Comments on 3 ways to have a dance-free wedding reception

1. My best friend and her husband are very traditional, and he doesn’t like dancing at all. When they got married they chose a lovely venue with a room full of distinguished leather sofa’s and ‘rich mahogany’. After the meal they had everyone congregate there where fine wine and good conversation were encouraged.

   Now, this was all before I knew them and so I wasn’t present at the wedding, but they said it was a lovely and enjoyable evening for all, and actually went down really well. The venue and entertainment choice was also a reflection of the couple which, after all, is what a wedding should be!

   Yes, most people will expect dancing, but as Ariel said, they probably won’t miss it. Stick to your guns, even though it’s really really hard to sometimes, and choose one of the non-dancing options. Remember how much fun the Pixel wedding looked!

   The only dress code we’re specifying is ‘dancing shoes’… but then that’s a reflection of us!

2. love love love it!! i was recently married and AM having a dance b/c we all love to dance but i have also djed for about 6 years and have done so many weddings for people who HATE to dance and have dj simply b/c they think it is the “righ” thing to do! What a waste of money (theirs) and time (mine).

3. I like to dance, he doesn’t, so we’re splitting the reception. There will be dancing under the tent, and outside the tent with be a croquet court and a box of frisbees, balls and various other outdoor activities. So there will be a little something for everyone.

   I love the wine and conversation idea, that sounds really lovely 🙂

4. Sometimes unplanned dancing can be much better than planned dancing! At our reception this past September, we did a heavy appetizer buffet and had the Ipod going all night. We spent months picking the playlists and had a natural progression from slower “mood” music before the ceremony to fun music during “dinner” to dancier music during dessert (ice cream social!). There was a small section of the room left open in case anyone felt like dancing but there were no planned father/daughter dances, first dances, etc. A lot of people danced anyway (who can’t get in the mood with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”?), including my mom (think Martha Stewart meets Betty Crocker) which led to some amazing candid photos! I think as long as it isn’t forced, it will feel much more natural and fun!

   • That’s exactly what we’re planning for our wedding – iPod with a great playlist of dance-able songs, but we’re not doing any “first dance” or “father-daughter” dances. The one thing I can’t yet figure out is how to transition from dinner and our thank-you speech at the end to the rest of the night and make it clear that dancing is allowed… How did you do that transition?

5. My geeky buddies get bad-prom flashbacks near dance floors, so we figured we’d spare everyone the trouble and skip it. Were going to have card games, puzzles, and the like to amuse our small, nerdy bunch. They can help break the ice between people who dont know each other, and its letting us have a much cozier venue.

6. Hoops! I like to call them party hoops, as they are the adult version of the Hula Hoop (trademark). That’s what my groom and I had at our reception, and they were a smash hit. We didn’t serve alcohol, and this really loosened people up. We made ours from scratch — fairly cheap for parts and decoration — and had enough to fill the dance floor with adults who haven’t hooped since they were kids. Right after our first dance, we grabbed a hoop and the new married couple started the fun. After that it was a free-for-all. You can find instructions on the web on how to make them. I highly suggest it as it’s a hoot!

7. OMG, Colyn. I’m so embarrassed for myself. Me, co-founder of hooping.org. Me, the woman who had dozens of hula hoops at her wedding. Me, the author who’s book was originally called “And the Bride Wore A Hula Hoop” — all this, AND I FORGOT TO SUGGEST HOOPING AT A RECEPTION!?

   I’m so ashamed.

   Here are instructions on how to make your own hula hoops.

8. We did lawn games at our wedding and it was soo fun. Hula Hoops and those bizarre throwing games with velcro (you know)? Amazing.

   Also, I’m shooting a wedding in Sept where there will be no dancing. Instead, the reception is being held at an arts venue, and they’re going to do a concert/open mic night. … I am very much looking forward to it!

9. Thank you so much for this post!

   We both hate to dance, and are too shy to even really try in front of others =P So, we, of course, have been searching for ideas for entertainment.

   I thought about having one of those zoologist who exhibit exotic animals at schools and fairs and such. But then I thought, nah…only I would like that and the guests aren’t 4th graders =(

   I love the photobooth idea, though! Where would rent/buy one?

   • I LOVE the zoologist idea!! If it’s not too late then don’t scrap it!! I recently saw a bird show at the local zoo and there were WAY more adults then kids. And my fiance and I LOVED it. Almost stayed to watch the exact same show twice!

10. Try searching for “photobooth rentals” or asking your photographer to set one up for you. That’s what we did — I wrote about it in the book and included some tips.

11. Amy, I love your open mic night idea! People can sing, play instruments, tell jokes…. whatever!

    I also forgot to mention that we’re having a quiz. We thought it would be really good fun, and help all the guests to mix during dinner. Our wedding is all day, and we are having dancing, so the quiz will be handed out during dinner. There’s nothing to say you can’t mix up your seating arrangement (if you’re having one) after dinner to mix the teams up a bit, and have it for the evening entertainment! We’re even having a podium made up with special prizes for the winning teams :o) (we’re both very keen mountain bikers so it seemed fitting).

    Would love to hear what you end up choosing :o)

    PS – has anyone had a photobooth in the UK?

12. Personally, I’d enjoy having a naturlist come with animals. You could do a Noah’s Ark theme where they come two by two – a male and female of each species so you can see the difference. Not that I am into theme weddings but you could even carry it over into the decoration.

13. We had an afternoon garden reception. There was no space for dancing, but we did have a fabulous bluegrass trio play (with the groom as guest drummer). People enjoyed conversation and great food and didn’t miss the dancing at all.

    Other ideas from our friends’ weddings:
    Maypole dance (our friends did this and have a maypole party every year on their anniversary)

    Photobooth with hats. Spice the photobooth up with fun hats and props.

14. A trend in NY is to do a European style wedding. were you sit down have a civilized meal and then dance after. This can even happen in two different rooms. It gets rid of that DJ running your wedding.

    • That’s what we’re doing. We are getting married in a (fabulous, huge, old wood panelled) registry office then have found a quirky bar/restaurant which has a restaurant upstairs and a function room downstairs separate from the main bar so we can eat then move downstairs and chill. My OH doesn’t dance but I do so we’re having an Ipod and filling it with tunes that guests nominate along with a mix of stuff we like. People can dance but we’re also doing a DIY photo booth and a games corner. Can’ wait

15. Re: open mic night… there is a old Jewish tradition that it is a mitzvah (good deed) to treat the bride and groom like a king and queen for the night, and entertain them. So, you can ask for people to bring stories, jokes, dances, skits, etc to entertain the bride and groom, if you are doing a more ‘traditional’ Jewish wedding. I think one of the great things about this tradition is it gets everyone involved… tiny kids can get up and tell a joke, or do a dance, and so can your grandma. And the more people drink, the more fun its going to be. Anyway, what else are great traditions for, but for stealing? I often like truly old school wedding ideas because they are far more based on the values of community then our new school spend-a-holic wedding values.

16. “I often like truly old school wedding ideas because they are far more based on the values of community then our new school spend-a-holic wedding values.”

    That is so true!

    We will have dancing at our wedding, but we really want things be more organic, and for the dancing to just happen naturally. The last thing I want is a DJ with a mic making people do the YMCA dance.

17. we’ll have dancing at our wedding but no annoying DJ running things, but I really like the idea of card games etc. since my finace’s family is big into cards.

    it’s a fall wedding and i want to set up the apple bobbing in air game thing.

    you tie a string around the stem of apples and hang them from the ceiling. then people try to eat them without their hands.

18. love these ideas! i’m definately going to have some cards & a chess set & stuff at our reception now!( i hadn’t thought of that!)
    My fiance and i are in a band; we do mostly fun (’60s-70s) rock covers that most people know, and several of the cool, & less-popular Beetles tunes, with lots of original soulful/gyspy-like jams in the mix, too. After dinner, we’re having a “concert”…a set of 10-12 tunes where honey and i will perform in 4-5 songs…then some recorded funk & stuff, and when the band feels like going back up to jam, they can do so. Also inviting everyone to bring tambourines, djembes, shakers, ANYthing…should be groovey… so whether people dance or not, it’ll hopefully it’ll at least be natural & organic!

19. Two words:

    Guitar hero.

20. Hey Ashley,
    i can’t tell if that means you think it’s a good idea (like, yay! what a fun time we’re having) or bad, bad idea…
    ???
    Are you thinking/warning me that someone may freak out a bit on the playing, or what?
    We don’t have those kinda players/friends, so i’m not too worried.
    😉

21. I saw this on Meta-Filter and thought it was relevant.
    http://ask.metafilter.com/75588/Why-cut-the-rug

22. Reading this post has been very helpful for us, as we’re getting married at 11am and having a lunchtime reception. We’ve booked an Irish band for entertainment, but there will be no formal dance. We are also considering hiring a balloon artist for the kids and for the kids-at-heart.

    Just remember that this is simply a big party and the first big party that you’ll host together. Do it your way 🙂

23. […] Bride, my favorite site for wedding photos with personality, has a new article about a dancing-free reception. A bride-to-be with no interest in required dancing on her big day asks what she can do as an […]

24. giant yard Jenga
    cut up a bunch of 2×4’s to the same length, stack them and let people go at it.

    An unconventional yard game if you go with yard games. Very fun and makes for great pics.

25. We had a balloon artist at our brunch wedding – and many people have commented it was one of the more delightful weddings they’ve ever attended.

26. I really like these great ideas! My fiance & I aren’t big dancers and we really didn’t like the idea of a DJ taking over the reception. Our wedding will be next January & where we live it will be too cold to go outdoors to do much at all. Does anyone have any good suggestions for some fun, winter activities that we could do at the reception?

27. we are having our “reception” at a hip, local bowling alley. we are renting the whole thing out. since bowling is one of our favorites, and dancing is NOT, we thought this would be so fun.
    we are still having a friend be our dj.
    plus it didn’t cost as much as we thought.
    rock on

28. I LOVE the photo booth idea – and it won’t happen at our wedding due to the fact that my family’s place is in the stix. Any ideas to copy the idea without an actual photo booth?

    • Sparkbooth.com is what we used for a photo booth at our wedding…. 60 bucks for a downloadable program that uses your Web cam. It’s user friendly, fast, and you can use a feature on the program to lock the screen in the photo booth so your private documents on your computer aren’t available. We loved it!

29. I talk about this in my book, actually. All you need is a camera with a remote! Here are a few of our non-photobooth/photobooth shots.

30. My fiance and I enjoy SCA events regularly and it gave us the idea to invite some belly-dancing friends and drummers to the reception to entertain everyone.

31. We’re getting married soon, and I’m sure there will be some impromptu dancing (fine with us), but I desperately want to have the first-ever (to my knowledge) “wedding roast”. I really want guests to roast us at our reception – how much fun would that be? Most of our guests will be friends that we’ve known for a VERY long time, since we’ve been together for twelve years. I think it would be a hoot!

32. I think the wedding roast thing would be so much fun! Let me ask you, we’re doing our wedding reception at a cute little club because we live in Illinois where they have now banned people from smoking inside places and this place has a “porch” sourrounding the whole place and since I smoke, I am being a tad bit selfish by demanding we have it there-has anyone ever seen a wet (april wedding) bride on her wedding day? I would imagine it not be good..is this wrong of me? Future in laws want a nice fancy smancy wedding, I saw hook up the ipod, put some food and favors out, let the booze start running and that’ll be fun!

33. I noticed my grammar was awful in that post-I’m not a hick people

34. We’re having the ceremony & party in the evening at the local Botanic garden. The style is very casual and the reception will be a cocktail mixer with a small jazz combo playing off to the side. I definately agree: lotsa good booze and food will entertain just about everybody. And the kids can run and jump—and not break anything! 😉

35. One of the most memorable weddings I went to had an Elvis impersonator as the entertainment. It was hilarious and lightened the mood. Some people danced along, but nobody felt required to.

36. Ever since my fiance and I started going to Pat O’s Piano Bar in the French Quarter, I’ve been wanting to have dueling pianos at my reception. I only dance if I’m wasted and well….Dave just can’t dance. We’re having a small and intimate reception; I think it would be a cool way for both families to have fun together, drinking a tall one and singing along to the songs that THEY request.

37. We are having a bon-fire/campfire starting in the evening after our BBQ wedding. Hopefully there will be a old fashioned campfire sing along.

38. Hi all, we’re marrying at the end of May, and neither us wanted the DJ/forced dancing. We’re providing ambient music (some dance, some not) via computer/ipod, and we’re also supplying Polaroid one-shots and a ton of instant film for entertainment/candid shots, as well as maybe horse-shoes (it’s a garden wedding)

39. My fiance and I aren’t into dancing, so we’re having a day wedding in a park with a dinner afterward and then games (frisbee, football, etc) afterwards. If anyone has any other ideas for fun outdoor games I’d love to hear them, but I’m just excited to hear that other people are doing similar things.

40. What about a treasure hunt or scavenger hunt kind of activity? I’m very fortunate in that my partner has a large piece of property in a rural area so I’m thinking a treasure hunt with a clue at each location for the next location maybe. Or perhaps sort of an easter egg hunt thing with little treats for your guests at each location. Or maybe a contest and the first to solve all the riddles/clues gets a prize.

41. We are fortunate in that we have an incredible group of friends who are very talented. There will be drummers aplenty, a great bonfire, fire spinners, mead running like water, and the occasional interjection from a talented guitarrist. I figure we’re covered, really – but I’ve got to say, I really loved the photo booth (or make your own photo booth) idea, especially with the addition of a notebook available so people can write us notes. I can barely wait – now here’s hoping it turns out at least a little bit close.

42. These ideas were AWESOME!!!! esp since I’m having a dance-free wedding reception. Thanks. Keep the ideas flowing.

43. Hi everyone, this is the greatest website ever! We’re having an outdoor wedding and I love the idea of lawn games. We’re making our own photo booth with an old silk screen that I found at a thrift store and a digital camera and tripod hooked up to a small photo printer that one of my bridesmaids have. I will have a basket of hats and masks for people to try on to take pictures with.

44. My fiance and I aren’t big dancers either, so instead of swaying around like a couple of 7th graders at their 1st dance, or having a weird uncomfortable “father/daughter” dance with my step-father, I’m skipping the whole dance-floor/dj thing as well. Instead, we’re having a kick ass dinner and drinks at a really nice restaurant. When we’re done, we’re sending the parents & family back to the hotel (destination wedding in Key West), and all the partiers in the group are hitting Duval Street to party! we’ll have our “1st dance” to what ever is playing in the first club we end up in!

45. We’re going to set up several Wii game consoles with multi-player games. It’ll be an awesome way to get people mingling and have a ton of fun.

    • this would be great too if there were any kids!

46. i thought about having Wii game consoles at the reception too, but i’m starting to wonder what the older people who don’t really play video games will do. any ideas?

    • My grandma LOVES Wii Bowling…I think you'd be surprised to find how many Older people like it! 🙂

      • Yep, my grandmother can play a mean round of Wii Golf haha.

    • I work for a study that enrolls elderly participants and I’ve heard from MANY of them how much they enjoy wii! It’s great for older people who still want to bowl but maybe can’t get out to the lanes or find the balls too heavy now. Many independent living communities have at least a weekly wii event for them. Have no fear!!

47. We just had our poker themed wedding reception a week ago where we created a “poker run” to take the place of an awkward dollar dance. People could pay $5 to get a poker hand, which they got from 5 different dealers that were mingling throughout our reception. Halfway through the night, we got everyone’s attention to see who had the best hand and got to split the pot with the new couple. It was a huge hit and kept people busy and mingling. We got a lot of compliments, especially from men that DO NOT DANCE. It also got people mingling to see who had a better hand.
    We also did karaoke throughout the night- that was pretty entertaining.

48. Kala – I’m also a little concerned about the older guests. I’m hoping at least some of them will try out one of the simpler games! But for those who really don’t want to participate, we’re going to leave the tables set up and have drinks and snacks so they can talk and mingle with the other non-gamers (we’ve got a big enough reception room to do it all in the one place). We’ll also have some music going. I’ll probably end up going between the two groups to ensure no one’s feeling left out.

49. These are some great ideas. We are not big dancers either so we are going to hire a casino to set up and our guests will win tickets instead of money and we will have a drawing at the end of the night for prizes.

50. I have a pretty small budget to work with and can’t justify spending a ton of money on one day. My fiance didn’t like the idea of a Friday night wedding.

    I’m thinking about a non-dancing wedding reception too, since we are not inviting a large group, and I’m not sure how many of them would want to spend all night on the dance floor anyway. But I would still like to have some form of entertainment or “partying” after dinner. Personal friends of mine own a banquet hall, so obviously I’d love to use their facilities, and a good reason for that is my budget, and I know they’d give me a great deal, plus I know the food is great. However, my mom is in a wheelchair, and the banquet hall is upstairs – which she wouldn’t be able to get to. The last thing I want to do is exclude my mother. They have a room in the lower level which serves as party room and a “restaurant” (complete with bar), so I’m sure we could use that instead. But there isn’t any room down there for dancing or a dance floor, nor a DJ, etc.

    I read through all these posts and only one person (Shellie) mentioned something similar to what I’m thinking about. I’m wondering how this would work – have the cocktail hour, dinner, and rent a bus for a night-on-the-town kind of party instead? Bar-hopping, with dance places included, so there would actually be dancing? I would spring for the bus of course, but everything else would have to be paid for by the attendees. (Now I’d have to think about places that don’t have a cover charge.)

    I think we will be inviting about 60ish people, and I know maybe half of that would probably go out partying so one bus would cover the crowd.

    Does anyone have any opinions on doing this? I’m searching the internet and can’t find anything out there like this.

51. i like the idea of renting out a hip bowling alley or renting casino tables and slots. those are the things i’m considering since i’m really the only one who would be dancing or hooping. plus we are already married, but just looking to have a ceremony since we courthouse’d it the first go around, so i don’t think anyone is going to expect us to be Emily Post.

    • I’m glad you posted this. I have people going “Why are they having a ceremony if they’ve already gotten married?” Which I think is extremely unfair, especially with our curcumstances.

      BAck to the subject, we are only having 50 guests tops at a resteraunt that cannot have a dance floor (they’ve tried and it just didn’t work), There is a smaller room which I believe we will set up the buffet tables, cake and small bar area. I think the best ideas for us would be the photo booth (grooms sis could be of great help) and Wii (Ryan is an addict and we have two systems. I just hope the room could hold it all.

52. I have been wrestling with ideas for a non-traditional wedding reception/dance type thing in my head for ages! Luckily, I have a lot of friends in the Society for Creative Anachronism, so here are some of the suggestions that I have made or gotten from others:
    ~ bellydancers
    ~ juggler or storyteller
    ~ someone to lead guests through some medieval/folk dances
    ~ troubadors and musicicans to sing
    ~ of course, the obligatory ambient Celtic/folk/medival music during the feast
    ~ re-creating the wonderful dance scene from the movie “A Knight’s Tale” 🙂

53. A friend of mine held his wedding reception at a maritime museum. After dessert all guests could stroll around the museum at will, and we had the place to ourselves. It was perfect for me too because I hate the whole loud music/dancing thing. I’m a wallflower.

54. I know a couple who held their reception at the local bowling alley. Waaay fun, informal and silly!

    • Man I wish I had thought of the bowling alley thing before booking my venue. That sounds like so much fun.

55. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent looking around on the internet for help on reception planning! I have a friend who’s a DJ, and it seemed like I wasn’t going to get any deal using him (not even for rental equipment!). Plus we’re not big dancers, and I’d feel like if I had a DJ and 1st dances and such, then it’d feel like it’s because what’s normal or typical, not because it’s what we want.

    The Wii idea sounds great. I was also thinking about Poker, but was wondering if that would keep some people anti-social? As in, do you think the same 6 people might hang out at the table all night? I was thinking of having it so that if you lost all your chips, you would have to give up your seat to the next person. Is it lame to put a rule like that up?

    I was also thinking of a wedding pinata as well. I’ve been looking online for a good one 🙂

    My fiance’s sister got married last year, and while she had a DJ at her reception, she also had a ping pong table set up. It was a wonderful idea! I loved how she had people sign the table as well!

    Please keep the ideas coming, I only have 3 weeks to get this planned!!

56. Im taking notes. These are some really good ideas. I also dont want forced dancing, the dollar dance, garter/boquet toss, or glass tapping. My family are really reallly not dancers so card and board games sound like super duper fun.

57. I’m planning a wedding in St. Augustine Florida. I too, am not a dancer and have been trying to find a venue where I wouldn’t feel the need to have a DJ or dance floor and I think I have found it. I was considering having my wedding at a winery. After the ceremony my 30 guest would be taken on a tour of the winery and then treated to a wine tasting with or’derves. The nice part is that there is a jazz bar on the top floor of the winery and any one who wanted to dance and listen to music could go up there after the reception. My after party idea was to take who ever was still hanging around in a sailing ship ghost tour.
    I would love some feed back on this.

58. My fiance and I aren’t dancers, but we do like the DJ idea. We think we’re going to a traditional church wedding with the reception either at a bowling alley or roller skating rink. Pizza and hot dogs included.

59. Abby, your reception ideas sound AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL. can I come?
    Lex, love the roller rink reception with pizza and hot dogs!
    Everyone has amazing ideas!
    Our wedding is on the beach in south florida (where we live) and the reception at the hotel everyone will be staying at. it was easy and they gave us a deal. I am definitely a wallflower, but my fiaace is the dancer. He definitely wants a DJ and a dancefloor. When I read over all these ideas, I realize that this really isn’t what I wanted for my wedding celebration. I wanted the bonfire and s’mores and acoustic background guitar. So my hubby-to-be and I will have to work out a compromise of some sort. Maybe we have loud hip hop / dance music for an hour but poker tables and a photo station the rest of the night?
    I guess we’ll see!

60. I’ve heard of just having games intermittently played throughout the evening. For example, a newlyweds game or or one where the bride and groom are sitting in chairs, back to back. The bride has one of the groom’s shoes and he has one of hers. The dj asks a question like “Who snores the most” or “Who will spend the most money”, and the bride and groom hold up the shoe that they believe corresponds with the answer.We are trying to narrow down the game because we are having a comedic slide show put together by our parents.

61. We aren’t big dancers either- and the reception site we found actually has a bowling alley in the same building- a great 50’s style, small number of lanes, classic alley. And since when we first met I would go watch the Fiance bowl each week. So we’re getting a couple lanes rented for after dinner.

62. My Dearest Love hates being the center of attention and doesn't like dancing, so we're planning a do-your-own-thing garden party. Ideas so far include: homemade hula hoops, a photobooth or polaroid station, mustaches on sticks, ribbon wands http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=2… (I saw these at a festival over the weekend and loved the idea), parasols or umbrellas, and possibly face painting for children. (not tigers and rainbows, but perhaps eye-masks in colors that suit our celebration). No dance floor, but if people feel like dancing on the grass, they're welcome to!

63. My Dearest Love hates being the center of attention and doesn't like dancing, so we're planning a do-your-own-thing garden party. Ideas so far include: homemade hula hoops, a photobooth or polaroid station, mustaches on sticks, ribbon wands http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=2… (I saw these at a festival over the weekend and loved the idea), parasols or umbrellas, and possibly face painting for children. (not tigers and rainbows, but perhaps eye-masks in colors that suit our celebration). No dance floor, but if people feel like dancing on the grass, they're welcome to!

64. Our friends were married a little over a year ago. They had a small guest list with very few people who wanted to dance. They had an ipod and a dance area and did a choreographed ballroom number that was quite sweet. After their first dance, they turned on the three tvs their closest friends hauled in (my FH included) and had Super Smash Brothers, Rock Band, and Dance Dance Revolution going all night. Many of the guests were the gamer type, including the bride and groom. Those that weren't up for gaming seemed quite content with mingling, and the ipod stayed on in case anyone still wanted to dance (though no one did).

    My FH loved this idea, and since all of the gamers that were at our friends' wedding will be invited to ours as well, we plan to follow suit. My family and I are a bit more into the usual dancing though, so we plan on having all the usual dances and the fun ones as well. I'll be traveling between both areasto be sure I spend time with everyone.

    I'm also debating a photobooth, but the wedding's still too far away to know what kind of budget we have to work with. (2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years or so. We want a winter wedding in the snow, but I'm finishing college first.)

65. In my experience, if you have a lot of guests coming in from out of town that you haven't seen for a while, they may just want to talk and catch up. Background music would be perfect in this case. If you DO want to dance, though, you should try to have all out-of-towners invited to the rehearsal dinner so they can talk then and celebrate with music and dancing at the wedding itself.

66. Something that I'm considering for our wedding (which will have dancing) that might also be good for a non-dance wedding is video games. I'm thinking of simple ones that even non-gamers can enjoy, like Wii sports, Wii sports resort, DDR, and maybe even Rayman. I think it would be a good alternative to lawn games for an evening wedding.

67. I know this sounds so college and silly but we are getting married this saturday and my soon to be brother and law built us a custom beer pong table. I know our friends and some of the older folks will appriciate this, nothing gets groups together like old fashion BEER PONG !

68. I want you guys to know that you just saved my sanity. No, really. My family has been trying to convince me that I'm insane and that my plans won't possibly work.

    My fiance is very shy, and we both hate going to weddings that have dances as we both hide in the corner and avoid dancing at all costs. We figured we didn't need to hide in the corner at our own wedding. I also live in a place that it is a very real possibility that it will be too cold or rainy in early July to be outside, so I need to have an excellent rain out plan. (We live in Canada. It's cold here.)

    I'm hoping to find a hall that has a park, a volleyball or horse shoe pit, and a fire pit. Can I specify "casual bbq reception" on the invites, have people come in jeans, serve dinner inside and then move outside after supper? I'm planning to have an iPod hooked up both inside and out. Will everyone go home at nine? Someone tell me that I'm not crazy, just a little offbeat?

    P.S. Love the giant Jenga idea!!

69. We can't afford a DJ/dance floor, and are having our wedding in Santa Barbara wine country (I work in the wine industry, and we're both winos.) So instead we are calling it a "Dinner Party-style Reception" involving an excellent meal and equally excellent wine (and a signature cocktail option.) There's plenty of room on the adjoining patio to mingle, so I'm hoping all will have a good time. I would just rather nix the DJ and have a honeymoon! 🙂

70. Carly, that sounds great! I bet many of the guests would be totally relieved that they actually got to have fun on their weekend instead of feeling uncomfortable or bored! 🙂 And I think if you want to do that, it would definitely be important to signify it on the invites somehow. You don't want people feeling uncomfortable since they're standing in front of the campfire in their fancy clothes. Maybe you could do some sort of invite "supplement" that looks like an old-fashioned advertisement highlighting the fun activities ("campfire with smores!" "games for the kids!" "true love!")

    A friend of mine had a western-themed wedding at her fiancee's parent's house in the country. Unfortunately I wasn't there, so I don't know whether they had dancing, but they DID have a hayride for the kids! Everyone thought it was great!

71. I loved all of these ideas so so much! We're the same way, I love music and I will have it in the background, but I don't want cheesy twist and shout, and I don't want to do the first dance stuff. Wedding is planned for October, and I really want to be outside in the leaves and the trees. All of these ideas were so great! I love giant Jenga! I'm super excited that I'm not the only one who doesn't want a DJ shouting out over the crowd. LOL!

72. I don't care for dancing myself, and as we're having a semi-casual lunch reception for mainly family, I don't think we're going to do much dancing. I'll have tons of great music (iPod) that can be great for dancing, so if anyone wants to dance we'll have plenty of room and music for it, but I doubt I'll do much.

    So….I'm still looking for ideas to keep us busy if our families don't mesh as well as I'm hoping- we're from very different backgrounds. My one decision so far is to make a video station. I'm going to make a background and set up a tripod with a video camera and some prompts- "What are your favorite memories you have of the bride/groom?" "What is one thing you'll remember about our wedding?" ect. Hopefully it'll give us something fun to do when we're all a little tipsy, and it'll break the ice. I might even put the prompts on the tables to get people talking before they go to the station.

    I would still like to have a few more ideas to keep things interesting, but all on a voluntary basis- I don't want someone feeling awkward and forced to play games they are not interested in.

73. Wow! I'm with kindred spirits! I am trying to stay on a strict budget (more for the honeymoon!). We have narrowed down the ceremony/reception to an afternoon event in either a local gardenesque park or a small winery. We will have about 50 guests, and we don't really dance. (However, I do find the idea of a first dance kind of romantic. Would it be weird to do this in a kind of impromtu fashion, but without an official dancefloor for everyone?) Are thinking about just the Ipod idea, with maybe croquet or horseshoes, and maybe the diy photobooth with romantic props. I'm trying to picture the technical aspects of the booth though. Do we leave a polaroid there, or a camera with a remote, hooked up to a printer, or have guests use their own cameras?

    Also, along the same lines, I don't love the idea of tons of toasts by different people. Would it be okay to have one person do a toast with a glass of champagne, and call it good?

74. Love the guitar hero & bowling alley ideas! I totally understand where you’re coming from. My fiance and I are not really shy, BUT we always find the dinner/dancing thing sort of boring (it depends, though, on who the guests are–if there are fun people there, it’s ok). But, it’s just not us.

    We are having what I call a “clip” festival” where we are showing wedding-related scenes from movies and some tv shows (had to have the Simpsons and a few others). We are breaking it into categories that people will vote on. (E.g., best bouquet toss, best speech, etc.)

    And we’re having a contest, which is a bit complicated so I’ll spare you the details.

    But I am excited for this. My fiance and I have been working on the clips for months but everytime we watch them, it sucks us in for an hour because the clips are so funny.

    I think our guests are going to have fun…even the non-dancers will have fun at a wedding. For once!

    We also are not doing the whole round table of 10 thing. It’s finger food all the way (we just have to figure out a way to do a few traditional entrees in bite size servings,….if anyone has any suggestions, send ’em along!)

75. We are getting married in Las Vegas and we originally thought about doing a reception that was Vegas themed. We thought about doing casino type games where the guests could win chips. The top 3 guests would each win a vegas themed prize. We talked about playing Elvis, Wayne Newton and Frank Sinatra during the reception. We both hate slow dancing, but we wouldn’t mind if anyone else wanted to dance. We also thought about doing bingo for the kids. Because our wedding is so small, it was more practical for us to plan a reception dinner in Vegas.

76. If my boyfriend and I ever get married, we are not likely to have dancing. Getting married at a Renaissance Faire is a fun way to entertain guests while avoiding dancing. Also, consider getting married at an aquarium. Large aquariums (those that have tunnels, etc.), often will offer you to rent their venue after hours for about 4 hours. Many even provide a banquet room.

77. I’ve been reading this site for a few weeks now, and wanted to chime in for sure on this. I wanted dancing, but I knew I didn’t want an obnoxious bandleader or dj running MY show. What I did was rented a jukebox from a local vending company. They allowed me to hand select each song in it, and turned OFF the $$ feature, so it played for free. I picked some songs that ALL my guests could relate to, as well as ones that were special to me and my fella. Then we encouraged guests to use the jukebox, and promised if they picked a song and wanted to dance with the bride, well she HAD to (I love dancing.) It was super cheap, personalized and a HUGE hit.

78. Thank you thank you thank you for this post! My Love doesn’t enjoy dancing and I go dancing enough myself that I didn’t really want it at our wedding, but I didn’t know what else to do. This has given me some great ideas.

79. My fiance and I are having a family-only destination wedding with a big reception in our home town a few weeks later. I have never wanted to have a “dance”, but am planning on having a 3 piece band and possibly some space in front to dance if people imbibe enough! But how to entertain the non-dancers has been an issue. I love the Wii/card games, and was thinking of throwing in some other fun group games ie Apples to Apples, Yahtzee, Buzz Word, Catch Phrase. I can’t figure out how they would be set up though, I’d love to have several couch and coffee table type areas, but what kind of venue would have that? Do board games sound fun or lame?

80. This article is exactly what I’m looking for! My fiance and I are not one’s to dance. So we were just thinking about having background music. Won’t be hard seeing as that we are probably having our wedding/reception in a park.

81. im having a vintaage 1940’s wedding and due to religious reasons we are not having a dance but i really want some cool ideas. but im on a budget and really need help!!!! I thought of maybe some swing dancers, live music but i figure why that wen no one will really dance to it!! HELP ME PLEASE!

82. All great ideas, but I wonder if anyone has any suggestions for a very small (15 person) reception after a beach wedding that will not have: a dance floor, a bar, a sit down dinner, video/board/athletic games, or karaoke/performances. I’m thinking probably a bonfire on the beach with picnic blankets, s’mores, and kabobs. Or perhaps a boat ride. Any ideas?

83. My husband doesn’t like dancing, so that was not an option for our wedding. Instead, we did an afternoon event and after lunch we had Bingo! We called the first round together (in lieu of a first dance) and then different outgoing guests, the wedding party, kids, etc. took turns calling. We’d play until one or a few people won, then take some time for general mingling and socializng before starting another game. There were small prizes ($2-4 range) for all ages. The guests had a blast, and we did too! We put out other games and outdoor toys but they barely got touched. What made Bingo work well for us is that every age and ability could play and if you didn’t want to, you could still chat with people who were playing. It wasn’t like a dance floor where nondancers can sometimes get ditched on the sidelines.

    The only thing I didn’t like about the wedding was that it was a bit shorter than an evening event would have been, so I didn’t get quite as much time as I would have liked to chat with some guests even though we only had about 90. But it was fun, reflective of us, casual, and much less expensive than an evening event.

84. I’m so relieved to read about other people’s non-dancing shindigs! We’re having an outdoor evening wedding/reception, and since neither of us really like dancing too much, we decided to skip it. My friends and parents looked at me like I’m from Venus when I told them, which really surprised me … and made me nervous. But I think we can make it work with lawn games, board games, Rock Band on a giant inflatable screen, and booze. Lots and lots of booze.

85. Laser Tag! theres a place literally next to where we are considering having our reception. Just not sure how to incorporate the older generation…but they do have a glass viewing room that you can see the whole arena from…
    Also, if I knew everyone could get in on it, either ice skating or my all time favorite but a definite no- PAINTBALL!

    Is this sounding too much like a childrens birthday party???

86. Traveling planetarium! We’re doing a loose celestial theme, and are working to bring a traveling planetarium show to the site. We are setting up a telescope and writing up some coordinates to search for on a chalkboard. To tie things together, my fiance printed up star maps of various moments in our relationship and had them framed to use as table markers. These became pieces of art for us later.

    Honestly, the hardest part has been keeping the wedding from getting schizophrenic — we are serving snowcones during the cocktail hour, mac n’ cheese from a food truck during dinner, and having a donut wedding cake. There will be lawn games and a lounge and lions and tigers and bears ohmy. We can’t afford a band, but we would love to have a some quality live music — instead, we’re overcompensating with lots of fun and games!

87. I know I am late to this party, but I wanted to comment. I have a group of more traditional family and friends, who have chosen to forgo alcohol and dancing (I have very high standards on them myself). Some do, but they are extremists in drinking and I want to avoid that as well. I still want to have a fun time at my reception where we spend time together- a rare happening with us! So I’ve chosen board games! We will have different game stations set up around the venue, and even some video games to play. In fact, instead of first dance, we’re going to do a first game. Although, I still can’t get a hankering for a piñata out of my mind haha! The favors will be phrases like love and cherish, family and friends, fun and games, on magnets handmade with scrabble tiles. I’m going to have a photo setup for pics and even a scavenger hunt for the ride from the ceremony to reception. Really, the main theme is just a geeky, nerdy, books and games but I wanted to share some ideas. I hope they help!

88. I choose to shoot my husband with paint balls so following dinner when everyone is fat and lazy we will take off in different direction to avoid being shot and shooting each other *sighs* fun times

89. My husband doesnt do dancing either so we didn’t plan on dancing but we ended up having a first dance! and then danced with our parents. it was fun 🙂

90. Thanks so much for this article! I am definitely going to go through that entire no dancing tag group. Neither my boyfriend or I are “dancers” and we keep ideas like this of how to get beyond the traditional dinner and dancing. Friends of friends are tabletop gamers and instead of a first dance did a “first dice roll” and had different piles of board games on every table of every description and everyone just played board games at their wedding reception all night!

91. We are planning a brunch wedding. We do really want the option for people to dance, but it’s also very important to use to have games and whatnot so no one feels pressured and everyone is entertained according to their own interests/comfort level. This post got me thinking though– would it be too odd to try and get people to dance at a morning wedding? There’s still going to be booze so I figured it’d be all good LOL. I LOVE the karaoke idea (for at least a little while) but feel like my mom’s head would explode!

92. I hired a tarot reader (as entertainment) who is experienced with large corporate events and private parties. We’ll see how it goes, because we also have a live band that will probably be kinda loud… oh well, she’ll just have to shout people’s futures at them. 🙂

93. We had our wedding on a Sunday so it was kind of a given it wasn’t going to run late with partying & dancing. I just danced with my hubby and my dad and my brother…which is what I wanted anyways. My parents danced and a few others, but most people left on the earlier side. Everyone seems to forget weddings/receptions are to celebrate the couple, they are not for the couple to entertain everyone else.

94. I run a DJ company and you can have a wedding without dancing, Ive even DJd at one where they wanted no dancing but they did want someone that could control the vibe on the night as they did different activities. Remember that even without dancing you will want some focal points for the evening and some people that are responsible for looking after things if your plans go awry on the day (which is the traditional role of the DJ generally) as you want to keep the momentum up regardless of what you do! Have a great wedding day.
    Daniel Toop

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