The Wedding Reception

There are all sorts of things you can do to put your own unique stamp on the wedding, to make it different, all yours.

A popular idea is for the bride and groom to place a disposable camera on each table at the reception with a note telling the guests to pass it around and take candid shots. The resulting photographs were developed and put into a separate album which provided a lot of future fun for the couple.
Kids are often a bit of a problem at the reception; they get bored, and after all, would you like it if you had to walk around a veritable forest of tall people eating and drinking and gabbing and not paying you any attention? How about hiring a clown or magician and letting him or her entertain the kids? Also makes for excellent photo opportunities.

Where is it written that the wedding reception has to be "formal" -- i.e., a sit-down dinner with centerpieces, seating arrangements, and all that? Why not give everyone time to change into easy duds and take them all out to the beach, where they can visit the new couple informally, swim, play with Frisbees, maybe even have a clambake? Caution: Please find out what the "cooking-out" stipulations are for the particular beach area. And if you're going to plan this sort of do and have a large crowd, be prepared to furnish maps telling your guests how to get there. Also, choose a place that will easily accommodate a lot of people without disturbing regular beach-goers. There are many, many stretches of island beach that are relatively unpopulated. Again, you'll have to have an alternative plan if the weather doesn't cooperate.

Along with the previous idea, you could have a kite-flying extravaganza, either telling people to come prepared or even furnishing a number of kites. This is fun for adults and kids alike -- and not everybody has to have a kite...maybe one per family would do. For some, it's as much fun to watch as it is to fly. And why not have a special large kite with the names of the wedding couple on it?

While we're into fun and games, you could also have a bubble-blowing fest outside your reception site or at your clambake or beach party. Little bottles of bubble liquid won't cost much and will give everyone from Junior to Grandma a lot of pleasure.

One couple recently had a pre-wedding golf tournament at the Sankaty Golf Club. They called it the "Prenup Cup" and presented all 50 players with shirts and caps that announced the event and the date. On the bride's cap was embroidered "Bride" in gold script, with the wedding date on the back as well as tulle attached to the back of the cap to look "veilish." To add to the fun, the bride's father, after discovering to his horror that there were too many people to be accommodated at the ceremony, quickly went to Stitches and ordered a bunch of t-shirts emblazoned with the words "I really didn't want to go to the wedding anyhow!" A neat and diplomatic way to handle what could have been a major problem...the "disinvited" guests attended the reception and had an unforgettable story to tell back home.

View our listings of Nantucket Wedding Reception locations >