If you’re looking for ways to make a wedding party unforgettable for guests of all ages, you’ll not only need a fantastic music playlist, fabulous décor, delicious food, but a couple of fun wedding games and activities too. Yet how do you get and keep guests engaged in these activities? The fact is most of YOUR time will be spent with the rest of the wedding party getting ready, taking photographs, changing outfits, or making the meet & greet rounds. Luckily, you have booked a professional wedding DJ/MC capable of facilitating a wide-variety of fun ice-breakers, bride & groom trivia, interactive experiences, and more!
Pre-Ceremony & Guest Arrival
Arriving for a wedding ceremony can be a hit or miss experience depending on the guests’ affiliation with other guests. At this moment there is a good chance that the wedding couple and their closest friends and family are getting ready, nowhere to be found. The bare minimum here is a selection of light music at a volume that supports conversation while entertaining those with more limited social connections. Offering friendly greeters and ushers would be a plus, provided they remain focused. Could these ushers be equipped to provide guests with an evening itinerary or event program? Could the program include photos and short bios of those in the wedding party or even other guests if not all guests? This offering could remove a fair amount of guesswork and even break the ice between two parties that could have otherwise had little or no interaction. An even more extravagant idea would be to have a red-carpet arrival complete with a photographer and/or have the emcee announce the arrival of each guest or party as they’re seated by the ushers. Putting each of these ideas together or building upon these concepts with ideas of your own could easily serve in supporting an interactive tone for the rest of the evening.
Cocktail Hour Activities
Having a Guest Book is a great start, but how about a Photo Booth complete with a Scrapbook Activity? Guests have put almost as much energy into looking fantastic as the wedding party has. Help them capture their cleaned-up moment while leaving a heartfelt congratulatory message for the bride & groom. They’ll receive a print to keep, another will accompany message within the scrapbook, and a backup will be saved to a flash-drive along with all those photos that didn’t make the book. It never fails these photos get more fun throughout the evening.
Depending on the location of the Photo Booth it may not be the first stop for every guest. However, there is one secret approach that works every single time – Get the Kids Involved! Children LOVE activities especially when they’re found in the middle of a predominately adult party. It never fails, once the kids are having fun with something all those adults must know what all the fuss is about. Whether they wander over to check it out or find themselves dragged over by their own kids the activity will be overrun by adults in no time! This is especially true for a Photo Booth which generally results in a triangular flow of guests between the Bar, the Booth, the Dance Floor, and repeat.
Cocktail Hour is also a great time for Wedding Bingo, a game that encourages mingling. Guests must take their card around to find someone in the room who can claim “that’s Me!” given the clue provided. While playing cocktail hour music your emcee can explain the game and offer prizes to those who complete their bingo. A twist on this game is adding squares more fitting for another game called “I Dare You” which encourages wallflower guests to participate in particular activities. If you were to replace the “Free Space” with “Visit the Photo Booth”, then suddenly anyone looking to win Bingo would have no choice but to get the booth fun going.
Dinner Activities
How dinner is served determines the amount of time available for a game or two. Regardless, there is no harm in trying to keep guests’ attention on the point of this party. Bride & Groom Trivia is a fantastic dinner game. Guests can fill out their sheets at the table while awaiting service or between courses. Later, the emcee delivers the correct answers and the guest with the most points takes home their table’s centerpiece!
Provided the Bride & Groom are served first / finished first, the “Shoe Game” is a fun way to reveal their answers to a different quiz. The couple sits back-to-back and trades one shoe to each other. Newlywed style questions are read out by the emcee. Examples would be “Who said I love you first?”, “Who made the first move?”, and “Who is more likely to be running late?”. The couple raises either their own shoe or their partner’s shoe in answering the question. Add a twist to this game by assigning points to guests who correctly guess what the couple will say.
Party Activities
Many people love to dance but maybe even more just can’t and still some definitely will not. If you’re hoping more people will stick around for some of the party, you might be interested in activities other than just dancing. How about having your DJ/MC orchestrate a game of Twister on the dance floor? While the wallflowers may not join in at least they’ll be thoroughly entertained. However, if you’re looking for a game they’ll come out and play then how about an all-inclusive game of Giant Jenga or a Cornhole Tournament? Ultimately, anything fun aside from dancing that is also entertaining to watch will keep those more introverted guests from leaving early. Work these games in between the standard formalities of a bouquet toss, garter toss, first and special dances, then after the cake is cut and served you can safely transition into that late-night dance party.