Hi Geneve!
Can you recommend some fun
activities to entertain our wedding guests?
Many thanks!!!
Denise Summers
Hello Denise,
I'd love to! Many people simply rely on the DJ
and Bar to be the entertainment or in recent years incorporate interactive
elements like Photo booths and Candy Stations into the mix. With couples
wanting more and more these days to have their wedding be a true reflection of
them and leave guests with memories of a really fun and personalized night they
are getting creative and coming up with even more interactive and fun ways to
keep guests occupied and entertained. Some of the most successful and
popular ones I’ve seen:
CARD/BOARD GAMES: Setting up a Lounge area or simply
some cocktail tables with some stacks of retro board games including ones like
Twister (that’s a fun one once a few drinks have been ingested), Chess, Life
(kind of poignant on a wedding night), Jenga, Darts (suggest the magnetic ones over
the actual darts for safety purposes) & Yahtzee are a fun way to
encourage some post dinner merriment! You would be surprised how much fun
people have with these since they are not typically played in the home as much
as they used to be. Rather nostalgic actually!
GARDEN GAMES: This works best if your venue includes
an outdoor grassy area… Put out games including Horse Shoes, Bocce, Croquet,
and if the space allows for it even a Volleyball Net! Think about the
type of guests you have coming… what would they LOVE to see?!
LATE NIGHT INTERACTIVE SNACK STATIONS: From Sundae
Stations to Assorted Cookies & Milk (think Oreos & Chocolate
Chip Cookies), Candy Stations (this one’s not a new idea, but still fun none
the less), Make your own Mini Pizza Stations and my personal Favourite Gourmet
Grilled Cheese Station with 2-3 cheese and bread options for mixing and
matching (I’ve seen it done with a Chef manning the grill and also a couple
small grills left for guests to self operate – both a ton of fun!).
SCRAP BOOKING/GUEST BOOK STATION: Set up a table with
various supplies like glue, scissors, interesting pens, magazines (to cut and
paste from), coloured markers, stickers, etc. Post signage asking guests
to get creative and contribute to this Interactive Guest Book Mural for the
Bride & Groom. In the end you end up with a fabulous board of
images, thoughts, quotes, & cutouts that tells their story. I’ve
only seen this done once and it was awesome!
At the end of the night they
had an incredible board with pictures of Ferraris (groom had a passion for
them!) and Horses (she grew up competing), photos of landmarks around Europe
(the couple met on a European backpacking trip), pictures of delicious food
(they were huge foodies), and some of the nicest messages and bits of advice
from their guests I’ve ever read! You could also include a Polaroid
Camera and guests can add photos of themselves to the Mural. Lots of
possibilities!
HIRED
ENTERTAINMENT: If budget allows you could always hire entertainment. My
favorites include Slight of Hand Illusionists that mingle with the crowd and
continually blow their minds with a variety of fabulous trickery leaving guests
laughing out loud in amazement and totally baffled.
Another one that I
personally started incorporating into some of my weddings as of late are hired
actors paid to “blend in” with your guests and interact with them in unexpected
ways. The best one we do is “The Drunk Server” who spent the night shocking
guests by doing everything a professional server should not from eating the
canapés right off the serving trays to sipping excessively full glasses of wine
before handing them to the guests, to complaining about his boss/girlfriend, to
returning from the washroom with his fly down and toilet paper hanging from his
shoe, and even sitting down with guests at varying points to enjoy a swig of
“something” from his own hidden flask or a shooter. It was quite the
conversation starter!
After about two hours of this performance the
catering company (who so generously played along as it could be the quickest
way to ruin a caterer’s reputation – haha!) dramatically “fired” the waiter on
the spot! A couple minutes later the band shared the secret with all the
guests and introduced our Hired Drunk Waiter and the crowd broke out into
tremendous applause! It was awesome. The only people privy to the set up
was the bride and groom and a couple VIP guests that had to be told for fear
that they would throw the waiter out before the gig could be revealed! LOL
Wedding
Planner signing off! Until next week… keep those questions coming
in! Submit your questions by emailing us at askaplanner@dreamgroup.ca
Cheerio,
Genève
Genève McNally, Principal Planner, DreamGroup Productions
Genève first
began her wedding career in 1999 as the Catering Manager for one of Vancouver’s
most sought after wedding venues, Brock House Restaurant. In 2004 Genève
and college friend Sarah Shore ambitiously started up what is now one of
Vancouver's longest running and most trusted wedding planning companies,
DreamGroup Productions Inc.
These days,
in addition to working with her clients in a full planning capacity, Genève
focuses her attention on the sales and marketing aspects of the company and is
most often the friendly voice you will chat with when first inquiring with
DreamGroup. Genève is known to inspire and excite both clients and
industry associates alike with her exuberant personality and joie de
vivre! Her ability to be refreshingly candid and her in depth knowledge
of the wedding industry have earned her the friendly moniker “Two-Cents
McNally”. Genève also teaches the Wedding Planning classes offered
through the dg Academy and is the chief correspondent behind DreamGroup's weekly
Blog feature Ask a Planner.
Jayleen Deelman has been with DreamGroup since 2010 and has made her way from our Star Wedding Coordinator to a Dedicated Associate Planner. Jayleen is upbeat, good natured, and always smiling. She is attentive and with her passion for everything weddings she is key in carrying out a fluid and enjoyable wedding day experience. Clients adore her sweet disposition and her desire to make their wedding a memory they will never forget.
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