Video guest book ideas: 30 prompts for your guests
A video guest book is only as good as the question you ask. Here are 30 prompts in five groups, how videos work on papershot, and a few tips that make 15 seconds on a phone worth watching.
How a video guest book works on papershot
The classic video guest book is a camera on a stand with a queue beside it. On papershot, every guest already holds the camera: each one adds a single video to the shared roll, from wherever they are, when the moment feels right.
Each guest gets one video, 5 to 30 seconds long, in 5-second steps, and you set the length. Videos are filmed in the app, in 4:3, and you can ask one question for them, up to 120 characters. Guests need the papershot app on iPhone or Android, but not an account, and you can turn videos off if the day does not need them.
On the roll, videos have their own tab, and they download at full resolution to your phone's library, one at a time or with the whole moment as one .zip. The roll develops when you say: as it happens, when the roll closes, or after a delay you set. Until then, other guests see a blurred tile for each video, with who added it and when, and you see everything.
Because you ask one question for the moment, the 30 ideas below are a menu: choose the one that fits the day, and change the names to yours. More on how videos work.
Toasts and advice: 12 prompts
Toasts are short by nature and suit a video of 10 or 15 seconds. Six to choose from:
- Raise a glass and give us a toast in one sentence.
- Start with “Here's to” and finish the sentence.
- Toast the two of them from wherever you are standing.
- A toast in the language you grew up speaking.
- Toast someone in the room who is not the guest of honour.
- Toast the next 10 years, in 10 seconds.
Advice needs a little more room, so give it 20 or 30 seconds. Six more:
- Your best advice, in one sentence.
- What do you wish someone had told you at their age?
- The best advice anyone ever gave you.
- One thing they should do in the year ahead.
- What should they never stop doing?
- One piece of advice for what comes next.
Memories and the room itself: 12 prompts
Memories need the most time, so give them 20 or 30 seconds. Six for stories:
- Tell us how you met them, in one breath.
- Your first memory of them.
- The moment you knew they were right for each other.
- A story they would rather you did not tell. Keep it kind.
- Where were you when you heard the news?
- Hold up something that reminds you of them, and tell us why.
The room itself works at any length and needs no words at all. Six views:
- 10 seconds of the dance floor, from the middle of it.
- Turn slowly and show us your table.
- Show us the view from where you are.
- The chorus everyone is singing, from inside the crowd.
- Walk us from the door to your seat.
- The loudest corner of the room.
Silly ones: 6 prompts, and how to choose
For a crowd that does not take itself too seriously:
- Your best dance move. No music needed.
- Describe them in three words, then act them out.
- Sing one line of their favourite song.
- Predict the future: where will they be in 20 years?
- Your best impression of the guest of honour. Keep it kind.
- Say congratulations without using any words.
To choose, start with the length. A 10-second video suits a toast or a view of the room; a 30-second one suits a memory or a piece of advice. Then think about the room: a quiet dinner can carry stories and advice, while a loud dance floor wants something short that needs no explaining. Whichever you pick, tell guests about the video early in the day: someone who knows they have one keeps an eye out for the right moment to use it.
Tips for a good short video
A few seconds on a phone can look and sound good with very little effort. Share these with your guests, in a speech or in the group chat.
- 01
Light
Face the light: a window or a lamp in front of you, never behind you.
- 02
Sound
Step away from the speakers, and hold the phone a little closer than feels natural.
- 03
One idea
One toast, one story, or one view. Not all three.
- 04
Start talking straight away
In a 15-second video, the first seconds count. Know your first sentence before you start filming.
- 05
Hold steady
Keep still, or move slowly. Turn your whole body, not your wrist.
- 06
Finish early
End your last sentence a second before the time runs out, so your last word is not cut off.
For the rest of the day, see the wedding and graduation pages, and at a gig or a festival, the concerts and festivals page. If you turn memos on too, pick their question from our audio guest book questions.
