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Reception Entertainment Ideas

hannah_perezhannah_perez member
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in Wedding Reception Forum
We will be having a small outdoor wedding and reception (50 people) with a rustic garden theme. Our reception will be appetizer only. I REALLY do not want there to be dancing, but I was wondering if that would be too boring of a reception since it will not include a full meal. Does anyone have cheap ideas on how to keep my guests entertained? I would like to have music at the reception. We are on a very tight budget so I am wondering if it is worth the cost to hire a dj?
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Re: Reception Entertainment Ideas

  • OurWildKingdomOurWildKingdom member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    If you have a device that streams music and a decent speaker or two, that’s all you need. That’s what we did for our ceremony music; the music was on my phone, and we used one of our housemate’s Bluetooth speaker.
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  • missJeanLouisemissJeanLouise member
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    knottie9f840aab70e72beb said:
    We will be having a small outdoor wedding and reception (50 people) with a rustic garden theme. Our reception will be appetizer only. I REALLY do not want there to be dancing, but I was wondering if that would be too boring of a reception since it will not include a full meal. Does anyone have cheap ideas on how to keep my guests entertained? I would like to have music at the reception. We are on a very tight budget so I am wondering if it is worth the cost to hire a dj?
    As long as you are having your reception at a non-meal time not having a full meal will be just fine. As far as extra entertainment, you don’t need any. Food, alcohol, and people are the basic components of every party, music is good too. All attendees have something in common and half of them may know each other already. Adults don’t need games and tbh neither do children, but a few bubble wands go a long way. If you really wants games, I suggest bags (corn hole).

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  • MobKazMobKaz member
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    I answered you on your other post.  Please include "XP" in your titles when you are asking the same question on multiple boards.

    At what time is your reception?  If it is in the morning or early afternoon, I might not necessarily expect to find a DJ or be up for dancing.  What is the time frame from the beginning of your ceremony to the end of your reception.  If it is meant to be brief, then conversation, background music, and good food should be enough entertainment for adults. 
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  • short+sassyshort+sassy member
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    I left a response on your other post.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
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  • MesmrEweMesmrEwe member
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    XP's are appreciated when posting to multiple boards...

    What the others have said - first making sure it's during a non-meal time if you're only serving apps.  Honestly, as a guest of an event like that I'd rather have upgraded apps than entertainment at all.  
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  • knottie63dc540deb6fdcb9knottie63dc540deb6fdcb9 member
    First Comment First Anniversary
    To keep costs down look at local community boards and groups where you will find lots of entertainers looking for work locally.  Many will be music students and happy to perform for an hour or two at weekends and will be less expensive to hire than some of the so called professional wedding entertainers found on large agency websites.
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  • maine7mobmaine7mob member
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    My daughter was worried about having a boring wedding, too. She had a brunch reception because her wedding was in the morning. Her husband is a composer, so had lots of musician friends, and hired a Celtic group to play. We got a few lawn games, but they were mostly used by the kids. The adults entertained themselves by talking to one another, eating, and drinking. 

    If you are having a few kids attend, get a few games, but otherwise, your guests won't need anything but good food, good drinks, and one another.
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  • knottiee07c0adc814469ebknottiee07c0adc814469eb newb
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    People always look forward to having a good time, apart of that is music and dance so yes a DJ would be a good way to do that! We hired a local DJ and he made that dance floor pop all night long.
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  • MRDCleMRDCle member
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    knottiee07c0adc814469eb said:
    People always look forward to having a good time, apart of that is music and dance so yes a DJ would be a good way to do that! We hired a local DJ and he made that dance floor pop all night long.
    The OP does not want dancing. 

    OP, I agree that just a speaker with a nice Spotify playlist would be good for some background music. There are a lot of great instrumental covers of lots of recognizable songs that party-goers would know but wouldn't be necessarily motivating them to get up and dance. 
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