Brides hunting for games for wedding reception know that too many games out there are boring, overused, or simply more appropriate for, say, a bridal shower or bachelorette party. But wedding reception games are a new trend brides are embracing because they want their weddings to stand out from the crowd and they want their receptions to be more than just dinner and dancing.

The Alternative Bride got its start in the biz of helping brides choose awesome games to play at weddings. (In fact, we wrote the book on it.) Below find 3 of our favorite fun wedding reception activities to help your guests remember how fun and unique your wedding reception really was.

Games for Wedding Reception: 3 Fun Wedding Reception Activities

#1: Celebrity Match

This is a great game to play if you’re into pop culture or have a star-studded wedding theme… after all, everyone loves a little juicy celebrity gossip! It’s also the perfect ice-breaker for those tables where not everyone knows each other.

To prep for this game, you’ll need to think up a couple dozen celebrity names, real or ficitional, dead or alive, who are or were married. You’ll need to make as many sets of cards as you have tables to play these kinds of fun wedding reception activities. Print the cards on paper that matches your wedding color theme and place them in cute baskets as part of your table centerpieces (adorable!).

To play, guests pull a card and read it aloud to their table. As a group, the table should try to figure out who that celebrity is or was married to. If they can think up more than one spouse for any given celebrity, great! The table gets a point for each spouse they can think of.

#2: Crazy Captions

This game proves that games for wedding reception don’t have to be complicated. All you have to do is find a cute photo or two or three of the happy couple, make copies, and put them on your reception tables.

To play, guests collaborate to write funny and/or cute and/or romantic captions. Make this one of the really fun wedding reception activities by also supplying little stickers in the shape of speech bubbles – or you can just print the pics on plain paper so they’re easy to write on. You can even provide markers in your wedding colors so you can slide the pics into your wedding album later as a cute keepsake.

During dessert, you can have your wedding party come around and gather all the pictures. Then they can either be posted up on a board or wall for people to check out during the dance (great conversation starter!) or the bride and groom can peruse them and give out prizes for their favorite(s).

#3: You’ve Got to Fight for Your Right to Maaaaaaaarry! (with apologies to the Beastie Boys 🙂 )

As far as wedding reception games go, this one is great for the garter and bouquet giveaway. Instead of just tossing them randomly into an awkward crowd of singles, people have to compete to get their paws on the prize!

This is one of the greatest fun wedding reception activities because it will force your singles to interact and kick their heels up a bit… plus, it involves all of the rest of your guests, too, so no one gets bored. To play, first think up a list of five items at least some of your guests are likely to have on them. Then, set up the room (probably the dance floor) with eight chairs, four for the bachelors and four for the bachelorettes.

To play, someone announces the first item – perhaps a lighter. All the singles have to rush out to the reception tables to find someone who has a lighter, then rush back to the chairs and sit down. Anyone who didn’t make it into one of the four chairs for their side is out! You’ll now be down to four singles on each side.

For the next round, take away a chair from each side and announce the next item: maybe a gas station receipt or a nail file. Again, the singles run out into the crowd to try to find a guest with that item, then they rush back to grab a chair. Whoever doesn’t get a chair is out! Continue playing until there is just one bachelor and bachelorette left – they win the bouquet and garter!

Why Wedding Reception Games?

Games to play at weddings are becoming more and more popular all the time. It makes sense! People get tired of seeing the same old wedding routine day in and day out. After all, your love is special and unique, and you want your wedding to reflect that. That’s why games to play at weddings are a great idea, not just for dinner, but for the cocktail hour, the dance, at the gift-opening, and more. (If you’d like more inspiration, we’d love for you to check out our book!)