Planning pre-wedding activities are a little something extra that’s not required, but certainly fun and entertaining for the guests.
If the bride and groom keep in mind the distance some guests have traveled and keep activities relevant to that level of fatigue, they’re sure to hit on some winning activities.
As you go about planning activities for the wedding, keep in mind other factors as well. Do many people have children with them? Will you provide childcare or will the children be participants in the activities? If you have several guests who are older, or have a disability, perhaps activities can be tailored in a way so that they can participate as well.
Some of the more popular pre-wedding activities include things like a group manicure. All the women in the wedding party or who are close to the bride (and certainly this could include men if they like manicures and want to hang out with the ladies) can head to a nail salon and get their nails done.
This can be relaxing for many women and provide a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of the wedding weekend.
If the men don’t want to go, they might choose to golf or play a game of tennis.
Many brides and grooms choose to provide structured activities for their guests prior to the wedding. If the wedding is on a Saturday night, for example, they might choose to provide a Friday activity, especially if most guests are local to the wedding. You might have a wedding luau. Many times pre-wedding activities center around bachelor and bachelorette parties, but what about a stag party that includes all the members of the brides and grooms families?
You could plan some fun (and appropriate) games and head out to a restaurant for a night of fun and games. Be sure to limit the drinking and carousing as this might not sit well with some family members, and everyone will be way too tired (and hungover?) to really enjoy the wedding the next day.
Here is a fun activity that can be done right before the wedding. Have someone begin a gift basket. The theme of the basket is “advice for the couple” and could be started by the best man or maid of honor. They take the basket to someone else’s house, perhaps an aunt or cousin and leave it on the doorstep. That person adds an item (a book on how to end spousal arguments? Or a CD of romantic music?) and brings the basket to someone else’s house. This activity can begin a week or two before the wedding and everyone should know it is coming around.
The basket can also be circulated the weekend of the wedding, but this will only work if everyone is local and if they know the basket is coming. In this case, it also might be helpful to have someone bring the basket to a house, collect the item and the take the basket to the next location, reducing the need to have each person take the basket to its next location.
Once it’s full, someone can be in charge of putting the basket items together, wrapping it all up to make it look nice and bringing it to the bride and groom. It can be delivered right to the wedding as a gift in and of itself.
You can also have an evening of share home movies, a trivia quiz in which all of the teams are mixed between the two families, or a board game evening.
Whatever activities you choose, be sure to keep in mind the needs of your guests and the limitations of those guests. If some have travelled far, or don’t have a lot of money, you will need to pace yourselves and pay for your guests.
If you want to plan an activity that includes everyone, and you choose golf, but a relative is in a wheelchair or uses a walker, that might not be the best activity to plan.
FURTHER READING:
The New Green Family Guide: A Beginner’s Guide to Going Green As a Family
