January 4, 2024 • 22 mins
If you’re not planning fun activities for your wedding guests, you are missing out on one of the most important pieces of wedding planning!
Lately (and I mean for the last few years) my friends have been telling me how dull they think weddings are. And who can blame them? It’s annoying as heck to sit around for 2 hours while the bride and groom do photos at a venue in the middle of nowhere, where there’s no access to food or water (or drinks). Not to mention that not everyone enjoys dancing for 4 straight hours after dinner! Wedding activities are changing because people are expecting to be entertained more, and yes, this day is still about you, but there are some very easy ways to make your guests feel appreciated, while you are still the star of the show!
I’m going to encourage you to look at this in three different ways:
• Have a fixed program
• Have activities that can be done at any time
• Find your own spin on traditional wedding activities
You can find the full list of wedding activities here: https://joyfactorweddings.com/wedding-activities-that-will-make-your-guests-go-wild/
Highlights:
00:01 Intro
01:30 How to not have a boring wedding
02:01 Getting the vibe right
03:58 The three things to consider for your programming
05:53 Fixed activities
09:08 Unfixed activities
12:20 Putting your spin on traditional activities
20:02 Wrap up
If you found this episode useful I’d be so grateful if you followed and shared this episode with a friend, or your fiance! If you have questions about staying present and I’d be happy to share what I know to help, drop me an email at emily@joyfactorweddings.com! I’ll be back next Thursday with another wedding planning episode, so until then keep it joyful!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You're listening to Joyful Wedding Planning your
spot for de-stressing andrelaxing while you plan your
wedding.
You might be thinking is thateven possible?
Well, heck, yeah it is.
I'm your host, emily DeCluv,founder of the Joy Factor
Weddings and Events, and I'mhere to help you plan the
wedding of your dreams joyfully.
Whether you're a DIYer or adelegator, this podcast will
(00:26):
help you find the Joy Factor asyou plan your wedding.
If you're not planning superfun activities for your wedding
guests, you're missing out onone of the most important
elements of wedding planning.
Hi, I'm Emily DeCluv.
I'm the founder of Joy Factor,a wedding and events planning
(00:48):
company based in Toronto servingcouples globally.
I drop new podcast episodesevery Thursday, so make sure you
follow wherever you'relistening to your podcasts,
cause I love helping people plantheir weddings joyfully.
Anyway, we're gonna get into ittoday.
So lately, and I mean, like thelast couple of years, all of my
friends have been saying to meEmily, why are weddings so
(01:10):
boring?
Like you, just stand there forhours.
What's supposed to be acocktail hour While the bride
and groom are getting photosjust turns into people standing
there staring at each other,waiting for something to happen.
No chairs, nothing to look atno music, like seriously.
Some of the weddings that we'veall been to in the past few
(01:30):
years have been a little bit shyon the entertainment factor.
I've even been to weddingswhere you just kind of have to
sit there and wait until thefood comes out for like literal
hours.
Meanwhile you're starving,especially if you're in the
bridal party.
You're like all I ate today wasa granola bar because I was
helping my friend get into herdress and you can't have granola
(01:52):
bars around a dress.
Yes, it's unfortunate, but itdoes happen.
So I want to give you a fewdifferent ways today to help
your guests feel likeappreciated and like they're
having fun at your wedding andlike this is like an actual fun
time.
So they're going to leave andthey'll be like that was the
greatest wedding I've ever beento, versus like I couldn't wait
(02:12):
to get out of that wedding.
Nobody wants to be that weddingand believe me when I say I've
done many a budget event.
I know how to throw a reallygreat party on a budget.
So a lot of these options thatI'm offering you today are very
budget friendly.
They just require a little bitof creativity and a little elbow
grease on your part, but theyare so much fun, okay, let's get
(02:35):
into it.
Okay, before I share some ofthese activities, I want to like
highlight why I think it'sreally important to put a lot of
work and effort into this.
So I'm in a comedy troupe calledBig Chick Energy Sketch and we
put on shows all around Toronto.
So if you're looking for a fundate night, please, my friend,
come join us, enjoy the day,enjoy the evening with us.
(02:57):
We put together a lot ofridiculous sketch.
Comedy also makes for a greatbachelorette party.
So we've performed at a fewshows that we didn't produce,
where the host has been, shallwe say, a little lackluster.
And now, if we compare that toyour wedding MC, for example, it
just kind of like sucks all ofthe energy out of the room.
(03:18):
Like you know, when you go toan event and the person's not
speaking into a microphone andthey're like really quiet, and
then they just kind of standthere and they shuffle like this
, they don't really make eyecontact with anybody and it's
just kind of uncomfortable.
We discovered through being atsome of these unfortunate shows
(03:39):
that like this can really makeor break your event.
This can make or break yourwedding.
So it's really important tokeep the energy and the vibe
super high throughout yourwedding, because otherwise that
just makes other people, likeyour guests, feel uncomfortable
or feel like, oh, I don't knowif I really want to be here
because it's not well thoughtout, it's not well planned.
(04:01):
You're not really putting yourguest experience at the
forefront of the day.
Okay, granted, I completelyunderstand this day is about you
, but I don't know many coupleswho don't want to give their
guests like a fun time and likemake their guests feel like, wow
, that was a great experience.
Oh, my God, I had so much funat this person's wedding.
(04:22):
So I'm going to share with you acouple of different things to
consider when you're planningyour programming and all the
different activities for yourwedding.
Okay, number one is have afixed program.
So these are going to be thingslike staple things, like your
ceremony or your first stands orlike just really specific
things that you know arehappening at a specific time.
(04:45):
The second element of yourprogramming is to consider
unfixed activities.
So these could be things thatpeople do on their own between
fixed activities.
I like to think of it as liketry to plan a fixed activity,
maybe like one per hour onaverage, and it doesn't have to
be like including absolutelyeverybody, because not
(05:05):
everyone's going to want toparticipate in everything, but
having something happening atleast once per hour the shorter,
longer durations is a good wayto keep the energy flowing and
the energy moving throughout theentire wedding.
Now, the activities that areunfixed, that can happen at any
given time.
These can be like somethingthat you like, a scavenger hunt
(05:27):
card that you pick up and youcan like move around on your own
time and and search fordifferent things.
You can leave it, you can comeback to it.
It's like it doesn't requireyou to be at a specific place at
a specific time, but it'sentertainment.
So it feels again like, oh,there is something for me to do,
and then finally think abouthow you can throw your own spin
(05:47):
on traditional weddingactivities.
So, for example, instead ofdoing a first dance, my husband
and I decided to make our firstfilm together, because we like
to make films together and thatwas a really great way to
include everybody.
So they're not just likestanding there watching us dance
which, if you want to do that,that's great.
It just wasn't the vibe for us.
We wanted to make everybodyfeel like they were part of the
(06:09):
whole wedding, like they're sospecial to us, we want them to
feel like we couldn't have donethis without them because we
need them to be in this film.
So think about different waysthat you can put a spin on a
traditional wedding activity.
I'm going to give you somesuggestions towards the end, but
first let's talk about yourfixed wedding activities.
(06:30):
So, as I said, these are goingto be activities that happen at
a specific time and you want tostart out by planning like the
big things and then filling inwith little things.
So big thing being yourceremony, your first dance, your
toast, whatever those bigthings are that you know 100%.
Like if this isn't in mywedding, I don't even want to
(06:51):
get married like a ceremony thatmight be a thing to include in
your wedding.
So then you want to plan all ofthe little extra pieces in and
around that.
Ok, I'm going to read you alist of really cool fixed
activities that I came up withtoday One group photo to grand
entrance, three toasts separatefor bride and groom, separate
for parents and bridal party,and all of those.
(07:16):
You could have a cornholecompetition.
This goes for any sort of likeyard game or whatever.
If you want to have like aspecific time where it's like
we're going to have the throwdown championship right here,
right now, and it's a fun wayfor everyone to watch the bride
and the groom do something silly.
You could do karaoke at aspecific time, like maybe later
in the evening, from 10 30 to a11 30, but it's a specific time.
(07:38):
You can have a comedian, youcan have a live performance.
Live entertainers come out.
You could do a live band, adrag show, improvisers, dancers,
hula hoopers, fire breathers,circus performers the list goes
on and on.
There are so many cool liveperformance things out there
that you can tap into A sketchcomedy troupe.
(07:58):
You could have a dance offAgain.
It's another great way.
It's sort of like the thecornhole competition, like
another really great way foreveryone to see the couple in
love together and enjoyingthemselves and just being silly
and having fun.
You could have fireworks.
You could have a drone show.
You could have kids or perhapsother guests perform a dance
routine.
You could have a wine tastingguided by a sommelier.
(08:21):
You could have a timed escaperoom so you could put all your
guests and teams of four or six,sort of like, maybe, if you're
not having tables at the party.
You could be like this is yourescape room team and you got to
escape the room with thesepeople.
That could be fun.
You could bring out food atdifferent specific times, so
have like a scheduled menu thathappens throughout the night so
(08:41):
there's always something new andinteresting coming out.
You could do a cake cutting, ofcourse, or whatever food of
your choice.
You could perform a song or askit with your new spouse.
That would be nice.
You could do a trivia game basedon your love, so you could have
the MC read out all of thequestions and then have them
tally in a tally and have themorganize it like that.
If you know someone who is afriend who does trivia nights,
(09:04):
that might be a really fun thingto do.
You can have a wheel of fun, soit's like a giant spinning
wheel of different activities tomake the couple do throughout
the evening.
You could have a send off likea fun send off at the end of the
night.
You can even do a mini talentshow.
There's lots of differentthings you can do and this list
is not exhaustive.
I am going to like continue toadd to it in the blog post
(09:27):
that's attached to this episode.
So if you want more ideas, I'veprobably come up with more by
now.
Head over to thejoyfactorcom.
Find the episode here.
This is episode number five,and you will see probably a lot
more activities there by now.
Now we're going to talk aboutunfixed activities.
These are things, again, thatyour guests can do whenever they
(09:48):
want throughout the whole dayor evening.
They will require maybe alittle bit of setup at the
beginning, but they don't needanyone to like monitor them, or
they don't need to happen at aspecific time, so you can make
these.
You could set them up to happenwhenever they want.
This is really great.
If you're like if your guest isstuck talking to a relative
(10:08):
they really don't want to betalking to, maybe they could be
like oh no, I realized I didn'tfinish my scavenger hunt.
Perhaps I should go finish that.
It's a great excuse to get outof a weird conversation.
And then again people areleaving at the end and they're
like wow, greatest wedding ever.
I wasn't stuck for hourssitting talking to a person.
(10:30):
That makes me uncomfortable, mm.
Okay, here is a current listthat I have of unfixed
activities, and I will be addingmore to this too.
Okay, you can do, yes, ascavenger hunt based on your
relationship, a photo booththeme to your love.
Mine was a gorilla and askeleton.
It's very cute.
You could do yard games likeGiant Jenga or Checkers.
(10:51):
They seem to be the mostpopular in the bridal world for
some reason, but I'm sure thereare more than just Giant Jenga
or Checkers.
You can have a magician.
You can do a video game truck.
You can have arcade games, justlike kind of a couple of
machines around the venue.
You could do retro video gamesand like set up TVs for all of
that stuff.
You could do DIY party favors.
(11:13):
There's lots of different greatideas on Pinterest for that.
So your guests are likeactively, like doing something
together.
You can do mad libs or weddingbingo.
You can do a caricature artisthire a caricature artist.
That also seems to be verypopular and I've never had a
caricature done of me and Iwould love it.
If that was an option out ofwedding, I would definitely take
(11:35):
that.
You could do a bouncy castleHop in, hop out whenever you
want.
You could play your favoritefilms silently with a projector.
You could hire actors for amurder mystery game.
Hire a poet to compose piecesfor each of your guests.
You could hire a calligrapherto create one of the kind
designs for your guests.
You could hire a live weddingpainter.
(11:55):
I have heard of those.
They sound super cool.
They just like paint the wholescene of what's going on at your
wedding as it's happening.
You could do a vintage rotaryphone guest book.
Those are very popular rightnow.
You could bring in a petting zoobecause why not?
Animals are full of joy andlove and just don't let them
chew on your outfit because thatwould be sad.
(12:16):
You could hire a tarot cardreader or a psychic for like 10
minute readings.
People can just pop in wheneverthey want.
You could do a group paintingso all the guests join in and
like add little elements to thepainting.
Altogether you could do ringtoss.
You could have a kid's activitystation, like coloring and
Legos and board games.
I'm sure the grownups wouldwanna get in on the board games
too.
(12:36):
Let's be real.
You could have a milkshake orice cream bar.
There's lots of differentthings you could do with your
food stations to make it kind ofDIY, like build your own
s'mores or build your own mimosa.
Mine would be pretty heavy onthe champagne side, but that's
cause I like a little sparklybubbly.
It's lovely.
Okay, finally, we're gonna talkabout how to put your own spin
(12:56):
on traditional weddingactivities.
Someone in your family mightinsist on specific things, like
having posed photos of everyonewho's attended your wedding.
In my case, that might've beenme insisting that everyone stand
up there with me and get theirphotos taken.
But is there a way, if youdon't necessarily wanna do it
the traditional way, that youcould put your own fun spin on
(13:18):
it?
Like, maybe people want towatch you do your first dance,
but, like I said, my husband andI we did our first film instead
of our first dance.
Everyone still got to watch usdo something nice together, but
it wasn't like a pressure thatwe were feeling like I don't
really wanna do this.
This is gonna make meuncomfortable.
So now we're gonna talk about acouple of different ways that
(13:38):
you could put your own spin ontraditional things.
I've put together a list, ofcourse, and I will be updating
it here and there as I think ofnew fun things.
Okay, the first one is dancing.
Everybody has like a hate onfor dancing, which is fine.
I didn't have any dancing at mywedding, except for one person
Anyway.
So what are different thingsthat you and your fiancee like
(13:59):
to do together?
Is it rock climbing?
Do you want everyone to do rockclimbing together, like I mean,
that's kind of off the wall, orI should say on the wall.
But is there a fun activitythat you and your fiancee like
to do together that you couldincorporate as your first time
doing the thing?
But make sure, when you'rethinking of this activity, see
(14:20):
if you can picture it with a lotof people doing it together in
a relatively short amount oftime, like 10 to 15 minutes
maximum.
Cake cutting.
If you're not the cake typethat is not me.
I love cake.
I love cake so much.
I wish I could be eating cakeright now.
But if you're not the cake type, is there something else that
you could cut into, likeceremoniously, like maybe a
slice of pizza?
(14:40):
Or could you split a milkshaketogether your first milkshake
together or some other dessert,something that's just kind of
romantic and nice that peoplewill love for a photo op.
And again, remember, this islike if people are insisting
that you do something like this,like how can you put your own
spin on it so that you feelcomfortable with it on the day.
(15:02):
Okay, a bouquet toss or a gartertoss, is there something
ceremonial you could toss intoyour group of people?
It sounds a little bit crazywhen you think about it like
that, but it's sort of thetradition in the ceremony and
all of that it's like.
It's sort of like a passing ofthe torch.
So is there some way for you topass the torch onto the next
generation, perhaps?
(15:22):
Or the next people who might begetting married, something sort
of like that.
Like, maybe you throw a dog toyinto a dog pit, a dog pit dogs
don't hang out in pits, emily,they hang out at home.
I'm thinking about what youcould toss and the first thing
that comes to mind is a dog toy.
(15:43):
Or maybe you're very sporty andyou could have like a
basketball throw or somethinglike that, where to see who can
catch the basketball if you'rethrowing it backwards.
The point is here can you makeit sort of a ceremonial like
passing of the torch?
We've already covered the firstdance, but what about posing in
your first photo together?
(16:03):
There's a lot of influencercouples out there.
Maybe it's like posting yourfirst piece of content as a
married couple.
Or you could cook your firstmeal together on a portable
burner.
I mean it could be as simple asa grilled cheese, but just
something that's like reallyspecial to the two of you.
That is like you're doing itfor the first time.
Cocktail hour I'm not thebiggest fan of cocktail hours,
(16:25):
but I know some people reallylove them.
I think if you're gonna do acocktail hour, you should
probably have something elsefrom the unfixed activities list
also happening simultaneously,so that your guests feel like
they can.
They have something to do.
This is also a bonus for yourguests who won't be drinking.
I have noticed that a lot morepeople are drinking less.
So how can you help everybodyfeel comfortable and welcome and
(16:49):
not alienated, like if you havepeople in your family who don't
drink and you're setting up acocktail hour?
It's gonna feel kind ofuncomfortable for them.
So what are some different waysthat you can make that hour or
that time spent somethingdifferent, something non-alcohol
related?
The traditionally posed weddingphotos you could ask your
(17:10):
guests to bring a costume.
Maybe, if you're doing like athemed wedding so you can do a
photo with them in a costume,you could bring your own sort of
props and stuff to do that withthe photographer.
You could come up with a shotlist with your photographer too.
Like maybe you wanna doremember those Vogue kind of
photos were really popular a fewyears ago.
Or you could do like superheroposes, or you could, if you have
(17:33):
a friend that's really good atPhotoshop, like think of some
poses that you would like to doso that you can super impose
them on top of differentsettings and sceneries and maybe
you're all Marvel characters orsomething just something like a
little bit different, but likethat incorporates everybody in a
fun way, so that you can lookback at your pictures and be
like oh, that was really nicewhen grandma was Iron man,
(17:56):
parent dances.
Let's talk about that for asecond.
If you don't feel comfortabledancing or maybe your parent
doesn't feel comfortable dancingis there some sort of activity
that you used to do togetherwhen you were a kid that you
could do in front of everybody?
Like, for example, my family'svery musical.
We could have performed a song.
That would have been somethingfun to do.
You could also like involveyour siblings with this, like
(18:19):
make it sort of a family unitkind of an idea, so that it
feels really special, becausethat's what this specific
activity is about.
Right, the parent dances.
It's about making your familyfeel special and acknowledged at
your weddings.
So what are some specialactivities that you used to do
when you were a kid that youcould incorporate?
Instead of doing a dance Foryour grand entrance, instead of
(18:41):
just plain old walking in, youcould do a choreographed dance,
you could do a skit, you couldplay music, you could show off
your special talents.
Or what about guest hosts andspeeches?
They don't necessarily have tobe like the old, traditional,
like I am saying words.
These are the words coming outof my mouth.
It is heartfelt, it is nice andnow it is over.
Why don't you give them anopportunity to show off their
special skills?
My husband's nieces did a danceand that was really cool.
(19:04):
You could have like a minitalent show going and there's
your entertainment, very budgetfriendly.
For guest books, there's so manydifferent options.
Like there's a Cajillion onPinterest.
You could do a globe.
You could do Polaroid photos,you could do what I mentioned
earlier.
It's the rotary phone recordingof hey, this is your guest and
(19:26):
I'm here to say, hi, this is myguest book entry.
Lots of different options foryour guest book.
The point is to just make it asunique to you as you can,
clinking glasses.
A lot of people have justvetoed this outright, and that
makes sense to me.
I had plastic cups at mywedding, so it didn't happen.
Ha ha ha.
So but if this does happen atyour wedding, you could, instead
(19:47):
of kissing, you could strike acool move like a power couple
move together.
Or you could have a sword fightjust something that resonates
with you as a couple.
If you don't feel comfortablekissing every time someone
clinks their glasses For yoursend off, you could do lots of
different options.
You could send your guests offinstead of you Just be like get
out of here, go on, we're donewith ya, bye, bye.
(20:10):
Or you could all make a wishtogether at the end of the night
Lots of different options.
There, too.
There's so many different waysthat you can have fun and plan
different activities at yourwedding and, especially with
people's attention spans and notbeing what they used to be,
having lots of different optionsfor people is so much fun.
And then they're gonna leaveand be like, whoa, that was the
greatest wedding ever.
And then they're gonna ask youto plan their weddings and it's
(20:32):
just gonna spiral and it's gonnabe wonderful.
If you need help coming up withsome different activities for
your wedding.
Drop a comment below or send mean email at
emilyjoyvactorweddingscom andI'm more than happy to help you
brainstorm a few different waysthat you can put a twist on old
wedding traditions or maybe comeup with something entirely new
for your wedding.
If you found this episodeuseful, I would be so grateful
(20:53):
if you subscribe.
Drop a comment below or shootme an email at
emilyjoyvactorweddingscom if youneed any help planning your
wedding, and I am so happy tohelp you with that.
I'll be back next Thursday withanother wedding planning video,
so until then, keep it joyful.
["joyful Wedding Planing"].
Thanks for listening to JoyfulWedding Planning.
(21:16):
I hope you got something out ofthis episode and hey, if you
did, leave me a review.
Wherever you listen to yourpodcasts, it helps me to find
more listeners just like you, sothat we can take all the stress
out of wedding planning and gofrom panic to joy-filled moments
.
Need help to plan your weddingBook?
A call with me atjoyfactorweddingscom.
I can't wait to help you planthe wedding of your dreams.
["joyful Wedding Planing"].
(21:39):
["joyful Wedding Planing"].
This podcast was produced bythe Ultimate Creative.
Learn more about producing yourown podcast at
theultimatecreativecom.
You're listening to Joyful Wedding Planning your
spot for de-stressing andrelaxing while you plan your
wedding.
You might be thinking is thateven possible?
Well, heck, yeah it is.
I'm your host, emily DeCluv,founder of the Joy Factor
Weddings and Events, and I'mhere to help you plan the
wedding of your dreams joyfully.
Whether you're a DIYer or adelegator, this podcast will
(00:26):
help you find the Joy Factor asyou plan your wedding.
If you're not planning superfun activities for your wedding
guests, you're missing out onone of the most important
elements of wedding planning.
Hi, I'm Emily DeCluv.
I'm the founder of Joy Factor,a wedding and events planning
(00:48):
company based in Toronto servingcouples globally.
I drop new podcast episodesevery Thursday, so make sure you
follow wherever you'relistening to your podcasts,
cause I love helping people plantheir weddings joyfully.
Anyway, we're gonna get into ittoday.
So lately, and I mean, like thelast couple of years, all of my
friends have been saying to meEmily, why are weddings so
(01:10):
boring?
Like you, just stand there forhours.
What's supposed to be acocktail hour While the bride
and groom are getting photosjust turns into people standing
there staring at each other,waiting for something to happen.
No chairs, nothing to look atno music, like seriously.
Some of the weddings that we'veall been to in the past few
(01:30):
years have been a little bit shyon the entertainment factor.
I've even been to weddingswhere you just kind of have to
sit there and wait until thefood comes out for like literal
hours.
Meanwhile you're starving,especially if you're in the
bridal party.
You're like all I ate today wasa granola bar because I was
helping my friend get into herdress and you can't have granola
(01:52):
bars around a dress.
Yes, it's unfortunate, but itdoes happen.
So I want to give you a fewdifferent ways today to help
your guests feel likeappreciated and like they're
having fun at your wedding andlike this is like an actual fun
time.
So they're going to leave andthey'll be like that was the
greatest wedding I've ever beento, versus like I couldn't wait
(02:12):
to get out of that wedding.
Nobody wants to be that weddingand believe me when I say I've
done many a budget event.
I know how to throw a reallygreat party on a budget.
So a lot of these options thatI'm offering you today are very
budget friendly.
They just require a little bitof creativity and a little elbow
grease on your part, but theyare so much fun, okay, let's get
(02:35):
into it.
Okay, before I share some ofthese activities, I want to like
highlight why I think it'sreally important to put a lot of
work and effort into this.
So I'm in a comedy troupe calledBig Chick Energy Sketch and we
put on shows all around Toronto.
So if you're looking for a fundate night, please, my friend,
come join us, enjoy the day,enjoy the evening with us.
(02:57):
We put together a lot ofridiculous sketch.
Comedy also makes for a greatbachelorette party.
So we've performed at a fewshows that we didn't produce,
where the host has been, shallwe say, a little lackluster.
And now, if we compare that toyour wedding MC, for example, it
just kind of like sucks all ofthe energy out of the room.
(03:18):
Like you know, when you go toan event and the person's not
speaking into a microphone andthey're like really quiet, and
then they just kind of standthere and they shuffle like this
, they don't really make eyecontact with anybody and it's
just kind of uncomfortable.
We discovered through being atsome of these unfortunate shows
(03:39):
that like this can really makeor break your event.
This can make or break yourwedding.
So it's really important tokeep the energy and the vibe
super high throughout yourwedding, because otherwise that
just makes other people, likeyour guests, feel uncomfortable
or feel like, oh, I don't knowif I really want to be here
because it's not well thoughtout, it's not well planned.
(04:01):
You're not really putting yourguest experience at the
forefront of the day.
Okay, granted, I completelyunderstand this day is about you
, but I don't know many coupleswho don't want to give their
guests like a fun time and likemake their guests feel like, wow
, that was a great experience.
Oh, my God, I had so much funat this person's wedding.
(04:22):
So I'm going to share with you acouple of different things to
consider when you're planningyour programming and all the
different activities for yourwedding.
Okay, number one is have afixed program.
So these are going to be thingslike staple things, like your
ceremony or your first stands orlike just really specific
things that you know arehappening at a specific time.
(04:45):
The second element of yourprogramming is to consider
unfixed activities.
So these could be things thatpeople do on their own between
fixed activities.
I like to think of it as liketry to plan a fixed activity,
maybe like one per hour onaverage, and it doesn't have to
be like including absolutelyeverybody, because not
(05:05):
everyone's going to want toparticipate in everything, but
having something happening atleast once per hour the shorter,
longer durations is a good wayto keep the energy flowing and
the energy moving throughout theentire wedding.
Now, the activities that areunfixed, that can happen at any
given time.
These can be like somethingthat you like, a scavenger hunt
(05:27):
card that you pick up and youcan like move around on your own
time and and search fordifferent things.
You can leave it, you can comeback to it.
It's like it doesn't requireyou to be at a specific place at
a specific time, but it'sentertainment.
So it feels again like, oh,there is something for me to do,
and then finally think abouthow you can throw your own spin
(05:47):
on traditional weddingactivities.
So, for example, instead ofdoing a first dance, my husband
and I decided to make our firstfilm together, because we like
to make films together and thatwas a really great way to
include everybody.
So they're not just likestanding there watching us dance
which, if you want to do that,that's great.
It just wasn't the vibe for us.
We wanted to make everybodyfeel like they were part of the
(06:09):
whole wedding, like they're sospecial to us, we want them to
feel like we couldn't have donethis without them because we
need them to be in this film.
So think about different waysthat you can put a spin on a
traditional wedding activity.
I'm going to give you somesuggestions towards the end, but
first let's talk about yourfixed wedding activities.
(06:30):
So, as I said, these are goingto be activities that happen at
a specific time and you want tostart out by planning like the
big things and then filling inwith little things.
So big thing being yourceremony, your first dance, your
toast, whatever those bigthings are that you know 100%.
Like if this isn't in mywedding, I don't even want to
(06:51):
get married like a ceremony thatmight be a thing to include in
your wedding.
So then you want to plan all ofthe little extra pieces in and
around that.
Ok, I'm going to read you alist of really cool fixed
activities that I came up withtoday One group photo to grand
entrance, three toasts separatefor bride and groom, separate
for parents and bridal party,and all of those.
(07:16):
You could have a cornholecompetition.
This goes for any sort of likeyard game or whatever.
If you want to have like aspecific time where it's like
we're going to have the throwdown championship right here,
right now, and it's a fun wayfor everyone to watch the bride
and the groom do something silly.
You could do karaoke at aspecific time, like maybe later
in the evening, from 10 30 to a11 30, but it's a specific time.
(07:38):
You can have a comedian, youcan have a live performance.
Live entertainers come out.
You could do a live band, adrag show, improvisers, dancers,
hula hoopers, fire breathers,circus performers the list goes
on and on.
There are so many cool liveperformance things out there
that you can tap into A sketchcomedy troupe.
(07:58):
You could have a dance offAgain.
It's another great way.
It's sort of like the thecornhole competition, like
another really great way foreveryone to see the couple in
love together and enjoyingthemselves and just being silly
and having fun.
You could have fireworks.
You could have a drone show.
You could have kids or perhapsother guests perform a dance
routine.
You could have a wine tastingguided by a sommelier.
(08:21):
You could have a timed escaperoom so you could put all your
guests and teams of four or six,sort of like, maybe, if you're
not having tables at the party.
You could be like this is yourescape room team and you got to
escape the room with thesepeople.
That could be fun.
You could bring out food atdifferent specific times, so
have like a scheduled menu thathappens throughout the night so
(08:41):
there's always something new andinteresting coming out.
You could do a cake cutting, ofcourse, or whatever food of
your choice.
You could perform a song or askit with your new spouse.
That would be nice.
You could do a trivia game basedon your love, so you could have
the MC read out all of thequestions and then have them
tally in a tally and have themorganize it like that.
If you know someone who is afriend who does trivia nights,
(09:04):
that might be a really fun thingto do.
You can have a wheel of fun, soit's like a giant spinning
wheel of different activities tomake the couple do throughout
the evening.
You could have a send off likea fun send off at the end of the
night.
You can even do a mini talentshow.
There's lots of differentthings you can do and this list
is not exhaustive.
I am going to like continue toadd to it in the blog post
(09:27):
that's attached to this episode.
So if you want more ideas, I'veprobably come up with more by
now.
Head over to thejoyfactorcom.
Find the episode here.
This is episode number five,and you will see probably a lot
more activities there by now.
Now we're going to talk aboutunfixed activities.
These are things, again, thatyour guests can do whenever they
(09:48):
want throughout the whole dayor evening.
They will require maybe alittle bit of setup at the
beginning, but they don't needanyone to like monitor them, or
they don't need to happen at aspecific time, so you can make
these.
You could set them up to happenwhenever they want.
This is really great.
If you're like if your guest isstuck talking to a relative
(10:08):
they really don't want to betalking to, maybe they could be
like oh no, I realized I didn'tfinish my scavenger hunt.
Perhaps I should go finish that.
It's a great excuse to get outof a weird conversation.
And then again people areleaving at the end and they're
like wow, greatest wedding ever.
I wasn't stuck for hourssitting talking to a person.
(10:30):
That makes me uncomfortable, mm.
Okay, here is a current listthat I have of unfixed
activities, and I will be addingmore to this too.
Okay, you can do, yes, ascavenger hunt based on your
relationship, a photo booththeme to your love.
Mine was a gorilla and askeleton.
It's very cute.
You could do yard games likeGiant Jenga or Checkers.
(10:51):
They seem to be the mostpopular in the bridal world for
some reason, but I'm sure thereare more than just Giant Jenga
or Checkers.
You can have a magician.
You can do a video game truck.
You can have arcade games, justlike kind of a couple of
machines around the venue.
You could do retro video gamesand like set up TVs for all of
that stuff.
You could do DIY party favors.
(11:13):
There's lots of different greatideas on Pinterest for that.
So your guests are likeactively, like doing something
together.
You can do mad libs or weddingbingo.
You can do a caricature artisthire a caricature artist.
That also seems to be verypopular and I've never had a
caricature done of me and Iwould love it.
If that was an option out ofwedding, I would definitely take
(11:35):
that.
You could do a bouncy castleHop in, hop out whenever you
want.
You could play your favoritefilms silently with a projector.
You could hire actors for amurder mystery game.
Hire a poet to compose piecesfor each of your guests.
You could hire a calligrapherto create one of the kind
designs for your guests.
You could hire a live weddingpainter.
(11:55):
I have heard of those.
They sound super cool.
They just like paint the wholescene of what's going on at your
wedding as it's happening.
You could do a vintage rotaryphone guest book.
Those are very popular rightnow.
You could bring in a petting zoobecause why not?
Animals are full of joy andlove and just don't let them
chew on your outfit because thatwould be sad.
(12:16):
You could hire a tarot cardreader or a psychic for like 10
minute readings.
People can just pop in wheneverthey want.
You could do a group paintingso all the guests join in and
like add little elements to thepainting.
Altogether you could do ringtoss.
You could have a kid's activitystation, like coloring and
Legos and board games.
I'm sure the grownups wouldwanna get in on the board games
too.
(12:36):
Let's be real.
You could have a milkshake orice cream bar.
There's lots of differentthings you could do with your
food stations to make it kind ofDIY, like build your own
s'mores or build your own mimosa.
Mine would be pretty heavy onthe champagne side, but that's
cause I like a little sparklybubbly.
It's lovely.
Okay, finally, we're gonna talkabout how to put your own spin
(12:56):
on traditional weddingactivities.
Someone in your family mightinsist on specific things, like
having posed photos of everyonewho's attended your wedding.
In my case, that might've beenme insisting that everyone stand
up there with me and get theirphotos taken.
But is there a way, if youdon't necessarily wanna do it
the traditional way, that youcould put your own fun spin on
(13:18):
it?
Like, maybe people want towatch you do your first dance,
but, like I said, my husband andI we did our first film instead
of our first dance.
Everyone still got to watch usdo something nice together, but
it wasn't like a pressure thatwe were feeling like I don't
really wanna do this.
This is gonna make meuncomfortable.
So now we're gonna talk about acouple of different ways that
(13:38):
you could put your own spin ontraditional things.
I've put together a list, ofcourse, and I will be updating
it here and there as I think ofnew fun things.
Okay, the first one is dancing.
Everybody has like a hate onfor dancing, which is fine.
I didn't have any dancing at mywedding, except for one person
Anyway.
So what are different thingsthat you and your fiancee like
(13:59):
to do together?
Is it rock climbing?
Do you want everyone to do rockclimbing together, like I mean,
that's kind of off the wall, orI should say on the wall.
But is there a fun activitythat you and your fiancee like
to do together that you couldincorporate as your first time
doing the thing?
But make sure, when you'rethinking of this activity, see
(14:20):
if you can picture it with a lotof people doing it together in
a relatively short amount oftime, like 10 to 15 minutes
maximum.
Cake cutting.
If you're not the cake typethat is not me.
I love cake.
I love cake so much.
I wish I could be eating cakeright now.
But if you're not the cake type, is there something else that
you could cut into, likeceremoniously, like maybe a
slice of pizza?
(14:40):
Or could you split a milkshaketogether your first milkshake
together or some other dessert,something that's just kind of
romantic and nice that peoplewill love for a photo op.
And again, remember, this islike if people are insisting
that you do something like this,like how can you put your own
spin on it so that you feelcomfortable with it on the day.
(15:02):
Okay, a bouquet toss or a gartertoss, is there something
ceremonial you could toss intoyour group of people?
It sounds a little bit crazywhen you think about it like
that, but it's sort of thetradition in the ceremony and
all of that it's like.
It's sort of like a passing ofthe torch.
So is there some way for you topass the torch onto the next
generation, perhaps?
(15:22):
Or the next people who might begetting married, something sort
of like that.
Like, maybe you throw a dog toyinto a dog pit, a dog pit dogs
don't hang out in pits, emily,they hang out at home.
I'm thinking about what youcould toss and the first thing
that comes to mind is a dog toy.
(15:43):
Or maybe you're very sporty andyou could have like a
basketball throw or somethinglike that, where to see who can
catch the basketball if you'rethrowing it backwards.
The point is here can you makeit sort of a ceremonial like
passing of the torch?
We've already covered the firstdance, but what about posing in
your first photo together?
(16:03):
There's a lot of influencercouples out there.
Maybe it's like posting yourfirst piece of content as a
married couple.
Or you could cook your firstmeal together on a portable
burner.
I mean it could be as simple asa grilled cheese, but just
something that's like reallyspecial to the two of you.
That is like you're doing itfor the first time.
Cocktail hour I'm not thebiggest fan of cocktail hours,
(16:25):
but I know some people reallylove them.
I think if you're gonna do acocktail hour, you should
probably have something elsefrom the unfixed activities list
also happening simultaneously,so that your guests feel like
they can.
They have something to do.
This is also a bonus for yourguests who won't be drinking.
I have noticed that a lot morepeople are drinking less.
So how can you help everybodyfeel comfortable and welcome and
(16:49):
not alienated, like if you havepeople in your family who don't
drink and you're setting up acocktail hour?
It's gonna feel kind ofuncomfortable for them.
So what are some different waysthat you can make that hour or
that time spent somethingdifferent, something non-alcohol
related?
The traditionally posed weddingphotos you could ask your
(17:10):
guests to bring a costume.
Maybe, if you're doing like athemed wedding so you can do a
photo with them in a costume,you could bring your own sort of
props and stuff to do that withthe photographer.
You could come up with a shotlist with your photographer too.
Like maybe you wanna doremember those Vogue kind of
photos were really popular a fewyears ago.
Or you could do like superheroposes, or you could, if you have
(17:33):
a friend that's really good atPhotoshop, like think of some
poses that you would like to doso that you can super impose
them on top of differentsettings and sceneries and maybe
you're all Marvel characters orsomething just something like a
little bit different, but likethat incorporates everybody in a
fun way, so that you can lookback at your pictures and be
like oh, that was really nicewhen grandma was Iron man,
(17:56):
parent dances.
Let's talk about that for asecond.
If you don't feel comfortabledancing or maybe your parent
doesn't feel comfortable dancingis there some sort of activity
that you used to do togetherwhen you were a kid that you
could do in front of everybody?
Like, for example, my family'svery musical.
We could have performed a song.
That would have been somethingfun to do.
You could also like involveyour siblings with this, like
(18:19):
make it sort of a family unitkind of an idea, so that it
feels really special, becausethat's what this specific
activity is about.
Right, the parent dances.
It's about making your familyfeel special and acknowledged at
your weddings.
So what are some specialactivities that you used to do
when you were a kid that youcould incorporate?
Instead of doing a dance Foryour grand entrance, instead of
(18:41):
just plain old walking in, youcould do a choreographed dance,
you could do a skit, you couldplay music, you could show off
your special talents.
Or what about guest hosts andspeeches?
They don't necessarily have tobe like the old, traditional,
like I am saying words.
These are the words coming outof my mouth.
It is heartfelt, it is nice andnow it is over.
Why don't you give them anopportunity to show off their
special skills?
My husband's nieces did a danceand that was really cool.
(19:04):
You could have like a minitalent show going and there's
your entertainment, very budgetfriendly.
For guest books, there's so manydifferent options.
Like there's a Cajillion onPinterest.
You could do a globe.
You could do Polaroid photos,you could do what I mentioned
earlier.
It's the rotary phone recordingof hey, this is your guest and
(19:26):
I'm here to say, hi, this is myguest book entry.
Lots of different options foryour guest book.
The point is to just make it asunique to you as you can,
clinking glasses.
A lot of people have justvetoed this outright, and that
makes sense to me.
I had plastic cups at mywedding, so it didn't happen.
Ha ha ha.
So but if this does happen atyour wedding, you could, instead
(19:47):
of kissing, you could strike acool move like a power couple
move together.
Or you could have a sword fightjust something that resonates
with you as a couple.
If you don't feel comfortablekissing every time someone
clinks their glasses For yoursend off, you could do lots of
different options.
You could send your guests offinstead of you Just be like get
out of here, go on, we're donewith ya, bye, bye.
(20:10):
Or you could all make a wishtogether at the end of the night
Lots of different options.
There, too.
There's so many different waysthat you can have fun and plan
different activities at yourwedding and, especially with
people's attention spans and notbeing what they used to be,
having lots of different optionsfor people is so much fun.
And then they're gonna leaveand be like, whoa, that was the
greatest wedding ever.
And then they're gonna ask youto plan their weddings and it's
(20:32):
just gonna spiral and it's gonnabe wonderful.
If you need help coming up withsome different activities for
your wedding.
Drop a comment below or send mean email at
emilyjoyvactorweddingscom andI'm more than happy to help you
brainstorm a few different waysthat you can put a twist on old
wedding traditions or maybe comeup with something entirely new
for your wedding.
If you found this episodeuseful, I would be so grateful
(20:53):
if you subscribe.
Drop a comment below or shootme an email at
emilyjoyvactorweddingscom if youneed any help planning your
wedding, and I am so happy tohelp you with that.
I'll be back next Thursday withanother wedding planning video,
so until then, keep it joyful.
["joyful Wedding Planing"].
Thanks for listening to JoyfulWedding Planning.
(21:16):
I hope you got something out ofthis episode and hey, if you
did, leave me a review.
Wherever you listen to yourpodcasts, it helps me to find
more listeners just like you, sothat we can take all the stress
out of wedding planning and gofrom panic to joy-filled moments
.
Need help to plan your weddingBook?
A call with me atjoyfactorweddingscom.
I can't wait to help you planthe wedding of your dreams.
["joyful Wedding Planing"].
(21:39):
["joyful Wedding Planing"].
This podcast was produced bythe Ultimate Creative.
Learn more about producing yourown podcast at
theultimatecreativecom.
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