Wedding Reception Ideas You’ll Definitely Want to Steal

There are so many different ways to make your wedding day fun, unique and memorable! Your reception is where some of the best memories of the day are made, with photo opportunities galore. If you’re looking for ways to ensure that your wedding reception will be talked about for months to come, here are a few fun ideas that you’ll definitely want to steal:

Create a signature cocktail

Get the celebrations off to a classy start by creating a signature cocktail for your wedding. Use your personalities as a couple as a guideline and chat to a mixology pro about some of the options for tasty and Instagrammable cocktails your guests will be raving about and remember for years to come. Everyone will love the unique options and it will help kick your reception into high gear. When my cousin got married in 2019 we were all given strawberry daiquiris to kick off the cocktail hour and I still remember how festive it felt with everyone holding gorgeous pink drinks while we mingled and chatted with old friends and family members.

Give them cake to-go

If you will be serving other desserts at the reception but would still like to give your guests a slice of wedding cake, why not purchase a few cardboard boxes that your guests can use to take some sugary goodness home with them. They come in dozens of colours so you will be able to easily match them to your wedding them – don’t forget the custom labels on them! One of things I do for my couples is custom printing of stickers, labels, and other items for their weddings! For my own wedding I printed all of the wine labels, invitations, and paperbits with our own custom design. I loved seeing everything match with our theme carried through right from the save the date to the thank you cards. Giving your guests a custom box of cake will keep your wedding fun fresh that little bit longer!

Pair up table numbers and photos

Give your guests a glimpse into your pasts by creating custom table numbers that include photos of you and your partner at that specific age. You can also name your tables after places you have visited together, cities you have lived in, your favourite board games, or anything else that is personal to to two of you. How about your favourite foods or restaurants? For my wedding we named our tables after Scottish castles (since both of us were born in Scotland) and the head table was called Brigadoon!

Customize your coasters

Get your guests to write down their words of wisdom on custom-printed coasters that you scatter on the tables. Ask your guests to pop them in a box at the bar so you can read them later and save them as a guest book or laminate them and use them as coasters in your home! Don’t forget to put pens and markers at each table!

Create your own Instagram hashtag

Hundreds of photos will be taken at your wedding and sometimes the best shots are taken by your guests. To make sure that you don’t miss out on any of these amazing moments and memories, create your own Instagram hashtag and display it at the reception for all to use. Don’t stress about making it the most clever hashtag ever created – I see so many brides on socials begging for help with their wedding hashtag – don’t waste time and energy if the best you can come up with is #TheBrownsGetMarried2022. The point is not to be clever, the point is to be easily found on socials by yourself and your loved ones.

Change up the garter and bouquet toss

Don’t want to simply toss your garter into the crowd? Change things up a bit by placing it on a football or baseball and get your new spouse to toss that into the crowd instead. Same with the flower toss – if watching your friends and loved ones fight over your flowers isn’t your thing, consider giving each single woman her own flower and wish her all the best on her path to marriage. You could also have two (or four) small bouquets made and hand each one to your grandmothers for an extra special moment at your reception.

Get them dancing

Add a touch of fun to your reception and get more people to dance by assigning a song or lyric to each table. When the DJ plays that particular song, the entire table needs to get up and dance. You could also tell the story of each song – was it playing the moment you met? Was it the song you proposed to? Did you hear this song at an important moment in your relationship? Draw your guests into your life together with the stories of what is meaningful to both of you.

Add a DIY beer bar

Are you and your partner fans of a cold beer? Why not hire out a DIY beer bar where your guests can help themselves. Add one or two different varieties and a couple of mason jars and you’re good to go. Same goes for a bubbly bar! I love the ones that include cotton candy to melt into glasses of champagne! I have seen candy and sweets bars, popcorn bars, and hot chocolate bars at weddings.

Even the bathrooms can be fun

Add a quirky touch to the reception bathrooms by adding a funny photo of each of you on the bathroom doors. You can order removable vinyl messages for the mirrors and you won’t want to forget the basket of supplies like tissues, hairspray, mints, bandaids, stain remover, sewing kit, dental floss, pain tablets, hair elastics, and period care products (because we all know the saying, if you go, it will come). Some of my couples have had me create their own custom labels for each item so their wedding colours and theme show up even while their guests are taking care of business!

Everyone loves ice cream

Instead of serving up traditional desserts or opting for a DIY candy bar, why not change things up by having an ice cream bar instead (or do both!)? Throw in a few different ice cream flavors and toppings (in your wedding colours) and you won’t be able to keep your guests away. Everyone loves a sundae and your guests will be sharing their creations all over social media! How fun is that?

When it comes to planning your wedding reception, decide what’s most important to you as a couple and build on that. You can’t go wrong.

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