One of the most interesting things you can do in planning a wedding is come up with some kind of entertainment for the guests at the reception. Traditionally, this is pretty much limited to conversation and dancing, and there’s some value in this. After all, you want everyone to hang out and have fun together rather than be distracted by random activities. Even so, however, a little bit of side entertainment can provide options for people who may not love to dance, can make the party more dynamic, and can ultimately make the whole wedding more memorable. So with that said, we’ve come up with four unusual ideas for wedding reception fun.
1.) Silent Disco
This sounds like a ridiculous idea, and it looks like one too when you check it out. But the idea is simple and quite a lot of fun, in a playful way: every guest gets a pair of headphones, all playing the same music, and everyone dances – even though the venue itself is more or less quiet. These quiet events were making a lot of noise a few years ago when they first came on the scene but they’ve remained fairly popular alternative party ideas and can make for a very different kind of wedding reception. Of course, conducting the entire reception this way would be a little awkward, but having the dance floor set aside as headphone-only is one idea, or you could simply designate an hour after dinner for the “silent dance.” One thing people tend to find, somewhat inexplicably, is that more people are inclined to dance with this style of party. Go figure, but it makes for a fun event!
Photo: Pixababy
2.) Scavenger Hunts
It goes without saying, you don’t want your guests wandering around the venue the entire time you’re busy celebrating your marriage. People tend to congregate in fairly close quarters, and it’s for the best for the social aspect of the occasion. However, there’s something to be said for organizing scavenger hunts for each individual table. They can take off one by one chasing clues, bonding together (as wedding reception tables so often do), and perhaps locating some crucial elements to the reception, such as their own party favours or different parts of a bouquet to be tossed by the bride. You can arrange this one pretty much however you like, and it does take a fair amount of effort, but it’ll also be a memorable aspect of your wedding.
3.) Casino Games
Having a casino game-infused wedding sounds sort of distracting, but it’s actually pretty feasible to have a corner set aside for gaming, just as you have a bar set aside for drink orders and a dance floor designated for dancing. The obvious play is to hire a dealer or two to wheel in legitimate poker tables and let the guests sit down, perhaps even betting real money if everyone is agreeable to it. However, you can also get creative with gaming options these days. With a few tablets on display, you can tap into the free game selection that exists in the online slot community, and you can more or less do the same with roulette, blackjack, etc. That’s not to say you want guests sitting in front of tablets all night, but being able to rope in games like these provides more of a total casino atmosphere that can be a lot of fun for people to move in and out of.
4.) Mazes
This is a really difficult idea. Plus, most of us haven’t really thought about mazes since we were kids. But look through some awesome hedge mazes and you might not be able to get the idea out of your head. Of course, a proper hedge maze has to grow over time, but if you have some financial means and you’re resourceful enough you can come up with a makeshift alternative – even if that means bringing in rows of cheap potted plants and perhaps stringing white lights along them to make them more uniform as maze walls. One really fun idea, depending on the arrangement of the venue you choose, is to actually make guests travel through a maze to get to the reception and find their dinner tables. No one’s going to forget that!
Photo: Pixababy
Feature Photo: Muneeb Syed on Unsplash
