7 Unique Reception Entertainment Ideas to Wow your Guests
When planning your wedding reception considering adding something fun and nontraditional to the evening plans. Not every family loves to spend the entire night on the dance floor, if you expect your family may not be dropping it like it’s hot til midnight, we suggest having a few of these alternative entertainment reception ideas planned as a surprise. It’s really going to WOW your friends and family!
1. ACROBATS
These entertainers will definitely leave your guests in awe. Aerialists who will pour champagne flutes while dangling from the ceiling are certainly an offbeat addition to any wedding reception. Beyond Wings has amazing talent & are some of the best performers in Middle Tennessee!
2. FOOD TRUCK
What better way to end a night of dancing, laughter & celebratory drinks than your favorite late night snack? Your guests will appreciate the evening treat before driving home. We recommend Bradley’s Creamery a local Nashville favorite for a delicious ice cream treat!
3. LAWN & BOARD GAMES
Our couples have entertained their guests with badminton, lifesize Jenga, Tic Tac Toe. We’ve even seen vintage board games used as decoration that doubled as entertainment. Basically, our couples are insanely clever! Our favorite, personally, is cornhole. It’s such a southern classic and the kids always love playing too.
4. LIVE BAND
Afterall, we are in Music City, there is an incredibly talented band on almost ever corner. Mix it up and entertain your friends with bit of live music. A few of our favorites that we always recommend are The Downtown Band, The Carmonas & The Company Band.
5. MASCOT
Are you & your fiance huge sports fans? Invite your favorite mascot to party with your guests and dance the night away. This winter our couple, CRAIG + KATE, had Gnash stop by to surprise them & their guests. They, like most Nashvillians, are diehard Preds fans. So when the Predators mascot dropped in to congratulate them & do the cupid shuffle it was definitely a big highlight of the party!
6. CARICATURIST
This is something that is fun for everyone – from the little ones to the more seasoned loves ones. It’s a great wedding favor for your guests to take home to remember the evening, and everyone loves crowding around watching the artists create the fun personalities on paper. Draw Me Funny is a great Nashville caricature artist!
7. FIREWORKS
Sparklers are a lot of fun, but we can’t think of a better way to end the night than a showstopping firework display for you & your loved ones to watch. There is no grander finale for an evening & everyone loves a fun fireworks display! Afterwards you can run to your getaway car and wave goodbye to your loved ones.
Fall Wedding at Jon Haven Farm, photography by Ivory Door Studio.
Such a fun list!! I didn’t have anything to entertain my guests! I wish I had this list 3 years ago!
Hopefully some brides will find some awesome inspiration in this list to help plan their wedding reception.
These are all freakin’ amazing!!! I shot one wedding that had dueling pianos for the reception! It was definitely one of THE most fun receptions ever!
Dueling piano bar?! Oh my gosh. Mind blown. Wish we had done that for ours!!!
Such great ideas! We didn’t even THINK about doing anything like this when I got married almost 9 years ago. Weddings now are SO FUN!
Right!? Everyone is creating a party at their receptions! We love it!!
Such cool ideas!! I love the idea of having a caricaturist!
Wedding guests absolutely love them!
Oh my! These are FUN ideas!!! My daughter would love to have acrobats at her wedding 🙂
The acrobats are crazy talented and definitely surprise wedding guests.
Such a fun list! I personally love when there are food trucks! Waffle and taco trucks are my faves!!!!
You can’t go wrong with a taco truck!
These ideas are SO SO fun! Love them all!
Thanks Jill!
This list is AWESOME! The most I’ve seen is backyard games and fireworks… it’d be fun to see something a little different to mix it up!
We get lawn games at a lot of our weddings, and those are a lot of fun but we like seeing our couples get creative too :)!