4 Of The Best Outdoor Wedding Games
Wedding games have become a more popular trend over the last 5 or so years, especially for outdoor weddings. Cocktail hours with nothing but cocktails are great but many people have wanted to offer and allow their guests time to play games with each other.
It’s a great way for your guests to meet others in a more relaxed and casual setting. Outdoor games don’t vary too much and tend to be pretty standard. So I thought I would share three games for your outdoor wedding that are a little more unique!
1. Badminton
Who doesn’t love to get a good rally going?! Badminton is fun, challenging while still being casual. It’s reasonably affordable and many come in portable kits. Your guests can play on a grassy area and enjoy good conversation, a fun game and not work up too hard of a sweat unless they want to!
Pro; A little more involved for those guests that are busybodies and like to be doing things! It’s also great if you have any number of younger teens and kids attending your event.
Con; It requires more space than some venues have.
Places like Wayfair, Amazon, and more have portable pop up badminton kits.
2. Re-creation Competition
This is not a game you can buy or a game you can google. I came up with this one all on my own, I guess I’ll have to give it a proper name and get it patnented. Until then hear me out.
You can modify this to be in whatever format works best for you, your resources and your guests. Have a table set up with a photo of you/the couple and challenge your guests to re-create this photo within a limited amount of time.
Now your own creativity can come into play for the next part. People can recreate the image through drawing, painting, physically re-creating it with a polaroid camera of some type, or some other clever idea you come up with. Most importantly your guests will put their phones down to enjoy each other and have fun.
Photo Supplies & Tips
The printed and framed photo of you, a few polaroid cameras, egg timer/stop watch, printed out instructions, and maybe some helpful resources to do the activity (think props) are all things you will need to supply. Give clear guidelines on the rules, for example, if the property is big and people can roam around tell them the photo can be taken anywhere on the property.
Painting/drawing Supplies & Tips
You will have to supply the printed and framed photo of you, markers/pencil crayons/paint/paper, egg timer/stopwatch, and printed-out instructions. To make this one fun and challenging you could only supply really wacky coloured pencils or other supplies like glue, coloured paper, glitter pens and make it more open to interpretation.
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Pro; It allows for all guests from introverted & shy to outgoing the opportunity to get involved in an activity. Offer up a prize for the best re-creation. Prize the funniest creation as the winner and the most accurate as runner-up. A bottle of wine or a gag gift like a mug with your faces on it is totally a great price, nothing complicated or too expensive, something simple.
Con; Supplying all the tools needed for this activity could add up if you’re not mindful, and you will need to make sure there is enough space for your guests to attempt the challenge.
Tip 1: Choose the form of recreation that suits your guests best. You know them better than anyone!
Tip 2: Make sure this one gets awarded after or during dinner so that people aren’t too intoxicated while attempting this. You don’t want anyone painting on each other, or on the flip, taking resources for the photo that are actually needed for your wedding reception.
3. Flimsee
Flimsee is a game that is both lazy and active. It can be both for fun without drinks and also played as a drinking game. Flimsee is a super simple, you play in pairs and you each have two poles with a cup, like a solo cup, upside down on each pole. Using a frisbee you want to knock off the cup of the opponent team’s poles. For the full game, rules head here!
I would like to note that, you do not need to buy the formal equipment if you don’t want to, this is a great game that requires very little. You can totally DIY this game. Not sure what to use as the poles? Consider buying fibreglass driveway marker poles. They’re really inexpensive and don’t require you to order them online. Also, In the spirit of trying to minimize waste consider getting personalized reusable cups to put on the poles. We all know someone that owns a frisbee if we don’t personally. Ask to borrow it for the wedding day!
Pro; Super fun, different from typical games, it’s a four-person game so gets people chatting and playing with others.
Con; Consider placing this a little ways away from the guests so no one gets hit with a frisbee!
4. Trivia
Trivia is perfect for all guests. Ones that want to participate in activities and games and even guests that don’t. Create your own trivia questions using an online resource and have the scan code or information to the trivia game on all the cocktail tables, bar and even a few signs around.
Questions you create can be about current events, your country, city, classic trivia, and of course, throw in some questions about the couple/you. Offer up a prize for the winner as an extra incentive to play. Something small like I mentioned above is great, a bottle of wine, a set of soap, a mug with your faces on it, a coffee shop gift card or something more personalized to the crowd attending.
Pro; Easy for everyone including those who aren’t as mobile. Gets people thinking and chatting with those around them.
Con; Many of the best personalized trivia resources are not free.
In conclusion, those are 4 Of The Best Outdoor Wedding Games for you to enjoy at your event! I hope these games inspired you. Have fun!
Pro Tip for purchasing equipment/games;
Renting might not be an option so consider buying the game and selling it after the wedding through an online wedding marketplace (Kijiji, Facebook). There are so many wedding buy and sell Facebook groups as well that can help you get rid of your wedding games if you don’t want to keep them. Offering to sell the games to your planner or venue is also an option, they might be able to offer them to other clients so it could be worth asking.
Bonus games that are a little bit more common but received really well by guests.
- Connect Four or Giant Connect Four
- Giant Jenga
- Giant anything!
- Cornhole
- Bocce Ball