Non-Musical Wedding Entertainment Ideas

I thought this month perhaps it would be an idea to look at non-musical ideas for wedding entertainment. I personally am someone who lives and breathes anything of the music kind, but I know not all of you are, and there are some fantastic options out there…

Here are a few ideas:

Video/Photo Booth

These are such fun! If you haven’t seen these before, basically your guests can go into the booth and record/photograph themselves. The video will be a personal message to you for you to keep forever, whereas the photo booth will print two copies of each photograph – one for the guest to keep, and one to place in your guest book where they can write you a message. I love this idea, and I must say, having been at various events where these booths are present, it always puts the guests in a silly and fun mood!

Magician

I personally feel a magician can really take your wedding reception to the next level in terms of entertainment, if you get the right one, so I think it’s important to get the right personality – someone you know will be funny and entertaining, as well as doing the magic!

Circus Acts – i.e stilt walkers, fire-eaters etc

Ok, so perhaps not too ‘Wedding’ themed, but what a way to liven up the atmosphere, perhaps over the wedding breakfast between courses or in the middle of the evening reception!

Dramatic Performance

I haven’t come across too many of these yet, but I’m sure they will really take off. The main one I’ve seen (sadly not yet live, but I see them advertised in lots of places) is the Fawlty Towers Show. It looks really funny and I bet it’s a great way to break the ice between your guests! I can imagine this would go down perfectly during the wedding breakfast or reception drinks.

Casino

Encourage a little bit of healthy competition between your friends and family with a small casino set up for the evening reception.

Balloon Animals etc

Not just for kids! I came across a fantastic company who provide balloon experts with a difference… these guys were really great fun, and made balloon versions of not only some pretty exciting animals but also amazing balloon hats and outfits that your guests can actually wear! Great fun!

Extreme Weddings

For those of you who are into your alternative lifestyle/music/ideas, what about something like a snake or chainsaw show? Not for the fainthearted – but I’ve seen a few of these before and they sure are jaw-dropping to watch!

Sports Day/Races

We played at a wedding once where the bride and groom had organised a ‘sports day’ event for the afternoon. After the ceremony and before the wedding breakfast, all the guests were taken outside for a three legged race, egg and spoon race, and 100m sprint. I think it’s safe to say they had a fantastic time!

Get your guests involved in the meal

I was lucky enough to be a guest at a wedding recently where they got the guests involved throughout the whole meal. We sat down at our tables and soon noticed that on each of our name cards was a little picture. One person on each table had bottles of champagne and another had a sheep! We were all very confused by this, but all came to light when the ‘sheep’ were called to the kitchen, given a chef’s hat and apron,  and had to bring out the roast lamb and carve it in front of their table! The ‘bottle of champagne’ guests were later in charge of popping the cork during the speeches. Things like this were a really lovely way of getting the guests involved, and livened up the meal no end.

Giant Jenga/Chess

This is always great fun, especially for that part of the afternoon where you are off having photos taken and your guests are mingling around.

Human Statues

Some of these are so unbelievably realistic! It’s a great way to add a bit of class to your event, and they fit in perfectly if you’re getting married in an old stately home or historic site.

Cocktail Waiters

I love love LOVE this as a form of entertainment. Ok…so you wouldn’t think cocktail waiters would be classed as ‘entertainment’, but you haven’t seen them yet! You can book cocktail waiters who are basically real life versions of Tom Cruise in the film ‘Cocktail’ (yummy!), and they’ll do all the usual tricks with spinning bottles etc, as well as serving drinks! They’re fantastic to watch, and all the guys I have seen do this are obviously hired on their personality and people skills too as they’re always really good fun and will chat away to all your guests, getting everyone in the party mood.

So…happy planning! Hope this is helpful, and HAVE FUN!

Love & Hugs

Sera

Article by Wedding Entertainment Specialist Sera Golding

Images Courtesy of –

Roulette Wheel – Flickr by Conorwithonen

Carving – Shirley Nicklin

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