20th Aug 2010
Getting Your Wedding Guests Together
Getting your guests mingling at your wedding reception can be a tough call. If you are expecting lots of guests, you will want a large space: hall or barn wedding venues are ideal for getting everyone in, but can often give them too much room to spread out into ‘his’ and ‘hers’ groups, rather than mixing together to uphold that whole ‘union’ theme of the day. Consider these ways to help everyone to get to know each other on the day and join in the ‘union’ spirit:
Seating plans
If you’re having a sit down meal, give thought to how you mix groups of people – this is the one aspect you do have a bit of control over. Think about personalities rather than sides of the family, and you stand a good chance of giving people the chance for a really enjoyable meal with good company that isn’t just your own!
Have a special event which ‘includes’ everyone
For example, at a recent wedding meal, the couple having announced that they would only kiss at the reception if guests came up to the ‘open mike’ and sang a bit of a song with ‘love’ in the title. This appealed to the whole gambit of guests: small nephews, grandpa, best friends, work colleagues: a public sing-song is a really entertaining ice-breaker and created shared moments, giving many guests the openings for conversations with each other later on in the proceedings!
Get them dancing
Consider a skiffle band or barn dance band and caller instead of disco or cover bands. A professional caller does not need much priming to not only get everyone up on the floor, but will also get everyone mixing as they dance: lots of swapping of partners and fun moves that make it impossible to stay on the sidelines or to stick in just one ‘camp’ – two members of different families have been known to meet and fall in love themselves this way! Barn wedding venues particularly can create the ideal atmosphere for this.
So, a few ideas well worth considering if you want to be a little more abstract in your wedding theme and concentrate on ‘togetherness’ for your guests as well as yourselves on your special day!
Other articles you might like;
Leave a Reply