The cocktail hour is the time between the end of a wedding ceremony and the beginning of dinner. It is a nice time for your guests to mingle and nibble on some tasty appetizers, but it can also be kind of a dead time, as really, everyone is waiting for the bride and groom to make their grand entrance. Turn your cocktail hour into one of the highlights of your wedding by setting up fun games that everyone can enjoy.
When you think of games to have during your cocktail hour, think of fun outdoor games that have a timeless appeal. We are not talking board games or pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey! Great ideas include lawn games such as croquet, bocce ball, or even horseshoes. I was going to suggest setting up a mini driving range, but then you would lose half of the male guests to it for the rest of the evening! Best to stick with games that are entertaining, but easy to walk away from when it is time for dinner.
Wooden Cocktail Tables
There are several great reasons to have entertainment during your cocktail time. One is to keep it lively and interesting for your guests, especially if you will be having your wedding photos taken during that period. Sometimes the cocktail hour can easily stretch to an hour and a half if the bride and groom are having a photo session.
An even better reason to have some fun games at your cocktail hour is that they make a fantastic ice-breaker. How often have you been to a wedding where you see the groom's family all dressed in their nicest attire and jewelry on one side of the room, and the bride's family off in their own little clusters? This can be even more true when the groom and bride come from fairly different backgrounds. I once attended a wedding where you could identify which guest was from which side of the family simply by the size of their wedding jewelry! (Bride's side: lots of diamonds and South Sea pearls, Groom's side: classic small pearls in simple styles)
What better way to get both sides of the guest list together than with a fun activity? When there is something that everyone can join in, before you know it, walls come down. By the time you get to dinner and dancing, it will be like everyone has known each other for years. Now that is going to make for a wonderful atmosphere at your wedding reception!
If you are going to have games or other activities during your wedding, you will want them to be just as elegant as the rest of the day. This means if you will have croquet, choose a handsome wooden set, as opposed to a cheap plastic one. It would be nice to play up the genteel Victorian flavor of a game like croquet by having pitchers of lemonade and iced tea on a table nearby the game.
You know your family best; if there are games that you grew up playing together on the lawn during those warm summer afternoons, then that could be the perfect activity to include in your cocktail hour. It will bring back fond memories for those that you used to play the game with, and it will be a fun chance for the other side of your new family to learn more about your family's traditions. After all, they say that the family that plays together stays together!