Planning your wedding? Your focus is probably on the venue and other arrangements like catering, entertainment, photography, flowers, and so on. Have you considered livening things up by filling the gaps with games for your guests? Keep those guests entertained in the ‘down time’ with fun games and activities to get your guests away from their phones. Including at least one wedding reception games at your celebration can really make the big day a lot more interesting and entertaining both for you and your guests.
Fun wedding reception games are good because they help guests mingle and socialise, they enable people to break the ice, and are ideal for creating an atmosphere that is fun and friendly. There are plenty of fun ideas for wedding you can choose from.
Check out our list of 13 wedding reception games perfect for livening up any wedding and get those guests socialising:
1. Get Creative with Lego
Everybody loves Lego, and there are even sets for adults. This game idea works best when you also have children attending your wedding. Invite your guests to build their own unique Lego centrepiece and assign a judge who will announce the winner at the end of the night.
2. Jenga (Giant or Regular)
A classic one, the block-stacking game Jenga is perfect for outdoor wedding receptions and only needs a flat area like a tabletop. Jenga also comes in giant-size, perfect for grassy areas. Want to stand out? If you like DIY wedding ideas, you can ask a hardware store to cut some lumber into 54 block-size pieces that you can paint and customise however you like.
3. Badminton
Badminton can be a professional sport as well as a fun game. We all have played it at least once but we usually ignore this simple activity than enables us to have fun and exercise at the same time. Why sit idle at a wedding when you could exercise your agility, improve your fitness, and put your reflexes to test? Badminton also has the advantage of being easy to set up, as the equipment is quite affordable. For playing at night, lace twinkling lights into the net and the wedding reception games for guest will go long into the night.
4. ‘I Dare You’
Do you sense a couple of bored guests sitting at the table? Challenge them with dares such as busting a new move on the dance floor, taking a selfie with a funny face, or kissing the person on their side.
5. Bride and Groom Trivia
It’s your day, so don’t be afraid to be the centre of attention. Create a list of trivia questions about you and your future spouse and ask for guests to answer. The DJ or a wedding guest can read the answers. Offer a prize to the person at each table with the most correct answers.
6. The Wedding Shoe Game
The wedding shoe game is probably the most popular wedding reception game. The bride and the groom are seated in chairs back to back. The groom holds one shoe of their own and one of the bride’s, and the bride vice versa. Someone reads the questions out loud for everyone to hear, and the couple raises the shoe of the person who is best represented by the answer to the question. Examples of questions are:
- Who made the first move?
- Who is a better dancer?
- Who has the better shower singing voice?
- Who is more likely to fall asleep during a movie?
- Who has more clothing?
7. Hopscotch
This fun game is easy to create and will enable kids and why not, adults, to burn off some energy. You can draw it with chalk if the party is outdoors or you can use paper tape or paint that is easy to remove for an indoor reception.
8. Connect Four
Use an oversized version of this classic game to attract both kids and adults. The rules of this game are very easy: try to build a row of four checkers while preventing your opponent from doing the same. Not only do you need to create your row of four, but you also need to block the opponent’s moves!
9. High Striker
This old-fashioned carnival game will never lose its appeal. Guests can’t help it but wait their turn to wield the mallet and prove they are the strongest.
10. Word Search
Use a chalkboard to set up a word search game. Write the individual letters in permanent paint and provide chalk for circling words. To make the game more interesting, include personal trivia about the bride and the groom so the guests find out new things about you.
11. Board Games
Not everybody likes to dance and some guests may prefer an activity that is quieter. Provide your introverted guests options like Chess, Scrabble, Monopoly, Checkers, Clue, or the Settlers of Catan and they will have lots of fun at your wedding instead of feeling uncomfortable and exhausted.
12. Picture Hunt
Send your guests a scavenger hunt challenge consisting of a list of 20 wedding moments they need to photograph. Such moments can be the bride and groom kissing, somebody proposing a toast, or group selfies. Offer a prize to the person submitting the largest number of photos and enjoy more pictures with the most important moments of your wedding.
13. Musical Chairs
Would you like to see your guests scrambling for chairs? This hilarious wedding reception game consists of progressively removing chairs and asking people to sit down when the music stops. The person without a chair is disqualified and the winner is the one who manages to keep a chair until the end of the game. Just make sure you don’t play musical chairs after a drinking game!
Don’t Forget to Provide a Designated Kids Table
If your wedding is going to be family/kid-friendly then it is a good idea to offer some fun options for them. Otherwise they will get bored which tends to lead to mischief, which can then disrupt the entire event. Plan ahead by creating a kid’s table or designated area where they can do fun activities such as colouring in, playing with Lego, playing giant tic-tac-toe, or even breaking a piñata (you might want to opt for low sugar lollies on this one!).
If you’re planning an adults-only wedding, research local child minding services for your guests to make use of. Speak to your venue about your plans for the big day, they can offer up entertainment ideas, find local vendors and recommend quality services to make your life easier.
Villa Botanica is a Whitsunday wedding venue perfect for a wedding day your guests won’t forget. Expert planners and a stunning destination wedding location, Villa Botanica is a beautiful outdoor venue consisting of 5 acres of lush, landscaped garden, along with its own private stretch of beach.
Villa Botanica is the perfect Queensland wedding venue for you to enjoy exclusively for the entire day, as we only schedule one wedding at a time. You can bring all your friends and family together to celebrate, make memories and enjoy quality time. Just tell us what your wedding dreams, goals and ideas are and we can help you make them reality.
