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We’ve all been to a wedding where guests just sit and observe what goes on during the ceremony and reception. Try to change your wedding up a bit by showing family and friends just how important they are to you. Utilize their talents before, during and after the ceremony to ensure your wedding is memorable to everyone.
Before The Wedding
Invite family and friends to help with some of the do-it-yourself elements, they’ll feel like they played a part and they had the chance to include their personal touch on certain special parts of your wedding.
When you send out your invitations, include a music request on the RSVP cards. That way you’ll know what songs your guests want to hear, and it’ll make them want to get up and dance when their song is played.
Include poll or quiz questions on your wedding Web site. Use questions like, “where should we go on our honeymoon?” Or, “what would you like to see or do at the reception?”
If you’re planning to have a candy “bar” for favors, designate someone (or a few people) to create and/or manage it at the reception.
During The Ceremony
Set up a table in the entryway of the ceremony site with pictures of you and your spouse’s parents’ and grandparents’ wedding pictures.
While saying your vows, include special messages to your family and friends letting them know how much they mean to you and thanking them for their love and support.
Think about family and friends’ special talents. Can someone play music or sing well? Or simply speak well in public? Include these talented people in your ceremony by having someone sing or play a special song or have a few people read certain scriptures or passages.
One of the latest YouTube crazes is a couple that recruited their entire wedding party to perform a choreographed routine as they came down the aisle. If you want your wedding to be lighthearted (and if your friends and family are relatively coordinated), this may be something fun to try!
If you’re having a small ceremony, give everyone his or her own “unity” candle. When the main unity candle is lit, the bride will then light groom’s family’s candles, and the groom will light the bride’s family’s candles. Once they are lit, the family lights the candles of those sitting behind them, and it continues until all candles are aglow.
At The Reception
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Rent a photo booth. Ask people to leave a strip or two of their photos for you. Include a magnetic board and magnets for guests to display their strips. After the wedding, make an album with all the photo strips to capture the personalities of all your guests.
Have a Polaroid photographer snap pictures of your guests. Attach pictures to a piece of paper and have guests write well wishes or advice on the paper with their picture. Afterward, place all the papers in a scrapbook.
Include blank books and pens or pencils on each reception table. Direct guests to write well wishes or advice in the books, or even draw a picture of the couple.
Place disposable cameras on reception tables for guests to use. Have pictures developed after the wedding and place them in an album or upload them to your wedding Web site.
Assign someone to be the photographer’s assistant, preferably someone who knows who everyone at the reception is. They can gather certain groups of guests together for pictures, like the bride’s cousins or the groom’s college friends.
Have a couples’ dance at the reception. Ask all couples to come on the floor to dance. Announce that couples married one year or less can sit down, then continue with two years, five years, 10 years and so on until there is only one couple left — the couple who has been married the longest. Have the photographer take a picture of the couple, frame it and send it to them after the wedding.
Include simple get-to-know-you games for your guests at the reception tables. Be sure to have fun and easy games for kids. This will ensure both the kids and their parents have a great time.