Digital guestbooks have gotten a profitable biz in S’pore’s marriage ceremony trade

All it takes is 2 to a few weddings to interrupt even

Two to a few weddings. That’s all it takes for entrepreneurs Edmund Teo from Octopus Reels and Jessica Tay from Depart Your Message to completely recoup their startup prices—and all the things after is revenue.

Their enterprise? Renting out digital guestbooks that seize audio and video messages from marriage ceremony company. As extra {couples} search personalised, interactive experiences, this area of interest service is shortly gaining reputation and turning right into a worthwhile alternative.

Arrange is easy, solely requires two to a few folks, and the tools is reusable, making margins compelling with restricted prices. 

Vulcan Submit speaks with the 2 founders to uncover what it takes to run a digital guestbook enterprise—and simply how profitable it may be.

What’s driving {couples} to ditch conventional guestbooks

In Singapore, {couples} are more and more shifting away from conventional guestbooks as a result of digital codecs provide one thing way more participating and memorable.

Whereas handwritten guestbooks are sentimental, they’re usually saved away and infrequently revisited. As a rule, only some pages are stuffed whereas the remaining stay clean.

Audio and video recordings, then again, seize the tone, laughter, and feelings behind every message, permitting {couples} to relive these moments for years to return.

We now have had {couples} share how moved they have been when revisiting their recordings.

Edmund Teo, founding father of Octopus Reels

Jessica added that digital guestbooks make recollections really feel “extra alive” by preserving expressions, voices, and interactions {that a} web page of writing can’t convey.

She additionally famous that the rise of digital guestbooks connects to broader cultural currents. “Lately, there was a robust comeback of nostalgia, just like the rise of digital cameras and Y2K aesthetics, the place persons are drawn to issues that really feel a bit extra uncooked and genuine.”

Usually, digital guestbooks use a classic phone setup. Friends decide up the handset to listen to a brief, pre-recorded message from the couple, then file their very own message after a tone. The retro phone design, full with rotary dials or traditional handsets, provides a memorable contact.

Weddings, being extremely emotional events, naturally entice codecs that mix acquainted, nostalgic parts.

On the similar time, the trade itself additionally provides fertile floor for area of interest companies like digital guestbooks. In 2024, the Singapore marriage ceremony market was valued at US$153.22 million (S$196.57 million), and is projected to achieve US$292.38 million (S$375.11 million) by 2033, rising at an annual fee of seven.46%.

With roughly 24,700 marriages registered in Singapore in 2025, the addressable marketplace for marriage ceremony distributors stays substantial.

A 30% revenue margin

Each founders of Octopus Reels and Depart Your Message now run their companies full-time, although Jessica initially began hers as a facet hustle earlier than leaving her full-time job as demand grew.

At first look, the enterprise appears easy and low-cost.

Comparable digital video guestbook tools sells for round S$533 on Amazon.sg, whereas every accordion-style column stand—sometimes used to carry and elevate the classic phone handsets—prices between S$72 and S$101. That totals to S$797 for a digital guestbook phone setup with three cylindrical columns of various heights.

With charges beginning at S$295 for six hours for a primary digital guestbook setup by Octopus Reels and S$380 for 2 hours by Depart Your Message, each companies can recoup their preliminary setup prices in simply three bookings, making them extremely profitable ventures.

Nevertheless, operating the enterprise goes past buying tools. Arrange, logistics, and manpower are all essential to delivering a clean and memorable visitor expertise. There are additionally extra technical help and post-production modifying required to rework uncooked footage into polished keepsakes. 

Edmund shared that the common breakdown of prices for every setup, excluding tools, is as follows:

Minus off all these prices, the general revenue margin for Octopus Reels is 20–30% for easier setups, and tends to extend with bigger or customised occasions, making the enterprise nonetheless extremely engaging.

Depart Your Message, nevertheless, declined to reveal precise figures, with Jessica explaining that these are “commercially delicate for the enterprise.” She did notice, although, that there are “much less apparent prices,” together with seasonal fluctuations in bookings and downtime between occasions.

“Whereas this could be a worthwhile enterprise beneath the best circumstances, there may be additionally a good quantity of operational work behind the scenes that folks might not instantly see,” she added.

Standing out in an more and more crowded market

Demand is booming for these companies’ choices.

Octopus Reels presently runs 10 to 12 occasions each weekend, and in 2025, it supported 208 occasions throughout 98 venues, with demand peaking in Oct when the corporate managed as much as eight occasions in a single day. In the meantime, Depart Your Message has participated in over 400 occasions since 2023.

Whereas weddings stay the core income driver, each corporations have expanded into adjoining markets.

Octopus Reels has supported company occasions, birthday celebrations, and group initiatives, together with a significant venture with Sport Singapore for people with dementia.

Equally, Depart Your Message has recorded appreciation messages at firm award ceremonies and took part in large-scale activations just like the Nationwide Day NTUC Youth initiative, the place messages collected throughout establishments have been showcased through the Nationwide Day Parade.

This diversification reduces reliance on marriage ceremony seasonality for gross sales on digital guestbooks—a crucial enterprise technique in an trade the place demand fluctuates all year long.

As competitors intensifies with extra companies providing comparable companies, differentiation turns into particularly necessary.

Therefore, each corporations have additionally diversified past their core guestbook companies. Octopus Reels now provides interactive photograph gallery installations, creating “mini exhibitions” of {couples}’ recollections and low-lying fog results for “strolling on clouds” march-ins. They’re additionally partnering with a neighborhood espresso cart vendor to convey Vietnamese espresso experiences into marriage ceremony areas.

Jessica’s firm, then again, has expanded its digital guestbook idea with a digital video choice, the place company scan QR codes to file messages on their cell phones. This extends the expertise to abroad company who can’t attend bodily.

Will digital guestbooks keep?

Edmund considers video guestbooks an “early-stage pattern,” with the potential to change into an ordinary function at weddings.

However as with every pattern, it may flare up shortly—and fade simply as quick. Regardless of this, Jessica is assured it can endure, not less than when it comes to its core intent.

“The format might proceed to evolve, however the intention behind it, capturing significant messages from family members, will at all times be related.”