After the Tone FAQs

FAQs for audio guestbook
Not seeing
your answer?
Visit our Help Center or drop us a line and we’ll hit ya right back. Who knows, we might even TikTok about it.
HELP CENTER
CONTACT US

Introduction to After The Tone

Here's How It Works: 

  1. We ship you a vintage phone of your choice.
  2. Place the phone at your event—no WiFi or power needed.
  3. Guests record funny & heartfelt voicemails.
  4. Send it back in the same box with the prepaid return label.
  5. In 72 hours, access your messages online, or upgrade to a USB or Vinyl record for a timeless keepsake.

Can’t have everyone at your event? Let them call in!

Our Virtual Guestbook Service gives your guests a designated phone number for your loved ones to call in from their own cell phones/landlines, and leave heartfelt messages. It also includes a shareable web page that has a little blurb of how the virtual service works, pictures of you and your partner, and your special event phone number!

The webpage and dial-in number are active for around 1-2 weeks and once the line closes, our editing team will edit that audio to the end of your event phone audio, providing you with an updated audio file! HERE is an example of the web page.

To learn more, read our Article on the Virtual Guestbook Service.

To view our products and prices, head to our PRICING PAGE

See a list of our prices below:

Audio Guestbook Service - $249 USD
Our Audio Guestbook Service is our flagship service where our clients can rent and display one of our vintage rotary phones for their event to have their guests record voicemails to! Each Audio Guestbook rental is designed to cater a single event so if you would like to use your phone for multiple events just reach out to us to discuss your options.  

As our phones are not available for purchase, after your event, your phone is to be placed back in the mail within 72 hours using the return label included within the box. Once received back at our facility, you will receive an email from our team informing you of our current voicemail delivery timeline. From this point, our team works their magic! Your voicemails are offloaded, edited, and a digital version of your voicemails will be uploaded to your online portal!

If you would like to rent multiple phones for your event the cost is $249 for each vintage phone. Should you require 4+ phones for your event, please email us at help@afterthetone.co so we can discuss any custom bundle options for your event.  

Virtual Guestbook Service - $79 USD
No need for the full phone setup? Go virtual and keep it easy, or combine the phone and virtual options so everyone can join in. Virtual Guestbook is our virtual dial-in service where you are provided with a designated phone number for your loved ones to call from their own cell phones/landlines and leave voicemails too. It also includes a web page that has a little blurb of how it works, pictures of you and your partner, and the voicemail phone number! It is active from the date that it is delivered, until about 1-2 weeks after your event date. Once the line closes, our editing team will edit your audio into a mastered voicemail file. Your voicemails are then uploaded to your client portal to listen to, share, and download! Or preserve them on a Custom Vinyl for a keepsake you can relive for a lifetime.

If you decide to use both of these services simultaneously for your event, your guests that are present at your event can take advantage of our rotary audio guestbook phone included with our Phone Guestbook service, in person. Meanwhile, those who were unable to attend can leave you a message via your Virtual Guestbook service! And after your event, our editing team will edit all of your voicemails, from both services, into one voicemail file for you.

Set-up at the Event

Absolutely! Our phone guestbook service includes a cute set of instructions with all the deets on how to set up your phone. Don’t worry, it’s super simple (just the press of a button!).
Feel free to turn it on and test it out before your big day. If you need, the instructions also include a link to how-to videos or the option to set up a walk-through call with a team member.

Absolutely! Our phone guestbook service includes a cute set of instructions with all the deets on how to set up your phone. Feel free to turn it on and test it out before your big day!

No! Our phones are completely wireless and require no outside connection to work, which means they can be placed anywhere! They are powered by rechargeable lithium batteries which allows the phone to record for up to 12 hours, and we also provide you with a charging cord if you want to use the phone for multiple events during your rental period!

Not to brag, but our audio quality is pretty dang good. While it’s best to leave the phone in a quieter area of your event (as some background noise might get picked up), unless you’re literally right next to a speaker, your audio should turn out just fine.

Here’s an example of a voicemail recorded in the same room as a DJ:

 

No! We will send you every voicemail that is left on our phones for you to cherish forever!

Leaving a voicemail is special all on its own—don’t overthink it! Just speak from the heart, and it’ll be perfect. Need a little inspiration? Check out our guide: 6 Ideas for What to Say in Your Audio Guestbook Voicemail

Booking the Guestbook

We have bookings as late as December 2026 currently - so we always recommend sooner rather than later to ensure availability!

However, should your event be in less than 2 weeks and not available on our website, just email us (help@afterthetone.co) for details on how we can accommodate your last minute booking!

Our phones arrive 3 - 14 days prior to your event date, depending on inventory. If this timeline does not work with your event please reach out to us and let us know an ideal date you would like to receive your phone by!

We currently only ship within the USA 🇺🇸, Canada 🇨🇦, and Puerto Rico 🇵🇷. If you're trying to do a destination wedding, please see the next question below.

Count us in for your destination wedding bash (our phones love to travel ✈️),  just order soon. We currently only ship to the USA, Canada, and Puerto Rico, so please make sure to order the phone with enough time before your event so you can travel with it to your destination. Once you've returned, ship it back to us, and we’ll handle the rest! Easy as 🥧.

Our team has designed custom signage templates in Canva, so you can choose your favorite and easily personalize it with your name and event date right here! Or, if you’d like something a little more custom-crafted, we have acrylic signs available for purchase in our audio guestbook sign shop to perfectly complement your event aesthetic and color scheme!

After your Event

Super simple! To return the phone, all you have to do is pack it up in the box it originally shipped in. Please include the foam to keep the phone protected during travel. We include a prepaid shipping label for you to add to the outside of the box (pro tip: if you can’t find the label, check under the foam!). Once it’s packed, just drop the package off at your local UPS.  We kindly ask that you please return the phone within 72 hours (3 days) of your event.

We ask that you return the phone to the specified postal courier within three days after the event.

You will receive your voicemails within 72 hours of us receiving the phone back in the mail! Vinyl records take roughly 2 weeks to be completed and shipped once audio is approved by the client.

No! You will receive every voicemail that is left at your event. The only time we will ever remove a voicemail is if there is hate speech being used.

Once your phone is received back at our facility, our team begins to work their magic! Within 72 hours of receiving your phone back you will receive an email/text letting you know that they are ready!

A digital version of your voicemails is included with any of our guestbook services. It will be accessible via your client portal to stream, download, and share via our Shareable Social Player! If you would like your voicemails on a physical format, we offer two add-on options.

USB Memory Stick - $25
A branded USB flash drive housing all of your voicemails to save for a lifetime. Our production timeline for our USB Drives is 1 week.

Custom Vinyl Record - $149
A custom vinyl record, cut in-house at our Costa Mesa, CA headquarters, with all of your voicemails on it to listen back to with the nostalgic touch of vinyl. Our production timeline for our Custom Vinyl Records is 3 weeks after approving your audio on your client portal and submitting all required assets. Our Custom Vinyl Records hold a total of 40 minutes of audio (20 min/side). Should your final voicemail edit exceed 40 minutes, you can either cut down your voicemails to fit or purchase an additional vinyl record for $100.00.

If either of these items were not part of your original order, just let us know as they can be added at any time before or after your event!

Yes! Regardless of which add-on you select; we will always include a digital file for you to have for download and in your customer dashboard.

No it is not too late! You can add on the Custom Vinyl Record in your Customer Dashboard at any time, whether you booked our Phone Guestbook service, Virtual Guestbook service, or both!

Voicemail Guarantee

The After The Tone Voicemail Guarantee ensures that you’ll receive voicemails from your audio guestbook at your event, or we’ll refund you - simple as that. Weddings and events are one-time occurrences with no room for error. We stand behind the quality and reliability of our service, believing it is the best in the industry, giving you the peace of mind that your memories are in safe hands. This guarantee reflects our commitment to delivering a worry-free, premium experience for your special day. See our rental agreement for more specifics.

We’ve heard horror stories of people using equipment that is not reliable and can ruin what should be an amazing experience for their wedding or event. As the market leader in the audio guestbook space, we take pride in offering the highest quality service and product available. Our authentic vintage phones are thoroughly refurbished for reliability, and our technology ensures crystal-clear recordings with best in class audio quality, all paired with a personalized white-glove customer experience from start to finish. With over tens of thousands of successful events and thousands of glowing reviews, we’ve set the standard for the industry. The Voicemail Guarantee is just one more way we ensure your event memories are preserved without compromise, and are proud to offer it - knowing that others simply cannot.

Not all companies offer this level of assurance. At After The Tone, we’re proud to lead the industry in quality, service, and customer satisfaction. Our Voicemail Guarantee highlights our confidence in our product and service, ensuring your event runs smoothly without any worries about equipment failure. We know that weddings and events are once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and we want our clients to feel at peace knowing their voicemails are safe in our hands.

If you encounter any issues, our customer support team is available 7 days a week to assist you in real-time. From troubleshooting setup to answering last-minute questions, we’re here to help. With After The Tone, you’re never alone—we’re dedicated to ensuring your event is a success.

5 star review icon

50,000 Happy Customers

50k+ Happy Customers
READ ALL REVIEWSIllustration of heart
5 star review icon
Jun 30, 2025
We used After the Tone for a charitable fundraiser where we placed a phone booth people could enter in to in order to leave a meaningful message in support of those that we serve in the ALS Community. After the Tone could not have made it any easier for us to make this possible. Love this company and this concept!
READ MORE
Holly Miller
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jun 30, 2025
Super quick and easy delivery. Self explanatory directions come with the phone. This was a hit at our wedding reception! Our guests left us with over 20 minutes of fun memories to listen back on.
READ MORE
Lauren Horan
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jun 30, 2025
Highly recommend After the Tone! We used them for our recent wedding and everything was seamless - early delivery, clear instructions, and we received our audio file within days or returning the phone. Our guests loved it and it was so special to hear their voices after our big day!
READ MORE
Zoe Gepfert
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jun 30, 2025
This was really amazing ! I love it
READ MORE
Shade Ramsahai-Martin
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jun 29, 2025
After the Tone was such an amazing experience not only for us, but for our guests! Everyone loved the aesthetic and the unique idea of having an audio guestbook at our wedding. We definitely recommend it!
READ MORE
Ashley Rodriguez
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jul 16, 2024
Worth every penny. Hearing the party going on in the background while people are leaving messages put us right back to that day. The unexpected messages are also very hard to beat. It's super approachable and easy to understand for the guests and After the Tone makes set-up and return shipping so easy. We loved having it at our wedding. It's a sneaky additional activity for guests to do if they're not partying on the dance floor. If you decide to get After the Tone, our one piece of advice would be to leave a message for yourselves in the future. We wish we would have done it.
READ MORE
Zofia Pietrowicz
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jun 29, 2025
GET THIS PHONE FOR YOUR RECEPTION! You will NOT regret it! I had no idea how big of a hit this would be with everyone. Genius product. Straight up genius!
READ MORE
Heather Bergstedt
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jun 29, 2025
We just finished listening to our voicemails and truly the best idea we could have done for our wedding (as I write with my cheeks filled with tears). Listening to our loved ones voices means so much more than reading it on paper - 10 out of 10 recommend for every bride and groom to be.
READ MORE
Paula Soto
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jun 29, 2025
This guest book was absolutely amazing!! It was so fun to listen to on our honeymoon(: the phone was so vintage looking and such a fun unique addition to our wedding.
READ MORE
Brianna Sims
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jun 28, 2025
This was so fun to have at the wedding and worth every penny! I love going through and listening to everyone from the wedding. Definitely recommend.
READ MORE
Courtney Soule
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jun 27, 2025
My husband and I had a wonderful experience with After the Tone at our wedding! They were always prompt and professional in addressing our questions, and were flexible when we needed our phone to arrive a little earlier than the default timing. The whole process was simple and straightforward, and we know we will cherish the recordings we got from our guests for years to come.
READ MORE
Katherine Burns
Verified review
5 star review icon
Jun 27, 2025
Such a fun way to remember your wedding!! Get it!
READ MORE
Sara P
Verified review
Left Arrow
Right Arrow
After the Tone Vinyl Icon