Comments on: Jami & Jamie's backyard game night wedding

By: Jen

Jen — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:08:18 +0000

P.S. what sort of questions were in the bingo game?

By: Jen

Jen — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 15:53:11 +0000

I LOVE this! I have been looking for games to do at my wedding and potato sack racing is at the top of my list! My fiance thinks it will be stupid and no one will want to play. I think it would make for great fun and pictures! I'm going to try and persuade him with your pic! I love the bingo idea, brilliant! Might have to steal that idea! Thank you for sharing your wonderful wedding story!

By: land less

land less — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:01:53 +0000

i could have the cheapest wedding too, if only my family owned a farm.

By: Odell

Odell — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:07:01 +0000

I LOVE The game night idea! That is some of the BEST fun I've ever had when not drinking…
I'm not even in a relationship, yet, but I still love to day dream about how I'd do it, if I ever got married again.

By: ebuttell

ebuttell — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:30:42 +0000

That DOES help! Thank you! I think if I throw out the prizes idea to him, he will be much more willing to do the games, and I like the bingo idea, maybe we can fill the bingo boxes with little words, phrases, and facts about us so as someone calls them out, people are learning more about us… this is a brainstorm idea that just may work! I love the basket prizes idea, and making it CLEAR to the guests that they are for THEM not us!

OH, any advice on a groom that still wants a first dance and dollar dance even with no DJ?? I have a groomzilla i think!!!

By: Jami

Jami — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:08:44 +0000

I'm so sorry, I don't. I wish I had made a copy for myself, but I didn't!
Basically, we wen't to a paper supply place and bought a mix and match set on clearance. The envelopes were a textured ecru, and the invites were robins egg blue. We bought a flourish stamp and stamped the envelopes on the outside and typed everyones name and address. The invites had the same flourish stamp in black ink, and we took individual letters and stamped "INVEST" on the front and put a little realistic bird stamp at the bottom. I never worried over typos or smudges, because it made them look homemade, which was the point. I realized halfway through I had been typing "eighteeth" in stead of "eighteenth." Oh well

By: Jami

Jami — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:02:16 +0000

Tough situation! My husband was initially against the idea of games. I had to find one game I wanted to play, and talk him into it. Adding the trivia and sack race was easy after that first hump. A tip from my photographer is that after the ceremony, something needs to be done in order to engage all or most of the guests. If you have dancing and the bride and groom don't dance, nobody will. If you don't have anything planned people will get bored and tend to clique together making reception footage pretty dull. Bingo was great because every age can play, we had 2 groomsmen call the numbers, which was pretty funny, and there were prizes to take home for the winners. Everyone will play if there is a reason for them to play: ie BUY PRIZES! I am not kidding, eveyrone played, and lots of people won, because we had several rounds. We skipped the favors in lieu of prizes, which ranged from a barrel of monkeys, to poker sets. Also, another idea is to put together baskets and only play a few rounds. If most of your guests live in the same town put together a few different packages like "Tour of the City" which would include menus and a gift card that would cover dinner for 2, movie tickets for 2, and a card for a fancy dessert place. Or a coffee lovers package, with fancy chocolate syrup, gourmet vanilla syrup, a pound of organic beans, a french press and a great big mug. Also, a wine package with some handmade wine glasses (www.etsy.com), a bottle of wine, and some fancy shmancy cheese and crackers. Put these flashy gift baskets out for guests to see with a label "BINGO PRIZES!) and just see who doesn't play!! I am all about games, and they are free to play, which makes them SO much better than a bum DJ, and it will keep all guests involved. My bridesmaid created the trivia game for us as her gift and hosted. Each table was a team, and since people sat where they wanted, each table had a leg up in different categories. Does that help at all?!

By: Rollergirl

Rollergirl — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:06:58 +0000

I absolutley love the idea of using a typewriter for the invites… do you by chance have a photo of your invitations that I could use as an inspiration

By: ebuttell

ebuttell — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:32:26 +0000

This wedding sounds like what my fiance and I had envisioned originally and for a long time. We are recently engaged and thought we had until the end of the summer 2010 before our wedding would happen. One of our closest mutual friends and the "best man" for our wedding just found out that he has to leave for Korea for a whole year in April of 2010, therefore leaving us the decision to either marry before he leaves or wait until the summer of 2011… we decided on March of 2010, and we have booked our venue, it is a Lodge/hotel, that is rather small, and we are going to be transforming the lobby in order to accommodate a large guest list…

the big thing is, we do not want a DJ, and every stinking idea I have for alternatives, my fiance shoots down… i have suggested games, in many different ways, shapes, and forms, and he does not think that anyone will play them except for MY friends… WHAT DO I DO? I AM GETTING FRUSTRATED! We don't have the time to go back and forth for ideas because of the fact that we have less than 6 months to plan!!! HELP!!!!

By: Jami

Jami — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:04:45 +0000

We never did favors for everyone. Instead we spent the money on board games, so when you won a round of bingo or trivia you got to pick out a game to take home. We got everything from Hungry Hungry Hippos to Poker sets. It was great!