7 Fun Wedding Entertainment Ideas You Haven’t Heard Before
Looking for a fun way to keep your wedding guests entertained all night? No one wants to throw a total snooze-fest wedding or bore their guests to tears. Get inspired by these exciting entertainment ideas!
From bounce houses and circus performers to mechanical bull rides and wedding video scavenger hunt — I went on the hunt for real brides and wedding experts’ most favorite and original ways to make sure that your wedding is the party of the year! Read the tips for real brides and wedding experts below, and take a gander at our nifty new “7 Fun Things To Do at a Wedding” infographic at the bottom!
1. Choose Unique Wedding Music and Dance Entertainment
Brilliant Book More Brides pro, Stephanie, had the awesome suggestion to give a DANCE LESSON at the reception, “Hire a dance instructor to teach your guests an easy fun dance they can do together. Get extra fun points by tying it into your ethnic background or personal interests with a story…You want all your guests to be able to participate and enjoy, so keep the “lesson” portion under 10 minutes.”
Stephanie also suggests including all guest into a family or ethnic TRADITION, “This could be a dance, a sing along or an event. Helen and Ying had a traditional wedding ceremony, followed by a traditional Chinese tea ceremony with the bride in a red qipao and groom in a dark blue robe. A skillful and humorous narration explaining the origins and meaning created a rich, entertaining experience for the guests.”
What about the know the whole wedding band vs DJ debate? Here’s a third option: DUELING PIANOS!
2. Have a Scavenger Hunt to Honor Your Guests and Cherish those Memories!
Your guests traveled from all over to attend your wedding. Let your guests really get to know each other by offering clues and having them find the guest who traveled farthest, has been married longest, etc. Have them offer wedding advice along the way, and truly make it entertaining.
When they film it all for your wedding video, you’ll be able to cherish those candid memories in the years to come!
The videos we got back were so much fun to look through, and the pictures from everyone: EPIC! It was so much fun to see our guests enjoying themselves through their own perspectives of their own photos and videos! Also, I got a fantastic video of our day! – Mandi
3. Channel Your Inner-Kid
“I had never been married and my husband was a widower with 2 boys who were 8 and 11 at that time, said Sister Eden co-founder and real bride Lori. “Since the wedding was about the creation of a new family, we invited a lot of the kids’ friends, too. It made a lot of sense since we are friends with most of their parents! We ended up with 37 kids under 18! To keep them entertained, we had a GAME ROOM with a ping pong table, air hockey, 2 video games and a popcorn machine. We even had special lighting to create a mood like an arcade…. adult could use the game room, too, and some did!”
According to Andy Ebon of Wedding Marketing Network: “While every guest wants to be entertained, the very notion runs counter to keeping the focus on the bride, groom, and their ceremonial agenda (specific dances, cake cutting, photo opportunities, etc.,)…I recommend choosing a photo booth from the vast array of style options (retro photo booth, open photo booth, photo lounge… including props). It’s an optional activity, facilitated throughout the reception… It doesn’t interfere, or compete with, the official reception photographer, and is much cooler than a selfie.”
4. Pretend Your Wedding is an Action-Movie
Kimberly Friedmutter, life management expert for OK Magazine, featured wedding entertainment to please any adrenaline junkie: “Everyone loves to perform and feel special so my husband and I hired a HELICOPTER to ‘buzzzzz’ the wedding prior to my walking down the aisle to video and take photos from the air of our outdoor extravaganza . . . the pilot got the guests riled up and excited by saying over the loud speaker ‘Are you ready for a wedding??? Put your hands up and wave because YOU ARE ON CAMERA!!!!! AND NOW IT’S YOUR TURN TO SHINE!’ Needless to say, everyone went nuts and the video crew was able to get great close ups of all of the guests!”
5.Your DJ is the Key to a Fun Wedding
Real Bride Bridget gave her two cents on fun DJ games that get guests cracking up: ” Our DJ ROASTED THE WEDDING PARTY with slightly embarrassing stories so our guests could get to know them better…The DJ announced the story of how we met and got engaged from a his and hers perspective. Guests laughed good-naturedly at how stories didn’t quite always match up…”
Of course, what’s a wedding celebration without a couple of drinks? Bridget shared this brilliantly boozy game from her own wedding: When guests clinked glasses for the groom and I to kiss, the person who was identified as starting the clinking had to come up to the head table and TAKE A MYSTERY SHOT. (Some were naughty, some were nice and none were the same.)”
6. Let Your Food Be Your Entertainment!
Image: Photo by Andrew Chan for REAL Magazine
Green Bride Guide provided us with some awesome wedding reception entertainment ideas that involve food and drink! So you get your catering AND your entertainment. The excellently eco-friendly folks at GBG recommended hiring FOOD TRUCKS as you the end of the party you can have dessert trucks (ice cream, crepes, etc.) pull up. Guests then feel like kids getting a special treat.
You could also have your RECEPTION ON A BOAT: A floating cocktail hour with a view of sunset is an amazing adventure for guests. For a super sweet party favor that your guests will actually appreciate, buy CANDY BARS AND EDIBLE FAVORS in bulk. Brides can also put a small local delicacy on every plate as a treat for guests to enjoy at the event or take home.
Did you have some ultra-rad wedding entertainment ideas during your big day? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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[…] To keep them entertained, we had a GAME ROOMwith a ping pongtable, air hockey, 2 video games and a popcorn machine. We even had speciallighting to create a mood like an arcade. adult could use the game room, too, and some did! Looking for an even wilder wedding entertainment idea? Take a note from Tasty Time Architect and real bride Connie: My husband and I married at the SF Zoo in 2008. We had a PETTING ZOO with various animals during cocktail hourand years later, our guests always comment how cool it was to pet a babyalligator or tortoise or get up close to a falcon. We highly recommend it!Its a hit for adults and kids alike. 3. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.storymixmedia.com/weddingmix/blog/2014/07/wedding-entertainment-ideas-2014/ […]
We are having yard games like corn hole, bocce ball, and a ring toss!! Our picnic themed wedding located at a winery with a huge yard seemed to be the perfect place for yard games!
Hi, This is Heather would like to share the views of my friend’s wedding in Sydney one of the awesome wedding ever I witnessed. Soul shack Entertainment has put up the musical show and it was done brilliantly all mixes of music style, We had DJs, jazz quartet, and some classic too. wonderfully organized. Thanks.
If you truly want a unique experience, I am an improvisational poet who can be brought to weddings to perform a personalized poem for the bride and groom (during the toast) and to entertain guests during the reception. Dressed in a Victorian Era costume (special costumes may be requested), children and adults are drawn into a world of poetic creativity. Based on word(s) and phrase(s) provided by them, right before their very eyes (and ears), a unique, unexpected, improvised poetry performance will appear.
“You are amazing. You captured our history and the moment in a very unique and special way. Thank you!”
More info at ImprovPoet.com
Interesting blog. I am sure these ideas make our wedding moment memorable. Superb efforts you put in this post, everybody’s like it and me too. Keep posting.