Wedding activities vary greatly across the world depending on different cultures and traditions. However, though there are differences, most wedding ceremonies from different cultures have some common baselines – bridal showers, giving gifts, dancing to traditional wedding music, etc. These are done to make the wedding a memorable experience for all guests.
In recent times, various activities have been introduced to weddings, especially in the west, to make them unique and to ensure that such weddings won’t be forgotten in a hurry. Consequently, this has led to several wedding activities that are currently popular among millennial brides and grooms.
Here are several activities that you can consider as optional enhancements for modern weddings.
- Inviting Everyone You Have Ever Known
Typically inviting everyone you’ve ever known is a wedding tradition observed in many Asian and African cultures. Although most western weddings have traditionally kept a small guest list that usually holds the cost down, if you can afford it, you can make weddings fun and boisterous by inviting everyone the bride and groom know.
You can include friends and acquaintances from all walks of life, from colleagues, gym partners, and high school friends to your drinking buddies. While the list might seem quite big at first, many of the guests will end up not attending due to personal schedules or other reasons. The point is to let everyone know that you are willing to spend the happiest day of your adult life with them.
- A Saturday Wedding
Traditionally western weddings are held on Saturdays as it’s the perfect day of the weekend that ensures everyone is free to attend the wedding and rest up the next day before the week starts. But in recent years, many couples have begun scheduling weddings on Fridays, as it is much cheaper than the conventional Saturday weddings.
If that doesn’t fit into your budget, Sunday weddings can also suffice; however, planning for an early event is necessary to mitigate any likelihood of a Monday hangover. To ensure everyone notified of the date doesn’t forget it by accident, make the invitation memorable by sending out custom bridal shower invitations.
- Hiring a DJ
A good DJ can entertain any crowd by providing good music from the millions of popular songs available. While couples can have a good playlist on their devices and set up the wedding mood appropriately, nothing beats a live DJ playing at your wedding to get everyone in their groove.
And the best part is you don’t necessarily need to hire a celebrity DJ to play at your wedding. If you do a little searching on social media or online, you’ll find plenty of talented local DJs who’ll be more than happy to play at your wedding for reasonable fees. Of course, you can also opt to hire a band to play at your wedding, which used to be quite a popular wedding tradition till the 1990s.
- A Long Ceremony
Generally, wedding ceremonies are usually kept short to not tire everyone out for the next day. However, you can go against the grain and instead opt for a long ceremony filled with fun activities. Apart from the important nuptial tradition of exchanging vows and rings under the priest’s guidance, every other activity is optional, so stack in as much as possible.
You can make the day special for the adult guests by creating a separate zone for the kids with someone volunteering to supervise them. After that, you can host a special post-ceremony event and include activities like standup comedy, bingo, or even a BBQ.
- Playing Board Games
Board games can be a fun and entertaining way to keep the guests busy, especially if they are nerds. There are tons of board games like Jenga, Connect Four, Ring Toss, Croquet, Bocce, High Striker, darts, Wheel of Fun, and more that are really fun when played in a group. If you’re expecting a lot of kids at your wedding, a board game station will also be the perfect place to keep them busy and out of mischief.
Keeping It Simple
Planning a wedding is a difficult task, even more so when you want to make it unique, special, and memorable. Hopefully, with the ideas above, you’ll be able to plan out a wedding ceremony that the guests will remember for years to come. Hence, ensure to do your research so you don’t stretch out your budget.
