A danceless reception...any ideas for entertainment?

dordtgrl4

So my fiance and I are deciding to skip the dancing part at our reception. We both don't like to dance (perhaps that's one reason we enjoy each other's company so much) but would still like to keep our reception fun and interesting for our guests.
We are already thinking about a photobooth, but we are open to other ideas as well.

Any ideas/suggestions? Thanks ladies!

lyndausvi

It's fine not to have dancing, but I'm not sure you need other forms of entertainment.  I mean sure a photobooth would be fun, but it does not bring more than a few minutes of entertainment.

kliberti

Who says you have to stick with the tradition of dancing?  Where is your venue?  Do you have a theme?  How about games of some sort?

Give us some more details and I'll try to generate some ideas in line with your day-

sperry11

I am in the same boat, neither of us like to dance.

 We love to go to trivia night at a local bar every once in a awhile, so we thought we might have trivia at the reception....each table is a team, hand out sheets of questions that the team answers, and have one round made by me (using movies, music, hobbies, etc that I like, plus facts about me)  and FI make the other list (I am sure it will be sports related)...then they turn them in, we tally the scores and see which table wins!

It may sound silly, but we are really laid back, and I think we can come up with some good questions to get everyone involved.

dordtgrl4

mbcdefg- most of our guests wouldn't dance as well (we come from conservative backgrounds where dancing is frowned upon). Granted we don't have that kind of mindset but we both just don't enjoy dancing because of our backgrounds having made us feel guilty when we did.
I think out of all of our 130 guests, maybe 30-50 would dance. Do you think that's still worth having it? I just don't know.

kliberti- We don't know what to have at our wedding because all the weddings we've been to have had dances and have taken up most of the reception time. We are thinking about a more casual, laidback theme but formal enough that it isn't a party. We are still in the early stages of planning but we are looking at wineries for our venue. Most of them being places like Grand Tradition Estates and Leonesse Cellars. We just haven't gotten that far yet but want ideas so when we meet up with the venues we have a vision for our wedding.

sperry11- I really like that trivia idea! That's a good one I hadn't thought about!

Hope that's a good amount of details. Sorry it's vague, that's how mixed up we are! I've also googled ideas about a wish tree-a tree on which people hang up wishes they have for us, a photo scavenger hunt where people have to get pictures of certain things at our reception and the first person to get all the picture wins a prize, and other things such as a caricature artist and a slideshow of pictures from birth to now. Has anyone used these before?

Thank you ladies for your comments. They help me get to thinking!

LizLemmel

Mine will be the same probably as it's gonna be in a church where dancing isn't allowed...nor do he and I really care much about dancing.

I don't know about trivia...it can be a little cheesy.  I mean, it's okay to do it maybe alone at the tables if people want...but I don't know how a big group thing would be unless you have a very small intimate wedding.

One idea I had, and I'd also like some feedback on this, is to get a music artist to play a few songs (about 3-4 songs). 

The biggest caution that I have for myself, and others considering danceless receptions, is trying not to be corny. 

Any thoughts that apply, gals? 

mookleberry25

This may seem corny but..My aunt had a murder mystery.. it was actually really fun...you didn't 'quite' know what was going on until you got a little into it.. I thought some of the people were just really strange relatives or friends lol...

The venue that she had it at put it on and it was great...it took up the whole night pretty much and we barely even noticed there was no dancing..maybe that would be an idea?

glam70s

We're not having dancing either, but we're having a Sunday brunch reception, so I don't think anyone will want to dance at noon on a Sunday. We're just trusting that our guests are adults who are capable of entertaining themselves through chatting and mingling. We're also not expecting the reception to be very long, though.

tborecky

I think one good idea would be to put a small box of photos on the table... With pictures of you and husband from childhood until now. I think it would be a great conversation starter!

tborecky

Also, a buffet might be a good idea so that guests can really get up, mingle and walk around... Then again, it depend on whether or not you want it casual and laidback or more formal. Hope this helps!

kristenrmu22

We purposely aren't having dancing because we don't care for dancing and none of our family dances. We want to spend real time with each other and with our families. I hope nobody (guests) mind the lack of dancing since it is one of the most common elements in weddings today but we just aren't feeling it.

megandjay

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_danceless-receptionany-ideas-entertainment?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:5Discussion:ca8e6f7d-c30b-4126-9ec3-cd9a9d61ba2bPost:1b9716c0-fc5d-4d78-a125-4d2229690bdb">Re: A danceless reception...any ideas for entertainment?</a>:
[QUOTE]All you need is good food and good music in the background.  Everyone will entertain themselves just fine with that.  I promise!
Posted by StageManager14[/QUOTE]

I agree. Either use a DJ or maybe string quartet or Jazz duo or Ipod, to play some background music. Also agree with PPs that having food stations (to keep people moving around) would help the flow.

I don't think you need to have dancing or 'entertainment' per se.