Aside from exchanging sentimental “I do’s,” destination wedding couples often hope to bring together their friends and families. One of the major perks of hosting a wedding away is the opportunity to spend a few days surrounded by your nearest and dearest. It’s a chance for your college friends to meet your work friends, for your family to meet your soon-to-be’s family and to combine two lives into one. You can’t be there for every encounter, so why not create a cute, customized guide for your guests? A who’s-who, if you will. There’s a great online software platform, guesterly, which allows you to create a custom directory for your wedding.

guesterly is a mini photobook that includes pictures and bios of you and your spouse, your families, friends and bridal party – whatever and whomever you want. You can either send out your custom guesterly booklets a few weeks before your destination wedding or include them in your welcome bags for guests once they arrive in paradise for your W-Day. guesterly will introduce your guests to one another and serve as the perfect ice breaker for conversation. The service was launched after Rachel and Lorne Hofstetter were planning their own wedding.

The couple decided they wanted to create a DIY mini magazine that featured colorful photos and fun facts about every single guest attending their wedding. “It included everything from which of our friends were ‘single and looking to mingle’ to which guests should bond over mutual interests like running or baking,” says Rachel. Needless to say, the books were a hit and launched guesterly into the wedding world. It recently introduced a unique, easy-to-use software that automatically sources information and photos from your guests. Simply choose your design and edit the entries once they start flowing in. Here’s exactly how guesterly works:

1. Choose or create questions for guests to answer
2. Share your custom link with wedding guests and track responses
3. Customize your cover, welcome letter, colors and more
4. Edit and preview the order for printed copies or a digital flipbook
5. Share your finsihed guesterly books and watch your guests connect

If you aren’t looking to actually have your books printed, you also have the option to create a digital version that can be sent to your destination wedding guests. The digital flipbook is more cost-effective, but might not have the same “wow” factor as a cute, customized mini-mag for your destination wedding. Pricing is as follows:

–       guesterly books start at $4 a book when you order 100 copies

–       digital flipbooks are $99 each or just $49 with a print order

For more information or to begin creating your own custom wedding photobook, visit guesterly.com.

Photos courtesy of (in order of appearance): guesterly (1st-4th & 6th), AG Photography (5th) & Perez Photography (7th).