Bride Hacks

How NOT to have a boring wedding

Can you imagine anything worse than your guests being bored at the wedding that you spent months planning? Here are some very simple yet effective wedding entertainment ideas to ensure that your big day is a hit from start to finish.

These wedding entertainment ideas have come from our community of documentary wedding photographers – between them they’ve experienced thousands of weddings and they know a thing or two about how to create a fun atmosphere (and only 50% involve alcohol!) …

Food & Drink

Get an ice-cream truck for dessert. Everyone loves icecream! It also gets everyone out of the venue if you have to turn it around for the evening do.

wedding guest eating icecream
Andrew Billingon Photography

“I think the timeline makes a big difference – I much prefer weddings that are chilled all day with food vans and informal/spontaneous speeches rather than herding everyone between different rooms. Then just having lots of entertainment – music, bouncy castle, table tennis, coconut shy, limbo, magician, board games. Oh and lots of beer!”

wedding entertainment ideas - table tennis
Anna Wood Photography
mobile-pizza-catering-wedding-london
Steph Kiely Photography

Beer pong for the win!!!

Kestrel Bailey Photography
Photography by Charli

Music

If the weather is good you can’t beat an outdoor band. Guests dancing outside in the sunshine is a thing of beauty to photograph.

Lee Dann Photography

A ceilidh is a great way to get everyone up on the dancefloor!

Andy Hudson Photography

A band or DJ that plays music the guests want to hear at a volume that doesn’t drive them to the other room / other side of the room. Ceilidhs are normally a good shout as long as the caller’s good. Shot glasses as wedding favours with a bottle of spirits on the table at the reception led to one of the best parties I’ve seen! Oh and if you’ve got the budget, dodgems

wedding entertainment ideas - bumper cars
Peakography

Fun & Games

Live music and a free bar will get you far, and would be my key elements! Even better if you can have daytime live music as well as evening time. But there are also lots of little touches you can add to your day to make it that bit more special… some a bit pricier like having a caricature artist, magician, candy floss, icecream stand or photobooth, but there are loads of cheaper ideas like limbo, garden games, sweepstake for guessing the length of all the speeches, quizzes and a game of mr and Mrs.

Generally just fun things rather than super structured activities. The most tense weddings are the ones where everything is planned out to the minute. Give people an open bar and some unstructured fun activities and they’ll come up with tons of ways to be funny.

“Ferret Racing!” Sam & Steve Photography

Absolutely bouncy castles. And a free bar.

bouncy castle wedding
Alex Ford Photography

Show stoppers

At a recent wedding the groom really wanted a fire juggling show, couldn’t find one and then two weeks before the wedding I found a performing group for him. It was probably the most epic entertainment I’ve had at a wedding yet!

fire juggler at wedding
My Big Day Photos

One of the simplest and best wedding entertainment ideas I’ve seen was a glitter bar. During the evening lull, when people tend to do nothing, everyone was getting glittered up (drinking, laughing and mocking each other in a communal area) and then when it came to the actual dancing everyone was in complete rave mode, so the night was wild.

So there you have it, some great ideas to steal for your wedding! Create your free profile and save this article it by clicking the heart icon below.

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With thanks to featured REAL Suppliers:

Alex Ford Photography

Andy Hudson Photography

Anna Wood Photography

Gavin Jacob Power

Lee Dann

Martin Ellard

Peakography

Photography and Films by Charli

Scott Carney Photography

Steph Kiely Photography

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Gaia Hudson

Written by gaia_bkir

Founder of Brides Keeping it Real and mum of two little ones, Leon & Ada. Passionate about providing a supportive online community for brides and grooms who want an achievable, uncomplicated wedding planning experience.