Boring Wedding? How to Get the Party Started

Liven up a lame wedding with fun and games

You picked the place. You invited the guests. Now, how do you get the party started?

Dear Wedding Guru: “I’ll get right to the point: both my family and my fiancé’s family are pretty stodgy. They all come from New England ‘ancestry’ and are stiffer than a broom handle. I’d like my wedding to be a happy, joyful affair. Can you give me some ideas about how I can liven up my party and get the guests to let down their hair?”

(Our answer on next page)

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The Wedding Guru says: The unfortunate thing at most weddings is that the bride’s family doesn’t know the groom’s family. In some families, they don’t even know one another. Distance and different interests, professions, and backgrounds all work to make for a pretty tough crowd. But, there are ways to loosen things up in addition to, or in lieu of, an open bar with lots of liquor flowing! For much of this, you can rely on a professional MC who’s dealt with this issue before and who can help get your guests in sync with what you want done. If the MC isn’t getting any results, then you or your groom may need to make the requests of your guests.

Consider Musical Chairs around each table, pulling out one chair in each round, with the winner getting a token gift. Here’s another way to get your guests to meet each other: write the name of your guests on index cards, shuffle them, and hand them out to each guest. They’ll have to find the person whose name is on the card. (Genius, right?)

Here’s one more: put a jar of marbles on each table and place a piece of paper at each setting. Ask your guests to guess the number of marbles in each jar. (Remember to count each jar first!) The winner at each table gets to take home the flowers.

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