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reception activity ideas

lizelwelllizelwell
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in Wedding Reception Forum
my fiance and i are planning a june wedding and we want a sort of fun easy-going atmosphere.  we are not super sure we want dancing (outside of the traditional dances, bride/groom, bride/father, etc).  we are still not set on the venue which makes the planning a little tricky but i am still brainstorming ideas. i would love for the ceremony to be outside and the reception to be in a renovated barn type space.  i need ideas for what to do at the reception instead of a dance party.  some possibilties i'm already thinking of are: photo area with my polaroid and a chalkboard to write on/props; cupcakes and an ice cream bar; and my fiance mentioned corn hole so maybe that plus, crochet, horse shoes.. i'm not entirely sure. i want it to feel like a fun party bringing our family and friends together and i want them to have a great time but i also don't want it to become so casual that is doesn't feel like a wedding.
hope that all makes sense, any ideas/advice would be great! thanks!

oh and we are on a tight budget!
~elizabeth hope
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Re: reception activity ideas

  • sister2groomsister2groom
    First Comment
    Your ideas all sound great. S'mores maybe?
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  • emmmbeeeemmmbeee member
    First Comment
    At my cousin's wedding her and her husband sat in chairs in the middle of the dance floor with their backs to one another.  They took off their shoes and each exchanged one a piece (so that the groom had one of his brides shoes and one of his and the bride had one of the groom's shoes and one of hers.)  The DJ then asked the bride and groom various questions about their relationship, things like, "Who said I love you first?" or "Who made the first move in the relationship?" and the bride and groom would hold up the shoe of who they thought it was.  It ended up being really entertaining and cute.

    This isn't a really big idea that would involve all your guests but I thought it was a neat idea to share anyway.  (Since you mentioned you were worried about it still feeling wedding-like, I thought it could be something fun that you and your FI could do that would empahsis that.)
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  • lizelwelllizelwell
    First Comment
    that's a really cute idea! thanks to both of you  : )
    ~elizabeth hope
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  • sb9411sb9411
    First Comment
    Sounds really nice and fun.... I think that people would enjoy playing the games. I think wedding bingo could be fun too... :-)
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  • SeptemberFall2011SeptemberFall2011 member
    First Comment
    will you have kids?  you could do a candy bar and have butcher or colorwonder paper cover tables so they can color and draw and eat candy to their heart's content (that is what I am doing) A friend of mine is doing a reception similiar to yours and she's including a trampoline! 
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  • ILoveSnellyILoveSnelly
    First Comment
    We are doing something similar with the no dancing, and we are having game tables with easy games that don't require instructions like jenga, checkers and connect four. We are making a lot of the games out of simple wood and glue with a few stain colors for a unified look to the wedding and so we can oversize them to make it a bit more whimsical.

    We also had the idea before we decided on a venue, and we were also gonig to have croquet, horseshoes, a beanbag toss type thing, oversized tic tac toe, oversized checkers, and if we could find pieces cheap enough oversized chess (like 6ft x 6ft boards with ribbon staked into the grass) We were also toying with the idea of badmitton. (mostly for the kids)

    Unfortunately there isn't a lawn like space at our venue to use, so we are using the tables instead but you could do both.
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