Comments on: Dance-free wedding reception

By: Kendra

Kendra — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:58:56 +0000

Wow! I'm with kindred spirits! I am trying to stay on a strict budget (more for the honeymoon!). We have narrowed down the ceremony/reception to an afternoon event in either a local gardenesque park or a small winery. We will have about 50 guests, and we don't really dance. (However, I do find the idea of a first dance kind of romantic. Would it be weird to do this in a kind of impromtu fashion, but without an official dancefloor for everyone?) Are thinking about just the Ipod idea, with maybe croquet or horseshoes, and maybe the diy photobooth with romantic props. I'm trying to picture the technical aspects of the booth though. Do we leave a polaroid there, or a camera with a remote, hooked up to a printer, or have guests use their own cameras?

Also, along the same lines, I don't love the idea of tons of toasts by different people. Would it be okay to have one person do a toast with a glass of champagne, and call it good?

By: Megan

Megan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:26:53 +0000

I don't care for dancing myself, and as we're having a semi-casual lunch reception for mainly family, I don't think we're going to do much dancing. I'll have tons of great music (iPod) that can be great for dancing, so if anyone wants to dance we'll have plenty of room and music for it, but I doubt I'll do much.

So….I'm still looking for ideas to keep us busy if our families don't mesh as well as I'm hoping- we're from very different backgrounds. My one decision so far is to make a video station. I'm going to make a background and set up a tripod with a video camera and some prompts- "What are your favorite memories you have of the bride/groom?" "What is one thing you'll remember about our wedding?" ect. Hopefully it'll give us something fun to do when we're all a little tipsy, and it'll break the ice. I might even put the prompts on the tables to get people talking before they go to the station.

I would still like to have a few more ideas to keep things interesting, but all on a voluntary basis- I don't want someone feeling awkward and forced to play games they are not interested in.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:11:09 +0000

I loved all of these ideas so so much! We're the same way, I love music and I will have it in the background, but I don't want cheesy twist and shout, and I don't want to do the first dance stuff. Wedding is planned for October, and I really want to be outside in the leaves and the trees. All of these ideas were so great! I love giant Jenga! I'm super excited that I'm not the only one who doesn't want a DJ shouting out over the crowd. LOL!

By: enigma

enigma — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:47:53 +0000

Carly, that sounds great! I bet many of the guests would be totally relieved that they actually got to have fun on their weekend instead of feeling uncomfortable or bored! And I think if you want to do that, it would definitely be important to signify it on the invites somehow. You don't want people feeling uncomfortable since they're standing in front of the campfire in their fancy clothes. Maybe you could do some sort of invite "supplement" that looks like an old-fashioned advertisement highlighting the fun activities ("campfire with smores!" "games for the kids!" "true love!")

A friend of mine had a western-themed wedding at her fiancee's parent's house in the country. Unfortunately I wasn't there, so I don't know whether they had dancing, but they DID have a hayride for the kids! Everyone thought it was great!

By: Erin M.

Erin M. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:04:14 +0000

We can't afford a DJ/dance floor, and are having our wedding in Santa Barbara wine country (I work in the wine industry, and we're both winos.) So instead we are calling it a "Dinner Party-style Reception" involving an excellent meal and equally excellent wine (and a signature cocktail option.) There's plenty of room on the adjoining patio to mingle, so I'm hoping all will have a good time. I would just rather nix the DJ and have a honeymoon!

By: Carly

Carly — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:24:45 +0000

I want you guys to know that you just saved my sanity. No, really. My family has been trying to convince me that I'm insane and that my plans won't possibly work.

My fiance is very shy, and we both hate going to weddings that have dances as we both hide in the corner and avoid dancing at all costs. We figured we didn't need to hide in the corner at our own wedding. I also live in a place that it is a very real possibility that it will be too cold or rainy in early July to be outside, so I need to have an excellent rain out plan. (We live in Canada. It's cold here.)

I'm hoping to find a hall that has a park, a volleyball or horse shoe pit, and a fire pit. Can I specify "casual bbq reception" on the invites, have people come in jeans, serve dinner inside and then move outside after supper? I'm planning to have an iPod hooked up both inside and out. Will everyone go home at nine? Someone tell me that I'm not crazy, just a little offbeat?

P.S. Love the giant Jenga idea!!

By: angie

angie — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:45:33 +0000

this would be great too if there were any kids!

By: angie

angie — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:44:37 +0000

I know this sounds so college and silly but we are getting married this saturday and my soon to be brother and law built us a custom beer pong table. I know our friends and some of the older folks will appriciate this, nothing gets groups together like old fashion BEER PONG !

By: Nicole

Nicole — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:25:45 +0000

Something that I'm considering for our wedding (which will have dancing) that might also be good for a non-dance wedding is video games. I'm thinking of simple ones that even non-gamers can enjoy, like Wii sports, Wii sports resort, DDR, and maybe even Rayman. I think it would be a good alternative to lawn games for an evening wedding.

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:08:44 +0000

In my experience, if you have a lot of guests coming in from out of town that you haven't seen for a while, they may just want to talk and catch up. Background music would be perfect in this case. If you DO want to dance, though, you should try to have all out-of-towners invited to the rehearsal dinner so they can talk then and celebrate with music and dancing at the wedding itself.