Wedding Reception Games - HELP!!!

[ballz]

Okay at the end of this month I am MC for a childhood friend's wedding.

I am looking for the funnest things/events/games you have seen done at the reception. Would prefer to get the guests involved if possible.

One game we are thinking of is the "shoe" game, where the bride and groom sit back-to-back, and hold a shoe of their own and a shoe of their spouse's. The audience will submit questions such as "Who is most likely to..." and they have to raise the shoe of who they each think the question/comment relates to the most.

Also doing a similar thing with an "advice" box where audience members submit advice to the groom / bride and we pick a few of the funnies and read them out.

This couple is totally down with toeing the line of appropriate and inappropriate, so please, spill your guts. We just want it to be fun.

EDIT: Oh yes and if you can think of a funny question to ask for the "shoe" game that would be swell.

 

[JSR OP]

We had a clown come in and do magic tricks......  I sh!t you not.  He was a good friend of my wife's side of the family...  It was interesting to say the least...

I doubt that helps you out at all, but it was the first thing that came to mind when I read your post.

 

[Pieman]

Here are some from another wedding. Going to one myself soon, seems like a fun game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yubZktEvvrU

 

[VIChris]

Not so much a game, but it was fun for everyone at our wedding. My wife and I can't stand the sound of clinking glasses, so instead of people doing that to get us to kiss, we had people come up to the head table and make a donation to the Canadian Cancer society. By the end of the night we had about a hundred bucks for the CCS, and there was a lot of smoochin'!

My wife did all the centre pieces for the tables. As a way to decide who got to take them home. We played sort of a musical chairs kind of game. One loonie at each table would pass from person to person while the music was playing. When the music stopped, the person holding the coin got to kick one person at their table out of the rotation. It was ruthless. Husbands nixing wives, kids ousting parents. Lots of laughter for sure.

 

[jwtg]

I've seen a few weddings where, if you wanted the bride & groom to kiss, you had to stand up with someone and demonstrate the type of kiss you wanted them to perform.  Depending on the type of guests you invite, this game can certainly toe (or leap over) the line between appropriate and inappropriate.

OR - Leave an item (a coin, a card, a plastic trinket) at 1 seat at each table (hide it under the chair, in a napkin, in a glass, anywhere).  At any point during the reception, whoever has that coin/item can claim a kiss from the bride or groom.  (Again, the appropriate/inappropriateness of this one depends heavily on your guests....a creeper who wants to make out with the bride might not be the best candidate to receive a coin, but a funny old lady smooching the groom is hilarious for everyone.)

 

[HavokFour]

Have everyone take a drink whenever a verb or adjective is said by the bride.

She cannot know what is going on, however. ;D

 

[BernDawg]

I MC'd a wedding once and during the reception I asked that any one with a key to the Brides apartment please bring it up and drop it off.  I got a couple of weird looks until the "planted" keys started coming up to the table. We went to the local hardware store and asked to buy their screwed up copies for a couple of bucks and they thought it was so funny that they gave them to us for free (about 25 of them) then as people started showing up at the wedding and/or reception we handed them out, very surreptitiously to the guys we knew would play along even some of the older friends of the family types. It turned out to be funny as hell in the end.

 

[OldSolduer]

Have everyone take a drink whenever a verb or adjective is said by the bride.

She cannot know what is going on, however. ;D

OOOOHHHHHH I do like that one!!!!!!

 

[Spanky]

Games at a wedding?  Open bar?  Boat races, caps, yards, etc.  :blotto:

 

[NavyHopeful]

I have spent the last 12 years as a wedding DJ, and I can give you some of the best MC moments of my career.

1.  Do NOT do tinkling of the glasses.  Have them sing a verse from a love ballad, a song with love in it, toast the B & G, or the best I've seen were trivia questions about the B&G

2.  For the speeches, make sure to give a shout out, AT THE BEGINNING, to the catering staff.  They are always overlooked.  Also, if you know the B&G really well, don't do one big speech...  spread your speech out into little sections to use in between speakers.  That way, you can fill in any dead time while people are waiting for the next person to get up.

3.  Save all toasts until the end of your speech.  Don't toast everything under the sun.

4.  The words of advice are a good way to grab a couple of laughs.  Don't be afraid to be cheesy or embarass yourself a little, just don't go overboard.

Some of the best jokes I've ever used as a Wedding MC/DJ:

1.  A new husband is like a new hardwood/ceramic tile floor:  Lay it right the first time, and you can walk all over it for the rest of your life.

2.  8 words every married man should know:  "yes dear, you're right" and "oh, yeah, right, sorry"

3.  A man can either be happy or he can be right.

4.  Tell the bride to let the groom win one or two arguments a month.  It keeps morale high.

5.  After the bride and groom are finished their speech, have them hold hands, groom's on the top.  Then say, "(Groom), that is that LAST time you will ever have thhe upper hand over (Bride)"

Good luck, and just be yourself.  They picked you because they thought you could entertain their guests, and because they trusted you to be their liason to the wedding professionals that will be working there, so make sure you check in with everyone.  Photographers, Videographers, Catering staff, Bar staff, Hall staff, DJ or band, and of course, the Bride and Groom.

Have fun with it.

Good luck!

Chris "DJ Rev" Richards

PS:  I'm the one at the bottom!  http://chriscooperdjservices.com/who.php

 

[dapaterson]

From my experience:  Knowing the audience is key to getting a good response and making a memorable performance.

If the bride loves her Grandma who doesn't believe in premartial sex and thinks married couples should sleep in twin beds (preferably in different rooms) save the blue material until Grandma has gone to bed.

On the other hand, if Grandma has a husband on each coast who know each other and are cool with the golden rule let loose.


Talk to the bride and groom in advance as well.  There may be things you need to know - topics not to discuss to avoid problems, or topics they do want raised.

 

[ballz]

This is all excellent so far, you have all been helpful and some of these ideas are great. I am mixing and mashing some of them together to try and get unique things.

Here is what I think I am doing for sure, just have to work out timelines with the couple to make sure we have enough time.

Introducing the head table (they both wanted to do something different for this, so I ran this by her and we're doing something similar)
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xduf7C2yfxk&feature=related
As one of the comments says, "The whole idea behind the expanded intros is to share with everybody WHO these people are. The bride and groom have picked these people out for a significant reason (bro, sis, cousin, long time friend) so why JUST say their names? THAT would be boring...and quite frankly, what DJs have been doing for years. An expanded entrance sets the tone for the evening and conveys that this will NOT be a boring night!"

To get the B&G to kiss - At any time before the dance, come up and grab me slash get my attention (hmm.. any interesting ways of doign this from the crowd?). I will give you a trivia question about the B&G's relationship (aka "where did Groom propose to Bride?") which will always be multiple guess or t/f.... If you get it right, they kiss, if you get it wrong, you have to pop one of the many balloons I will have set up. Inside the ballon will be a task written on a piece of paper (the task might be "sing a verse from a love song" or "tell a story about..." etc etc etc). You must execute the task (of course the audience can sub-in...) in order to get them to kiss.

I will definitely pass around the two shoe boxes for people to submit advice. One for the groom, and one for the bride. At random times for fillers (or all at once, haven't decided yet), the GROOM will read a piece of advice for the BRIDE, and then the BRIDE will answer back with a piece of advice for the GROOM. (Because hearing the G say to the B, "you should let me be right twice a month because it helps keeps morale high" should make the delivery itself funnier, agree?)

We will definitely play the "newlywed/shoe" game.

We also have a few surprises planned in all this... The bride (who's an AMAZING singer/musician) is going to sing a song to the groom (which he doesn't know about), and let's just say some is in for a surprise when they catch the garter and realize it's not a garter... ;D Hopefully that goes viral on youtube.

 

[NavyHopeful]

If you can, get a hold of a kabuki launcher.  Any DJ service worth their salt will have one you can rent for a few dollars.  This always makes the "garter toss" a little more interesting, especially when paired with a Mission: Impossible theme, or a Magnum PI theme...

also, If you can get the DJ into it, get the groom to take the garter off with his teeth, while blindfolded, and have the bride plant a pair of "grandma's bloomers" under the garter for the added humour factor.  Did this at a few weddings (B&G were both on board for this gag) and it went over HUGE!!!

And, as always, check with your B&G to see if it would be deemed appropriate.

I hope it does go viral, and if it does, send me the link.  I'd be happy to show it to the DJs I work with.

Rev

 

[dapaterson]

I've also seen the bride and groom reverse roles on the garter / bouquet, with the bride taking a garter off the groom.  Legs not quite as nice, but humour factor elevated.

 

[mike63]

I've been to a few weddings where, every time someone shows a tattoo, the bride & groom have to stand up and kiss.  Now the length of the kiss is determined by the size of the tattoo.  I have 11 of them ranging is size so,  all I did was show one tattoo, they get up and kiss and then sit down, then show another one, they get up and kiss and then sit down, usually the crowd will let them know when to sit down....it could take a while and some people (mostly the women!) don't mind you stripping down to the waist to show them all off.