7 ways to keep your wedding guests Entertained

Keeping your guests entertained can be a tricky line to cross, you want something fun and that’s in keeping with your vibe without being cheesy or being too much like forced fun. But last year I saw from my couples some new ideas, fresh takes on wedding staples and then some recurring classic forms of entertainment…

Guest Bingo

Last year was the first time I had seen this as a way to keep wedding guests entertained during cocktail hour- the premise is there is a bingo card that guests pick up and then have to find a person that ticks the box, eg. Owns a dog.

Great way to get people to mingle outside of their groups, fairly cheap, a laugh with the right crowd and super simple concept. 7/10

Musical Entertainment

Having a musician come and add some atmosphere is a Lovely way to add extra entertainment to your drink’s reception. Whether you choose a pianist like Nigel Hammond, a guitarist or string quartet, music always goes down a treat which is why it’s such a classic idea. I particularly like it when musicians do songs the couple love or have a fresh take like a emo music but done in a jazz style.

Fun, has so much range to be personalized, lots of options to suit your vibe. 8/10

My recommendations on people to hire- Nigel Hammond (shown above), Josie Derland (Vocalist who plays an awesome mix), Lily Kerbey (Guitar and Vocals, very popular with elder emo’s )

Mouse Hunt

Yes, you read that right. Last year I had a couple who hid little mice (one of the couples’ favorite animals) all around their venue, then they put a sandwich board out so people could record their finds and sweets as prizes. The result not only were the mice super cute but they started popping up in jacket pockets and on the dance floor.

Lovley and quirky, you can make it harder or easier depending on the size of mice, doesn’t have to be mouse specific, relatively cheap to enact 8/10

Prizes that need a key to be unlocked

Stay with me here, at a gothic wedding last year guests entered and were welcomed with a table of drinks to help themselves to and a bowl of keys (I can confirm it wasn’t that kind of party). Stupidly I thought nothing of it and neither did the guests, with the theme being so elaborately done they may have thought it was part of the fun. Then I started to notice all these cages with padlocks on them; some had bottles of fizz, others chocolates. At no point was there a formal announcement made about the keys or cages but after dinner eventually more and more people cottoned on and soon there was chaos as people darted around the venue trying different keys with different cages- it had me in stiches and kept the wedding guests entertained for ages!

Awesome fun, super different, takes a fair bit of organization and you need to get the padlocks, cages and prizes but totally worth it 100/10

Kids Tresure Hunt

At the same wedding as the keys, the couple had a table of young people, all of who had a box in their place setting full of sweets, and a letter… From there they were on this treasure hunt which took them to finding objects around the venue, solving puzzles, finding cryptic clues in the table chart, these peeps were not bored and were off their phones for hours. It was just as I was packing down at the end of my time that they found this literal treasure box with, you guessed it, another padlock on!

Amazing fun for young people in particular, fell right into the theme of the day, guests enjoyed watching them as much as they enjoyed doing it, looked like a lot of work had gone into it. 7/10

Photo Booth

This is another wedding entertainment classic, possibly bordering on cheesy, but if you can’t be a a wedding when can you! What I liked about the specific wedding last year is the could had all the props and costume personalised to their theme so it felt super fun- plus with a photo booth there’s an extra memento for your guests by way of their printed photo. Would always recommend having them for the evening when people are feeling sillier.

Fun, organized by a hired supplier, loads of choice that means you can have a booth that suits your vibe. 7/10

Pub Quiz

If you’ve had a look at my ‘About me’ page you’ll know that I LOVE a pub quiz, so I was really jealous I didn’t think of this idea for my wedding. In practice the couple put envelopes with the questions on each table, which the guests then filled in as a team during the dinner. Then after the meal the couple went through the awnsers and gave out prizes for the highest score!

Easy way to engage the whole table and get people to talk to each other, could be personal to your or just fun and silly, fairly easy and cheap to execute, but may not be everyone’s cup of tea. 8/10