Family Game Night

About six months ago I met with a couple to discuss the details of their wedding and in our discussion they expressed interest in some unconventional approaches to the reception traditions. I was excited to see a couple so positively immersed in the planning of their wedding. They explained their thought process for the reception and I came to understand that the two were a spontaneous and creative pair (They’d just returned from a ski trip in Colorado). The theme of their reception night was going to be “games”! 

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At the beginning of the dinner hour I explained their “Bean Bag Toss Game” which was a fun deviation from a classic wedding tradition. Instead clinking their glasses to induce a kiss from the bride and groom, the guests had to win at a game of bean bag toss. Moments after my explanation, a gentleman leaped from his seat and grabbed a bag. He leaned back and tossed it through the hole from fifteen feet away. The guests cheered and whistled in an uproar and the couple responded with a kiss! 

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The bean bag game was a success and made the dinner hour unique in its almost competitive quality. The bride and groom knew that some of their guests weren’t quite the “dancing type”. So to offer an alternative to the dance floor, the couple created a Game Table! The table was overflowing with classic games like Scattergories and Yahtzee. After the Bride & Groom dance and the Father/Daughter & Mother/Son dances, the dance floor filled with about %60 of the guests. We danced to a lot of wedding hits in the first half hour (Love Shack, Electric Slide…) and the other guests mingled or played games from the game table!

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The final game of the night was the Dollar Dance—a wedding tradition that doesn’t need a special twist. As Dollar Dances go, this was one of the most fun dances I’ve encountered! The couple made the most of each dance with their guests which made every guest’s dance experience special. I think part of what made the night such a success was the balance in the planning between making things fun for the guests and making things fun for the Bride and Groom. The night was so full of activities and alternatives to dancing that whether guests were on the dance floor boogying or at one of the tables playing Candy Land: they were having a great night!

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