YOU MAY NOW QUIZ THE BRIDE

Delight your guests with these fun and fabulous games to play during the wedding reception

words Elizabeth Chester

Looking to make your wedding reception a fun-filled affair your guests will never forget? Once the feast, drinks and a killer party playlist has been nailed, many couples like to plan some games to kick off the merriment. While garden games are a brilliant way to bring a fun, competitive edge to your reception, if they’re not possible due to the weather, space limitations or you simply fancy something different, there are plenty of other games to bring the fun factor to your celebrations.

GUESS THE PHOTOGRAPH

Everyone loves a throwback photograph and this game is a great way to get guests mingling and chatting. You’ll need a corner of a room or, if space allows, it can work brilliantly in an entrance hall. All you need is a piece of twine, some pegs and, crucially, lots of photographs of your guests (the funnier, the better). Either collate these from your own collection or ask guests to submit them in advance. On arrival or during the reception, guests can take a look at the creatively hung images and list who they think is who before depositing their answers in a box. The person who guesses the most matches wins the game – and presumably has a good laugh along the way!

WHO AM I?

This game works well for an intimate wedding. Ask a creative bridesmaid to help with the prep; you’ll need cardboard headbands in various sizes (a strip of cardboard stapled at the back) with a small horizontal slit at the front. Each player then chooses a photo from a selection of pictures of all the guests and pops the picture into the slit (so they can’t see it but everyone else can). They must then guess who they are via yes and no questions. Cue much hilarity if the person guessing asks creative questions to try to eliminate each guest, such as ‘has this person ever fallen over after one-toomany drinks?’

WHO SAID/DID THIS?

This is a great crowd-pleaser. Ask your best man/father-in-law/bridesmaid to grab the mic and read out a list of humorous quotes or funny incidents that someone within the wedding party has said or done. You may need to think long and hard about this one well in advance to ensure you have enough material

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and, once you’ve checked with the subject of your stories that you’re OK to retell their tale, you’ll no doubt have a laugh at the silliest stories that have cropped up over the years.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

For couples who have travelled the globe together, a round-the-world game should fit the bill. The quiz can either be in a Q&A format, so a nominated person asks ‘where in the world did {the couple} eat the world’s hottest chilli curry?’ Or, if you have the time and creativity, why not curate a large-scale world map for a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey style game where blindfolded participants have to try and pin where the happy couple did various activities. Snowboarding in the Kalahari Desert? Try again!

TAKING TABLE TURNS

If you’d like something that forgoes the quiz but is still an easy-to-play indoor game, how about either table football or table tennis? Easy to assemble, either of these classic games could offer guests the chance to compete against each other either individually or in teams. Guys vs girls? Bridesmaids vs best men? Bride vs groom? The possibilities are endless!

THE ULTIMATE MR & MRS

This game shines a light solely on the newly-weds and can be written by the happy couple – this must be individually, however, as they will present their questions to their other half and hope they get them right! You can make this easy or complex, funny or straight – it’s entirely up to you. Examples might be straightforward questions such as ‘what was the first present I bought you?’ ‘Where did we have our first kiss?’ ‘When did you tell me you loved me?’ ‘What’s my star sign?’ ‘What’s my favourite song?’ Or you might opt for more thought-provoking questions such as ‘what would be the title of my autobiography?’ or ‘who would play me in a movie of my life?’ If you really want to push your luck you can end on some ‘would you rathers?’ but tread carefully as no one wants to argue over whether their other half would rather go to a Champions League final than have dinner together on their wedding day!

This game can also be played with the guests asking the questions and the happy couple both giving their answers simultaneously (using paddles with yes/no or bride/groom written on them). It can get hilariously competitive for contentious questions like ‘who is the best cook?’ or ‘who is the tidiest?’ so make sure whoever has written the quiz had anecdotal or factual evidence such as photographs to support their answers! You can also include forfeits so there’s a penalty for each wrong answer, such as wearing comedic accessories like deely boppers, silly sunglasses, sombreros or fake moustaches. Not only will you all have a good laugh, but you should also get some superb photographs of giggling guests, mock horror at some of the answers and possibly an accessory-bedecked bride or groom!