Any ideas for a reception with no dancing?

Miss45

My fiance and I are both in the church and we will not have dancing at our wedding reception. We do want to have some fun, so I was thinking we could have some type of games our guests could play.  Any suggestions?

busmana

if your wedding is in the summer you could set up games like ladder ball, a bean bag toss, horse shoes and similar outdoor summer games

melb2013

Have you thought about doing more of a cocktail party.  I'm not sure if you are planning on alcohol, but you don't have to have alcohol to have a cocktail-like party.  I think they are very sophisticated as long as they are at a proper time of day, such as in the afternoon- before dinner and after lunch.

melb2013

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_any-ideas-for-a-reception-with-no-dancing?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:80782716-2842-4e50-9aad-eab5f04b63faPost:46fae36e-4007-401c-924a-772303051a40">Re: Any ideas for a reception with no dancing?</a>:
[QUOTE]Dancing is not required at a reception.  Just have your reception, and let people talk to each other.  I hate weddings where the music is so loud you can't hear the person sitting next to you. Daughter had dancing at her afternoon reception.  Almost nobody danced. except the bride and groom.  I don't think you need to worry about entertaining your guests.  <strong>Just have food, drink and light background music.</strong>
Posted by CMGr[/QUOTE]

<div>I second this.  </div>

tori99999

We are having an afternoon ceremony followed by a reception dinner with a piano player in the background (no dance space)... then we're having an "afterparty" into the wee hours for those younger ones that want to dance and party but those that don't feel comfortable with that are free to part after the dinner and they've been a part of our day.  

vexie

We didn't have a dance either.  We hosted our reception at a fantastic restaurant so the focus was on the food (dinner took over 2 hours to eat )  We spread the speeches out in between the courses and just allowed the guests to mingle/eat/drink for the evening.  It really was lovely.    The evening will end earlier but there's nothing wrong with that either!  For reference.... we had a 'entrance' around 5:15pm, had our first dance (that was the only dance of the day), cut the cake for pictures then started dinner.  Everyone started to leave around 8:30. We were one of the last to leave and were in our hotel starting the honeymoon by 9:30