Questions, answered.

A hardcover cookbook written by the people who show up: to a wedding, a shower, a birthday, a graduation. Each guest sends a recipe and a note. We collect them, design the book, print it, and ship it. It lives in the kitchen and gets stained. That's the point.

Usually one person: the maid of honor, the sister, the mom, a friend. You don't need design skills or free time. You share a link and the rest happens on its own. You can also run one for your own occasion.

1. Share your collection link with the people you want in the book: WhatsApp, text, email, whatever you use.
2. Each guest submits a recipe and a note. About five minutes each.
3. We clean everything up and design the book.
4. You review every page, then send it to print.
5. The hardcover shows up at your door.

A guest book gets signed once and goes in a box. This one gets opened on a random Tuesday because someone wants the lasagna recipe. Same people, different shelf life.

Starting is free: creating the event, inviting people, collecting recipes, watching them come in. You pay only when you print. One copy is $169. The price per copy drops as your group orders more: $129 each for 2 copies, $113 for 3, $103 for 4, $95 for 5, and $89 each from 6 on. Shipping to one address is included.

At the very end, when you close the book and send it to print. Not before. No deposit, no subscription, no card on file.

Everything except the printed book: the event page, the collection link, and reminders to guests. You collect everything first and decide about printing later.

That's how the price is built. The book is usually a group gift: several people chip in and each keeps a copy. The per-person number you see is exactly what each person puts in. One person checks out; the group settles up however it normally does.

Then you pay nothing. The recipes stay saved in your account in case you change your mind later.

Yes, anytime. Later orders work exactly like the first one: one copy is $169 and the price per copy drops the more you print together, down to $89 each from 6. Separate orders don't combine, so the cheapest copies are the ones the group orders together, before the book closes.

We create them. Guests only send the recipe. Our recipe-to-image technology reads every component of the recipe (the ingredients, the technique, the dish itself) and builds an image as close to the real recipe as possible. It's not 100% perfect and it can miss a detail, but we work to get every image as true to the dish as we can. The images are created after you pay and close the book, not while you collect.

A link arrives in their messages or inbox. From there, two ways: they type the recipe out, or they take a photo of it wherever it lives (the handwritten card, grandma's notebook, the back of an envelope) and upload that. They add a short note, and they're done. About five minutes. No app, no account, no password. It works on any phone, tablet, or computer.

Even better. They can send the takeout order they'd defend with their life, or the sandwich they get every single time. It's not about being a chef. It's about being in the book.

Some won't on the first ask. That's normal. Your dashboard shows who's in, and you can send a reminder to everyone who hasn't with one click. If it's a wedding, you can also import your guest list straight from Zola or The Knot, so nobody gets left out.

Yes, and we set it for you. When you pick the date you want the book in hand, the recipe deadline lands about three weeks earlier — the time it takes to print and ship. You'll see the exact date the moment you create your event, and you can move it from your dashboard.

Captains are the people who collect with you: the sister, the cousin, the other bridesmaid, whoever's good at this. You invite them, and each captain gets the same dashboard you do and gathers recipes right alongside you. The work spreads out, so it never sits on one person.

At least 25 to print, and 50 are included in the price. Most books land between 30 and 50. If your group goes over, you can add more.

Yes, any language. Abuela's recipe stays in Spanish if that's how she wrote it.

Yes. If someone hands you a recipe at dinner or texts it to you, you can add it for them from your dashboard.

Yes. You can edit every single recipe yourself from your dashboard, any time before you close the book. After you pay, we also run our own clean-up pass (amounts, steps, typos) before anything goes to print.

Because the images don't exist yet. While you collect, each recipe shows up as text (plus anything a guest attached, like a photo or a PDF). Our images are created after you pay and send the book to print, so you never see the finished book before it arrives. That's by design: the first time anyone opens it, it's a surprise. Even for you.

Completely normal. One person writes “1 cup,” another “1 cp.” Some use bullets, some dashes, some one long paragraph. Leave it all as it is. After you pay, we clean and standardize everything into one professional cookbook: same format, same structure, every page. We never touch the essence or the words of a recipe, just the formatting. You won't see that step happen; the standardized version is what arrives printed.

A hardcover, 8″ × 10″, printed in full color on heavy satin paper, with a matte cover. Every recipe gets its own page with the contributor's name and note, plus an image we create for it. Built to live on a counter, not a shelf.

Yes. The cover has two lines you can make yours: the headline (ours says “Recipes from the people who love you,” but you can write your own) and the title: the couple's names, the graduate, the birthday person, whatever the book is for. You can also add one photo of your own. It goes in the opening pages, inside the book.

We do. Recipes arrive messy: half-remembered amounts, “a pinch of this.” We clean, edit, and format every single one to the same standard, so the whole thing reads like one professional cookbook instead of fifty different notes.

They'll change a little, on purpose. We clean and standardize every recipe so the book looks professional and consistent, without losing the essence: the dish, the voice, the weird family steps all stay. This happens after you pay, so you won't watch it happen; the standardized version is what shows up printed.

Because we review and format every recipe to the same standard. We don't change what's in a recipe (the ingredients, the steps, the words stay), we just standardize the style so all of them match and the book reads like one professional cookbook instead of fifty different notes. So it's normal to see some differences between the text you collected and the printed book. That's the formatting pass, and it's what makes the finished book look like a real cookbook.

Not the designed book, no. You see and can edit every recipe as text before you close the book, but the layout and the images are created after you pay. The first time you see the finished book is when it arrives. That's by design: it keeps the surprise, even for the person who organized it.

Expected. Half of home cooking is “until it looks right.” We edit for clarity and keep the voice, and you can review and edit every recipe's text before you close the book. And some recipes just aren't perfect. That's the point of this book.

Both happen. Most books are organized as a gift, by the maid of honor, the mom, the sister, the friend group. Some people make one for their own table. Same book either way.

The shower, the bachelorette, the rehearsal dinner, the graduation lunch, the birthday: any moment where the people are actually in the room. It lands harder when it can get passed around the table.

Give yourself six to eight weeks before the day you want to hand it over. Collecting takes a few weeks (people need a nudge or two), and printing and shipping take about three more. Starting earlier never hurts.

Yes. The link goes to the guests, not to the person the book is for. Whether it's a surprise is your call. Plenty of groups keep it quiet until the day they hand it over.

United States and Mexico.

Collecting is up to you. Most groups give it a few weeks. Once you close the book and send it to print, it's at your door in about three weeks.

Included, always. Every order ships to one address, and the price you see covers it.

Only your group. The book isn't public, there's no feed, and we don't post anything. The only people who ever see it are the ones you invited.

We use them to send the invitation and reminders for your book. That's it. No newsletter, no marketing.

Yes. Write to us and we'll delete the event and all its recipes.

Email team@smallplatesandcompany.com. A person answers.