Image courtesy of Martha StewartYes! I love that Martha Stewart Weddings contributed some cute ideas to the conversation about how to build community and connection at a wedding (which I found via this blog).
Here's the classic Penny for Your Thoughts ice-breaker:
Get guests talking (and, with any luck, maybe over-sharing) with vintage coins that are sure to mint new friendships.
Weddings are a great chance to build community and connection among a variety of people who may not know each other.Play It
Ask your bandleader to explain the rules: Each guest opens his or her favor box, then shares with the table an important event that corresponds to the year on each coin (e.g., "In 1996, I was named best-dressed in high school").Make It
Look for vintage coins in collectors' shops and online (try eBay). Line each box with a mini cupcake paper, then tuck a few coins inside. Last, tie each box with a ribbon printed with a message that hints at the fun to come.
What other ideas do you have for breaking the ice?
11 comments:
ohhh. sooo cute! i love this idea. although, most of the people at our wedding will be famiar with each other. i'll have 4 groups, my family, his family, our work friends, and my soccer friends. we're preetty confident noone will feel left out of the conversations.
Not necessarily for a wedding (though who am I to say, right!), but I love the bingo icebreaker, where you have the bingo sheet, and you have to find the person who, say, teaches 8th grade, or has size 11 feet, or whatever. SO much fun.
So cute, and so fun, and so inexpensive! Love it!
Not so much an icebreaker, but for our kids at the party, we have little goodie bags (with some homemade stuff mostly) and a disposable camera, and an "I Spy" list...so we'll have all these (hopefully) cute pictures from a little person's perspective. And the kids will have fun!
Love the i spy thing and have already printed out my own cards. FYI, I found cameras for cheap at ecameras.com. Shipping was spendy but not too bad.
Oooh, oooh, me! me!
We didn't do any specific "icebreaker activities" but the wedding events we hosted leading up to the ceremony served a dual purpose: a) to let us spend as much time as possible with all of our guests, instead of 30 seconds in a reception line AND b) to help all of our guests get to know each other before the ceremony and reception
We hosted a potluck barbeque with a kickball game the night before the wedding, and a scavenger hunt around downtown the morning of. People who participated in these got to know each other pretty well in a laid-back, non-cheesy atmosphere.
I'm a teacher, too, and I'm all about the icebreakers for my classroom but it would have felt hokey and forced to do them at our wedding...at the same time, we were pretty deliberate in choosing activities that forced interaction and in mixing people from different spheres (my family, his family, my friends, his friends, work friends, friends from when we lived in a different town, etc.) when we created the teams for both activities.
We also had a brunch and a poker game the day after the wedding, and this was another chance for people to connect and indulge in longer conversations. There were actually some true friendships formed between guests at our wedding who didn't know one another beforehand.
Cute idea!!
I've heard about having a mini quiz at the tables as an ice breaker. The quiz could be about the bride and groom and funny questions about them or their relationships. For example not everyone at the wedding may know what was their first date. The answers can be clever and the tables can work as groups to solve it.
I forgot to add, we are having crossword puzzles at our tables. The answers are all about us.
Sara, my fiance and I loved your idea with the "ask me about" name tags as an ice breaker. We're using it at our own wedding next month! :)
We're also hoping that our DIY projects, in which we're enlisting the help of guests who are around early, will help them get to know one another.
Two days before the wedding friends and family are coming by to help decorate the tent and carve pumpkins to be followed by beer and pizza. I'm hoping that they'll form connections then. At at least they'll be some cross-mingling between friends and family before wedding day.
good idea:)))
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