Your wedding day is one of the most special days of your life. You want a day that represents you as a couple, your values, your history, and a great send-off into your future.
You also want to make sure you have a fun experience for your guests. You want a creative experience that will wow them, make them feel like a part of your day, and have them included in a personal and meaningful way.
You are inviting all of these people to celebrate with you because you love them and they love you. Let’s find ways to make them feel valued and cared for on your special day!
We have hosted quite a few weddings here at Hardy Farm. Over the years we have seen some thoughtful and unique experiences that couples include in their day. We wanted to share some of them with you to give you some ideas for your wedding planning!
Ring Warming Ceremony – During your ceremony pass your rings through the crowd to have each guest pause, hold your rings, and send you happy wishes for your future.
Edible Escort Cards – Spice up your escort cards by making them an edible treat for folks to nibble on while they wait for dinner.
Photobooths – Guests and couples have so much fun in photobooths. We love seeing the creative props, themes, poses, and how much they make people smile and laugh. Add more to the photobooth experience by having people leave you a note with their photo, add it right to a scrapbook, and print out copies and send them to folks when you send their thank you cards. You could even set up a video ‘confessional’ booth and have guests leave you 30 seconds snippets of well wishes.
Interactive Food Stations – We talked about these in our wedding trends posts. We see more couples adding interactive food stations like oyster shucking stations, make your own pizza stations, grazing stations, food trucks and more for a fun way to get food but it also encourages guests to mingle and interact with each other.
Lawn Games – Lawn games are a great way to keep guests entertained and stir up a little competitiveness. Games like croquet, giant Jenga or Connect Four, Cornhole or even Twister would be an endless source of entertainment that could continue all through the reception.
Ditch the Seating Chart – Encourage guests meeting new people who are also important to you as a couple by mixing up the seating chart or offering family style seating. Have your intermingled table share their story of how they met you. Or have your best man do couples trivia and have your guests work together for the answers to the tough questions.
Create a Lounge Area – One of our favorite newer trends is creating a second lounge area away from the main tent or reception area. Lounges encourage small groups of mingling or fun conversations.
Hire a Special Guest – Hire someone to be extra entertainment during your reception – a tarot card reader, magician, a bag piper, an artist to do live painting or caricaturist to draw your guests.
Have a Tasting Bar – Let your guests experience cocktails or treat in a new way by setting up a tasting bar. A bourbon tasting bar or craft beer tasting bar is a fun way for guests to learn something new while having a great time. A champagne toast bar could let guests create a cocktail or mocktail with other champaign cocktail ingredients, juices, fruits, and more. A champagne bar is a great activity post-ceremony and pre-reception while your guests begin to mingle.
Give Out Recognition – Call out some of the people who helped you get here. Decorate the chair of the person who set you up or ended up unintentionally being your matchmaker. Give your bouquet to the couple that has been married the longest and ask them to share some wisdom from their relationship. Create a directional post to call out how far your guests have traveled to join you on your special day.
Solicit Advice – Set up sealed or locked card boxes and ask people to write you a note with advice or a funny story that you will open on special anniversaries like your one year, five years, and ten years.
We hope you will find some of these fun and maybe incorporate something like this into your special day! As always, reach out to us if you have any questions about planning your special day!
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