Wedding Reception Ice Breakers
Posted by Kathy on Jul 09, 2009. Filed under Expert Advice, Music and Entertainment, Planning, Wedding Ideas
Comments (6), Permalink
At your wedding reception, you and your newly minted husband are more than the stars: You’re the common denominator amongst your friends and family. They’re all there to celebrate with you, but you can’t be everywhere at once. So how can you make sure everyone’s mixing and mingling and having a good time when you’re off doing necessary things like getting your pictures taken during cocktail hour?
Here are a few suggestions to break the ice:
- Interactive Guest “Books”: Ditch the same old Hallmark guest book and get your guests involved in creating a memory book, a wedding wish tree, a photo album guest book, or a video guest book. (Have your videographer meet all guests and ask them to extend their best wishes.)
- Photo Booth: What could be more fun than 6 friends hamming it up for the camera? Include silly “accessories” (hats, jewelry, boas) and you’ll have one big old party in a box. (Or out of the box!)
- Mobile Entertainment: Rich Ferguson, master illusionist, is a great example. He strolls around while masterfully engaging people in conversation and then… voilà!, he’s blown everyone’s mind with an illusion that keeps everyone talking throughout the reception. A quality caricature artist—with emphasis on quality!—can add something to talk about as well.
- Bridal Party Social Assignments: Assign tables to members of your wedding party and ask them to visit with anyone who looks left out or bored. Ask the men who dance to invite the single girls to the dance floor. And don’t forget to assign the biggest flirt in your wedding party to flirt with Grandpa. Grandpas love the attention! (My grandpa told me to write that!)
- Ambassadors of Fun: When planning who sits where, try to have at least one “Ambassador of Fun” at each table. This is a guest who’s sure to get everyone else interacting.
- Group Dances: They may seem a little cheesy, but group dances are great for getting your single guests and people who have two left feet onto the dance floor. My son’s horah dance got all my non-dancing (and non-Jewish) relatives up and having loads of fun! Ask your DJ or emcee what dances and songs bring everyone to the dance floor.
- Table-Hopping: Be sure that you and your groom try to get to each and every table to say “thank-you for coming,” and, if appropriate, ask your parents to do the same. You’ll be served your meal first and then you can get up and table-hop while everyone else finishes their meal. A simple acknowledgment to each and every guest can make them feel very special.
And your ideas? We’d love to hear them!
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Comments
How about a scavenger hunt where people have to go find things or, better yet, people, and then photograph them in the photo booth as proof that they’ve gotten that clue. Kind of like the “Amazing Race”, wedding-style…
I will say that we did one party a few years back where everyone was asked to make signs to take into the photo booth with their names and how they knew the guests of honor. Made for cool photos and was a great conversation starter. People were very creative and were meeting new people right and left.
I’ve heard of people doing scavenger hunts for rehearsal dinners and bachelorette parties, but never thought of it for an actual reception! That would definitely get people talking. (In a good way!) And what a cool use of a photo booth…
These are all wonderful tips! You have to ask yourself, what makes an event fun, memorable and helps GET people talking. As “The Ice Breaker”, it is essential to give guests something to talk about, a comfortable reason to meet a stranger and something unique to experience while they wait for photos, wait for a moment to say congrats, etc.
I did a wedding at a mansion in Avila Beach and the photos took over 2 hours. Guests were having a blast walking around, talking and enjoying mind blowing up-close magic! When I go to events, I just do not like to be stuck at my table without anywhere to mingle or anything to do… that’s not a way to start an event off! Entertainment is the key to good times!
This is a fantastic and important blog. SO honored to be included in it!
Rich Ferguson, aka “The Ice Breaker”
Forget about the traditional photo booth. This company (http://www.keshot.com) rents a photo booth that is not a photo booth but that records and then sends electronic postcards via email to the photo booth users and their friends. They user interface, the postcard and photo album are customized. They were at my wedding. It was FUN and a total hit! This is the wedding online photo album
great ideas!group dances are really great.They can be great fun to perform and very entertaining to watch.thanks for these wonderful suggestions…..
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I really like the idea of a photo booth!
I’ve seen a few people recently have a wordsearch on a chalkboard that everyone can join in with.