Wedding Games

steamypile

Hey All,

So the maid of honor and I (the best man) have been tasked with coming up with 2 wedding games for the reception. At first I thought they would be some light-hearted "break the ice" type of games (something like "does the bride/groom know their sig-o better than their friends? lets ask some semi-embarrassing questions and see!), but the bride has said she wants them to be something to get the crowd excited, pumped, and out to the dance floor after the cake cutting. The plan seems to be if people naturally migrate out there and get dancing we can skip the games, but if people just stand around or go back to their seats we'll need to get them going. Does anyone have any particular ideas? I have googled a bit, but the types of games I am finding are more just "break the ice" types more so than "get the crowd to the dance floor".

I don't know the maid of honor too well, but I am fine with embarrassing myself if thats what it takes! Thanks guys.

Thundyrkatz

Pay a dollar to dance with the Bride/groom. Proceeds go to spending cash for the honeymoon. Special prize for who gets the most money, something that would get the crowd to try to outdo each other.

Deebaser

I've only heard about dollar dances because I am also getting married soon, but the other thought on those is that they're in poor form because you're asking guests to open up they're wallets and fundraising at as a host.

Also, I don't see how a dollar dance would achieve the goal of getting people up and dancing. It seems more likely that people would queue up.

spool32

Red Rover?

... I got nuthin.

Mojo_Jojo

The last wedding I was at had a couple of good ones. Neither really aim to get the crowd on the dance floor, but I'm not quite sure how such games would work. The second one actually depletes people from the dancefloor.

The first was the bride and groom sitting back to back on a pair of chairs. They take their shoes off and exchange one. Then they answer questions about their relationship by raising one or the other. You start innocent enough "Who make the first move?", "Who proposed?", "Who did the most work for the wedding?" and then move on to slightly more intimate, but funny stuff, "Who prefers to be on top?".

The other needed 13 chairs and 13 players. Essentially it's musical chairs. Each round an object is announced and then everybody leaves their chairs, gets the object and gets back to a seat, but you steal one chair per round. The loser draws a slip from a bowl that has some promise they make to do something for or with the new couple "Invite them over for dinner", "Spend national holiday X together", etc. etc. on a given month. There are only twelve slips of paper so the winner doesn't draw a slip, instead he gets to dance with the bride or groom. You start with innocent/easy items "a watch", "A belt", "a lady's shoe" and move on to trickier things "a bra", "a tampon" and the last one was "a roll of toilet paper" (although we needed another round, so it ended up being "An earn of corn" because we happened to be next to a corn field)


The way that the dancing normally starts is that the bride does her dance with her father. Then with the groom. Then the bridesmaids, best men and so on and so forth join in, and then the music just keeps going with an already populated dancefloor. BAM. Job done.

Enc

If there isn't an obvious game culture among the group, then a game would not be a good way to get people to a dance floor. That sort of thing only has willing participation if there is a history of some sort attached to it.

Other ways are to close off the other room, or place some other object in the next room to draw attention willingly. Working with what you have been given, a good way to get people dancing would be to have you and the maid of honor (and your SOs should you have them) compete with the bride and groom in dancing, and then deliberately not stop after judging is complete. A bit of work on your part, but odds are very good that if two couples are out on the floor having a good time, others will join.

At a wedding, folks are going to follow the Bride and Groom. They are literally the life of the party, getting them animated will do the same for everyone else.

chuck steak

Deebaser wrote:

I've only heard about dollar dances because I am also getting married soon, but the other thought on those is that they're in poor form because you're asking guests to open up they're wallets and fundraising at as a host.

Also, I don't see how a dollar dance would achieve the goal of getting people up and dancing. It seems more likely that people would queue up.

Instead of the couple pocketing the money, donate it to a charity of their choice.

At our wedding (and most of the dozen or so I've been to in the past couple years), instead of the guests tinking their glasses to get us to kiss, they had to come up and make a donation (which we gave to cancer research in my wife's late father's name). Has always been a success.

As far as getting everybody to the dance floor, I don't think games are going to help that. If somebody is a lazy grump or too shy (or whatever the reason) to dance I don't think they will be any more likely to get involved in a public game. When the dance starts just make some kind of an announcement that the couple would love to see everybody out on the dance floor, and play a song that everybody can get into (don't start with club music, or polka's).

Skoal Cat

There are a lot of improv games you can use for get to know you type things, physical warm ups, etc. But a wedding is a party. Start the music and make sure that you grab people to dance with. I assume you know the bride and or grooms friends, right? Are they the type to dance like idiots?

Deebaser

depending on the crowd, a stick for limboing to horrible pop music can be a lot of fun.

But that's not necessarily going to get people on the dance floor.

Skoal Cat

Games that involved dancing are great fun. Jewish and Indian weddings are a BLAST. So many cultures have so many wedding traditions, do they have a not interesting background?
The Poles polka. The Irish drink and do something awesome. Its all good.

flowerhoney

the best way to get people on the dance floor is the music you're going to play. I would suggest that you, the maid of honor, and the bride and groom pick the music out together. Play current hits, play some of the couple's favorite songs, play some party classics, play some slow romantic songs, but make sure you keep the music fresh and lively. If you have a DJ, you could always keep things open for requests as well.

I've never gotten married, but at all the weddings I've been too the part my cousins and I have always been most excited for is the dancing. Unless all the guests are old people and/or socially awkward then you probably wont have trouble convincing people to dance

MichaelLC

Isn't this the job of the DJ?

Assuming it's an alcohol-fulled evening, as all weddings should be, tasks requiring physical skill such as limbo or musical chairs are great for a)Tom Bergeron, and b) practicing your field medic training.

Having said that, I would pick a fun looking couple during dinner and tell them they need to start the party with some Gaga or JLo-style moves. Then tell the DJ separately when they get up on the floor to play some Brahms or something. See. this is why you should leave it to the professionals,

Bagginses

Can't you just do the chair dance? Are the bride or groom really heavy or something?

lonelyahava

Bagginses wrote:

Can't you just do the chair dance? Are the bride or groom really heavy or something?

the chair dance is horrible. and I say this as a heavy girl who's terrified of heights.

Although, the Hora part of the chair dance is a blast and usually the only part of any celebrations that I used to dance to. Great big circle dance to fast paced music that technically has choreography but nobody really knows exactly what the foot movements are supposed to be?

Hella fun time.

Just don't actually put them up in the chair.

Lachrymite

At the last wedding I was at, we played a game where all of the males that were in decent physical shape got up and formed a ring around the bride, locking arms. The groom then had to physically wrestle his way through the huge group to get to her. As guys got tired and gave up their positions the circle shrank until he finally fought his way through. It was a lot of fun, though I'm not sure exactly how safe it was considering how drunk a lot of the people were.

steamypile

Thundyrkatz wrote:

Pay a dollar to dance with the Bride/groom. Proceeds go to spending cash for the honeymoon. Special prize for who gets the most money, something that would get the crowd to try to outdo each other.

I agree that something like this seems odd...are you thinking of the money dance in some filipino weddings? I have seen that and it seems a bit odd. Would be out of place for this particular wedding (chinese).

Thanks so far for the ideas, it's kind of a weird situation thrown at us by the bride. In her timeline, she said "can you have 2 games in mind, we may or may not play the games depending on the mood of the party. You can ask the MC about it after the cutting of the cake bc if everyone is dancing and drinking then no game is necessary." Which obviously can go multiple ways. I interpret the games as a way to liven up the mood and the room and eventually encourage people to the dance floor. Since this is all happening post-cake cutting, something like trivia (even naughty trivia!) would be a strange change of pace.

In my task list of responsibilities, it isn't really highlighted much further ("possibly host 2 games with xxxx during reception dinner, depending on mood of party")

I talked to her as well, and she wasn't terribly more forthcoming on what she actually wanted; just something to "liven the mood".

me: I don't know if XXX asked you, but had a quick q about the wedding games, is the intent to be to liven up the crowd if people are reluctant to get out and dance and mingle? sort of an ice breaker?
or did you want the game to be more fun and laughing with/at the bride and groom kind of thing

XXX: well the games intent was to get people to participate, make a lively atmosphere

me: like a "who knows who better" or "does the bride and groom know each other better than their friends" kind of thing

XXX: but i have quite the list of intricate song list planned- so we might no need it
hmm that could be good
but id like u guys to have it planned- u know in case we decide its the right time
like right after the cake cutting if theres a moment where crowd is slightly dispersed
or something

me: well a who knows who better game is funny i am sure and would make laughs, but it is not so crowd-oriented
so not sure it would be the best to get a crowd pumped up and jumping

XXX: thats why i planned a 2nd champagne train - just in case
dont wanna bring the tone down if u know what i mean...
it works at some weddings, crowd thinks its funny but my wedding really about the party- aspect
so we will see
u can ask XXX- he will know when its best
or if needed
hes done a shit load of wedding

Skoal Cat

Okay, it sounds like she wants you have have a plan B in case her ideas don't work at all. In that case, all she wants is for people to have fun.

acidlacedpenguin

I have two semi-related wedding questions of my own, being a best man in like 3 weeks:
1) how do you propose a toast without any form of alcohol present?
2) how do you get people to have fun when there's no dance and no alcohol present?

I mean, my typical recipe to get any sort of party or celebration going is: pour people in room with approximately equal parts male and female, add alcohol, add music, mix until consistency of fun is attained.

Mogs

At our wedding, the DJ had the entire wedding party come up to the dance floor for a huddle. He told us all that when he gave us the cue during the next song, we each were to go out and grab a guest to bring to the dance floor. We then would tell the person we picked to do the same the next time, and so on and so on. It got everyone out on the dance floor in the span of one song, and even the shy wedding guests managed to dance at least for a few songs after that.

Deebaser

Oh, this is a chinese wedding? Is this a traditional Chinese Wedding? If so, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax. I've only been to two, but they were radically different from your generic western wedding.

Edgie

My brother actually does some wedding DJs, and I just wanted to mention something on the topic of getting people to the dance floor. Aside from having a killer DJ, of course. It simply goes like this: have the brides maids dance! Talk to them, and have them get out there and dance. If guests see the brides maids out there all having a good time, they too will go have a good time.

steamypile

Update: So the MoH and I had a bunch of stuff planned but at the last minute the bride just said we're going to have to drink a lot and get krunk on the dancefloor ourselves, which is fine. So thanks everyone, no game needed, but definitely some stimulating ideas.

Deebaser - Chinese wedding, but not traditional, definitely more western-oriented.