Non traditional

Our wedding is causal, more of a party than a traditional wedding reception. We are having our reception in an early 1900's barn. In the barn yard we are setting up a variety of games (giant Jenga, cornholes, tic tac toe, ring toss etc). We are skipping the formal sitdown dinner and instead having more causal food like sliders, pulled turkey and mac & cheese! Inside the barn we will have tables on one side for people to sit to grab a quick bite, and then on the other side we will have cocktail tables and a lounge full of vintage furniture. We are also skipping the wedding cake as neither of us are fussy on cake. We will do a donut cake instead. We have also encouraged our guests to dress more casual (no denim, but no shirt and tie either) so they can feel comfortable to enjoy themselves!

We have decided to do a giant BBQ reception, my little favors will be the makings for smores and we will have a little fire pit to make them on

View quoted message We’re doing a brunch reception 😍 it’s been my dream. Wedding at 11, and guests can play lawn games while we do just a few pictures (doing our first look and most of our pics together the day before). All kinds of breakfast foods for the food and no speeches, no dances, no cake cutting ceremony. The afternoon can be spent visiting with friends and family or playing games. At this point we will also put some cards on a couple tables because my family is big on that. It’ll be super low key and casual which is perfect for us.

We're also doing a non-traditional reception! At 5:30 we have appetizers being passed around as well as a wine tasting station (we're getting married at a winery). After an hour of appetizers we're going to have food stations with sliders, tacos & nachos, poutine bar and a salad bar. Then different styles of popcorn and donuts will be out for late night munching and pizza delivered. Basically all the fatty foods!

I also want that fun party atmosphere so we're doing a combo of long tables and high cocktail tables for mingling. We're not doing a seating chart either. Game wise we're going to have giant jenga and corn hole with a photo booth. I'd love to hear what you end up doing for yours .

A friend of mine did a noon wedding ceremony. and lunch/dinner was at 2pm. she really wanted the garden party style. it was all at one place. where you could wander the property, go to the bar, they had lots of areas to sit down and chat and take photos. she did an outdoor ceremony. and had a guitar player as her ceremony/cocktail hour music. she had blankets set out with games. like jenga and I can't remember what else. she hired a caricature artist. which was awesome!

her meal was traditional (3 course meal). during it she did speeches. and she did a cake cutting. and wedding done. she had an awesome candy bar. that I took home 2 or 3 bags of candy! hahah

I've always loved the idea of a brunch reception for something non traditional!

We are doing more of traditional wedding but will be having horseshoes and yardzee and some other yard games tooo

I think a cocktail style reception is a great way to get people to play games/participate in interesting/non-traditional wedding reception activities!

A cake cutting is not necessary whatsoever, so don't do one if you don't want to

I'm thinking that it would be cool to have like a pile of board games available and a ton of cards! A deck at each table!

As for the cake cutting - it's really not necessary but I've always wanted a traditional wedding so I will be doing it. If you want you could always do it with a pie or something unique or just - not? lol nbd

Hi Chanel,

We're skipping the cake, garter/bouquet toss and combining the parent/kid dance together under one song. Similar to Stephanie, we're most likely incorporating some type of photography game at each table.

Here are some non-traditional ideas considered, in the early planning stages:

- Brunch weddings were the "tradition" back in the day, but have been swapped for the evening event. You could have a morning wedding with a brunch reception (mimosa bar!!! ).

- Cocktail-style reception : No sit-down dinner, simply hors d'oeuvres being passed around in "waves". Wave 1 = Appetizers, wave 2 = skewers, sliders, etc., wave 3 = desert! and a late night snack! Just be sure to communicate that to your guests

Happy Planning!!

We are thinking of doing a photobooth and some photography games to try and encourage everyone to take as many pictures as possible!
For the cake! We are doing a small 2 tier cake (top tier to save for 1 year anni and botton for the cake cutting photo) but we will not be serving it! We will have a sweet table instead for people to enjoy!!

Sorry dont have many non traditional ideas we are going fairly traditional haha!!