PHOTOS BY ALWAYS ANTONELLE PHOTOGRAPHY

Imagine getting to re-listen to the laughs and heartwarming voices of friends and family from your wedding night against the irreplaceable sounds of celebration.

That’s why these Pittsburgh couples chose to include audio guest books at their weddings — they not only act as a specialized way to replay a couple’s big day but also as an elegant display piece.

Audio guest books are typically crafted to look like a vintage or retro-styled phone, giving a nostalgic feeling evoking how hearing a voice can take you back in time. Couples can record their own personalized message, like a voicemail greeting, that invites guests to leave an audio message (as opposed to a traditional written message). At the end of the night, the phone is simply unplugged and shipped back to the guest book company to extract and save the audio. Couples can receive their messages after their special day as audio files or on vinyl.

When Brittany Pent married Michael Rohm on New Year’s Eve in 2022, they set up an audio guest book through the company FêteFone with a fun greeting for their guests:

Michael: “Hi everyone, this is Mike & Britt, sorry we can’t come to the phone right now,”
Brittany: “We are busy getting married today — leave a message after the tone.”

Brittany and Michael had a chic lounge area at their reception at Veltre’s Wedding & Event Centre with a side table where friends and family curiously picked up the handset to leave a message.

“It was funny to hear how messages progressed over the night,” Brittany says, “hearing the music in the distance, chatter and excitement in our guests’ voices.”

Brittany and Michael received the collected recordings of their loved ones’ voices about two months after their wedding as a vinyl record and have gone back to listen to it on a record player Brittany’s mom gave them.

“I loved it happening that way … we got to relive it two months later … and then it’s also really fun because it’s a cute display as well,” Brittany says.

PHOTOS BY COURTNEY RUTLEDGE PHOTOGRAPHY

Samantha Jamison and her husband Drake D’Angelo requested their audio guest book from company After the Tone as a digital file. For their vintage-themed wedding, the pink rotary phone used to record their guests fit in perfectly.

“I think there’s something to be said about capturing someone’s handwriting versus their voice,” Samantha says of why they chose an audio guest book. One of her favorite photos was of her grandma using the phone.

“I had already seen the photos and then I hear my grandma’s voice,” Samantha recalls.

This non-traditional element can make a fun experience for guests. too. “It was just funny to hear some of [Drake’s] friends … They would leave a message and then probably go back to the party, come back and say something funny,” Samantha says.

Guests don’t have to worry about making their messages look aesthetic and legible or taking up too much space in the guestbook.

“I just feel like it gave you a lot of leeway to share whatever was on your mind, or share that special memory,” Brittany says. “My mom left the last message and replayed the entire night for us.”