Hi. This is a wonderful resource. Thank you so much for going through the trouble of maintaining it.
As you may have imagined, I have a question in regards to my reception. Our church ceremony is at 6:30 and the reception begins at 8:00pm, and then goes until 6:00 in the morning. So, as you can tell this is quite a long party. Generally, I think it should be okay, we have a pretty fun group of people and everyone loves to dance, etc. I think I might even get 1/2 the people to stay until 6:00.
However, after about 12:30 at night there really is nothing to do but dance. So, I was hoping to break it up with a couple of activities in order to keep people interested. I saw this done at a friends wedding and it was a wonderful success - unfortunately, most of the activities were in German so I did not understand what was going on and could not begin to repeat them.
We do not have money (or time) to plan for cariacature artists or magicians or anything of this sort... but would really like to have a couple short activities that all of the guests can enjoy, but won't turn the reception into a child's party.
One idea I had was to have the bridal party come up and answer questions about the bride and the groom. I am not sure if it would be better to do this as a bridesmaids vs. groomsmen type of thing, or if it would be better to give a centerpiece to the individual winner.
There are also other times when I would like to do short activities, but really have no idea what to do.
Finally, from about 5:30 in the morning (or so) I would like to do some type of wind down activity (maybe 5:30 to 6:00 or so), in order to transition smoothly to breakfast (which will be provided at 6:00am.)
We have a DJ that could direct these activities, etc. but I don't want to simply leave the activities up to him. I would rather have some ideas to present.
Any assistance that you could offer me in this matter or any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank YOU for such nice comments regarding the site. The owner and forum participants work very hard to provide this wonderful resource and it's nice to know that all the hard work is appreciated.
Since you're going to have such a fun group of people, maybe the following suggestions might help.
1) Do some audio visual later in the evening, to allow people time to rest from dancing. Maybe have a power point presentation of images, video, with music background, could include a story of how you met, or comments from friends and family who are not able to attend. For those not able to attend, you could have them send a picture of themselves and an audio clip message for you to include. You could allocate a good 30 minutes to an hour for this section, and have it viewed around 2:00 a.m.
2) Have a pinata filled with coupon books, you know the $5 coupon books that kids sell to raise money etc., or filled with $1 lottery tickets. See about buying two pinatas, shape of a donkey and an elephant, and allow people to vent their frustration regarding our political process. hahahah. Do the pinata such that another person can control the height and movement, so there will be plenty of fun and movement involved.
3) Create teams of three people and spend an hour doing charades, perhaps pick a theme if you want.
4) At one reception we hosted, which was held outside till the wee hours of the morning, the bride and groom supplied inflated mattresses with colorful blankets and lots of cushions, and torches for low lighting, for those guests who wanted to rest for an hour so or who were just too tired to dance, but wanted to be relaxed and chat. Depending on your location, you might consider offering this, as chairs can be pretty uncomfortable after 12 hours. If not mattresses, then consider the very large cushions on the floor.
5) Consider hiring an experienced festival face/body painter, similar to those at Mardi Gras, etc. With almost every wedding event we do, we include face painting as part of our service. A lot of time the dresses are sleeveless and backless, and provides a wonderful opportunity for me to paint feather masks on their face and continue the design down their neck and arms with climbing roses, and such. Henna design painting is getting very popular as well.
6) Perhaps some skits, similar to the comedy show hosted by Drew Carey "Whose Line is it Anyway", using some funny props etc. Copen Cabana DJ Audio Visual Production providing Custom Wedding Coffee Table Photo Book with DVD Services http://www.knowareland.com
reception activities
