So We Know You Can’t Dance - What Else Can We Do?
Covid-19 restrictions have placed a lot of people's lives into turmoil. Those who want to get married and have a great reception are not immune to this. We’ve spent 20 years of our lives trying to do whatever we can do to get as many people up on the dance floor as possible. Now we are being asked to keep everyone off the dance floor.
As I write this, current NSW restrictions mean that apart from the wedding couple’s first dance we can’t have anyone else dancing at your reception. There are also restrictions against standing or mingling with food and drink and actually against mingling at all.
However, this doesn’t mean that your reception needs to be a boring affair. Here are some things we have seen done to entertain your guests and ensure your wedding will be talked about for more than just your bravery in going ahead despite Covid-19 restrictions.
SPACE IT OUT
This one is perhaps the simplest one. We are so used to receptions for the most part being "get everyone in, get everyone fed, have some speeches, cut a cake then let’s dance until the end."
Something as simple as breaking the speeches up. Doing some between each course and waiting until after the dessert is served to do the final speech, cake cutting and first dance rather than to have people dancing during dessert will space things out for you.
GET CREATIVE
The bouquet and garter toss aren’t allowed due to social distancing. However, you can still give away the bouquet and garter to a single guy and gal. One way to do it is to have a game with the winner getting the bouquet or garter. The other simpler way is to create a raffle. Type and cut out the names of all the single girls/guys and have the winner’s name pulled out of a hat. For a recent event, we’ve even then gone on to stage the throwing of the bouquet and removal/throwing of the garter with only the pre-determined winner out on the dance floor to be able to catch the prize.
EDIT - We’ve now also started playing spin the bottle for the bouquet and garter “toss’”
We’ve also had other clients book alternate entertainment options. Musical (we can help you out with this) or otherwise. Dancers, Comedians, Magicians and contortionists have all been employed to keep guests entertained. Other couples have produced more extended videos and slide shows to fill up time and have more sweet and sentimental moments at the reception.
PLAY SOME GAMES
If you google “wedding games” you’ll get hundreds of ideas. A lot of them can also be done with social distancing as well. Below are a few of the ones that we find have worked best and if you’ve booked an MC from us we can organise. Some like the “shoe” game are purely for entertainment, others have winners and perhaps a prize can be offered for this. Usually a simple prize like some chocolates or a gift voucher is perfect. Or just the prestige of winning is often enough for a competition.
THE ‘SHOE’ GAME
The most popular game at weddings is the Shoe Game. The basic premise is that the wedding couple take their shoes off and sit back to back with one of each shoe in their hands. The MC or game host then ask the couple a series of questions where the answer can only be either person in the couple. For example “Who is the better driver?”. To answer the question you just raise the shoe of the person who you think is the best answer for that. Here is a video that describes it better.
If you don’t want to be taking your shoes off, or if you’re a same sex couple and the difference in the shoes isn’t as easy to be picked out by your guests then replace the shoes with paddles with faces on them, or even dolls/figurines.
EDIT - Another interesting wrinkle we have added in is getting the guests to text through their questions to the MC during dinner for the MC to collate (and run any questionable questions by the bridal party) the questions and ask them. This gives it a bit more of a personal touch.
COUPLES TRIVIA
This game is as simple as compiling some trivia on the wedding couple. In the case of a bride and groom, we suggest one round for the bride growing up, another for the groom growing up and the final round about their relationship. You can throw a music round in, or a round about the couples favorite hobby or work but generally 3 rounds of 10-15 questions is more than enough. Spice it up by having a legitimate prize for the winning table.
To play this game you’ll need to organise answer sheets and ensure the MC knows what they are doing. Usually at least one person on each table would be familiar with pub trivia so it works great.
OPEN A GAMBLING ‘BOOK’
In order to play this game you’ll need to be okay with gambling. I’m not a gambler at all but I love playing this game and have introduced betting books on speeches etc at weddings that I’m a guest at. Basically you can gamble with actual money, or you can just have a prize for whoever wins each bet. Fun things to bet on are;
- Length of speeches (Parents, Best Men, Bridesmaids and of course Bride and/or Groom). The best would be whoever gets closest without going over.
- How many times a Groom/Bride uses a term like “Wife” “Husband” “Love” or even “Um” in their speech.
- First dance song (this means you need to keep it a secret)
The best way to organise this in a socially distant manner is to put a bookie in charge of each gamble. Share their phone number with everyone in the reception and people can text in their name and their bet to that bookie for the gamble. Print out some sheets with instructions and have the MC explain it at the beginning of the night.
HEADS & BUMS
Everyone stands up (in their places, without drink or food - this is important for Covid restrictions). The MC then asks a few Yes or No or at least 2 choice only questions. They’ll say for Answer One to put your hands on your head, for Answer Two put your hands on your bum. If you get it right you stay standing, everyone else sits down. You keep going through until you only have one person still standing who is declared the winner.
Questions can be about the wedding couple, their interests or even some totally obscure trivia.
NAME THAT TUNE
This one is great if you’ve already gone to the trouble of choosing your favorite songs for the reception and now they can’t be highlighted as dance songs due to restrictions. Your DJ can play a snippet of each song, with the guests either writing it down (make it part of trivia) or throwing their hands up if they know the answer to the song and artist. If nobody gets it the DJ can play a longer sample of the song. Perhaps more words, the hook or part of the chorus until it’s determined. For easy songs we can even play them backwards or just a really small snippet almost like a secret sound on the radio.