paired with its handwritten message and laid out across the pages. The finished 10 × 10 layflat book is professionally printed and shipped directly to you.

03 · The Book
The Bespoke Guestbook closed, a black leather 10 by 10 layflat book with GUESTBOOK stamped in gold foil
Black leather, gold foil, 10 × 10 layflat
“We will always treasure these photos of our wedding night, and cannot wait to see our signed guestbook.”
Meredith Snook
A guestbook spread: black and white studio portraits of two couples, each with a handwritten message beside it
A guestbook spread showing a couple and a group of friends photographed against the white backdrop, with their notes to the couple
Layflat pages pairing guest portraits with handwritten messages across the full width of the book
Further guestbook pages, each portrait accompanied by the guest's own handwriting
04 · The Details

What’s included

  • A 10 × 10 layflat book, designed, printed, and shipped after the wedding
  • A dedicated concierge working the station for the full session
  • Every portrait paired with that guest’s handwritten message
  • Full layout and design, you don’t assemble anything
  • Delivered directly to you, not to the venue

Cost and fit

$1,500 as an add-on to any portrait station booking, and built into our higher packages.

Your guests give up nothing to be in it. They keep their 8 × 10; the book is built afterward from the digital files. Nobody has to choose between taking their portrait home and signing your book.

We offer this for weddings only. The format depends on guests writing something personal to a couple, which doesn’t carry over to a corporate event. For galas and company parties, the portrait station stands on its own.

Everyone who came, and what they said.

Tell us about your wedding and we’ll put together a proposal, with or without the guestbook.