For a wedding
A wedding cookbook your guests write themselves
Everyone signs a guest book. Almost nobody opens one again. Ask for a recipe instead and you get a book you cook from for thirty years.
Free to make and free to collect. You pay only if you print it.
How it works
You send one link to your guest list. Each person adds the recipe they would cook for you and a few words about why. We lay out every page, you read the whole book as a PDF before anything is printed, and it comes back as an A4 hardback.
Nobody needs an account and nobody needs to download anything. Most guests finish in about two minutes on their phone.
The half of the page that stays blank
Under every recipe there is space left deliberately empty. Put the book out at the reception and the person who sent that recipe writes in it, under their own page, in their own handwriting.
That is what turns it from a wedding cookbook into the guest book. There is no blank page to fill and no pressure to be clever, because the prompt is already there in front of them.
When to send the link
Send it with your invitations, or just after the RSVPs come back. Six to eight weeks before the day is the sweet spot: long enough that people forget and are reminded, short enough that it still feels connected to the wedding.
Set your deadline about three weeks before the wedding. Printing and delivery take around two weeks, and you do not want that particular errand in the last fortnight.
Who to ask
Everyone invited, including the ones who will tell you they cannot cook. Beans on toast done properly is a real page and it is usually the funniest one in the book.
Ask both sets of parents early. Their recipes are the ones that make the book feel like a family record rather than a party favour.
What contributors are asked
Every contributor gets a prompt with their recipe, so nobody faces an empty box:
- Why this recipe, and what would you say to them?
- What do you hope they cook together?
- Who taught you this one?
- When do you make it?
What arrives
An A4 hardback book on 170gsm uncoated paper, printed and bound in the UK, with one recipe per page and space under each for a handwritten note. You read the whole thing as a PDF before anything is printed.
Questions
- Is a cookbook a good alternative to a wedding guest book?
- It solves the problem most guest books have, which is that a signature and “congratulations” is the only thing anyone can think of to write. A recipe gives people something specific to say, and it gives you something you use.
- What if a guest sends a recipe that is already in the book?
- You will see it flagged before you print. Two lasagnes from two families is usually worth keeping, because they are never the same lasagne and the notes underneath are the point.
- Can we still put it out on the day if not everyone contributed?
- Yes. Guests who did not send a recipe write in the space under someone else’s, which is how you end up with arguments about whose roast potatoes are correct.
One link, and your guests do the rest.
Three questions and you have a link to send. Free until you print it.