Wedding Party Bonding

You have a lot of ideas thrown out for ways of bonding.

My suggestion is to go along with the bbq and just chill out having a casual time to break the ice. Create games that will let all your wedding party know who they are and create fun/common grounds within them. Jenga truth or dare is a way to put everyone in the spot of telling stories if that works and game of things (answers to remember names).

I think a "nailed it" diy day could be fun, but also anything casual, where folks can eat and chill out. Maybe even play a wedding version of Cards Against Humanity.

If you wanna keep it casual invite them over for something that you guys like, BBQ, or board games, cocktails wtv!
Or you can go out and do an activity like Bad Axe is super fun for both guys and girls I think or pool and drinks.

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I love this!

View quoted message My kind of party right there lol

View quoted message That sounds like a ton of fun actually.

Honestly I would suggest taking them all to laser tag followed by a nice dinner and drinks.

My friend’s had us over for a barbecue and we played “never have I ever” as an icebreaker.
we had our wedding party over for a wine and cheese night (we provided the wine and crackers, they brought the cheese) and used it as a way to pick the wine for our wedding. We then played “that’s you” which is an interactive video game where you use your phone and try to match answers with other players.

If you are getting married during good weather, I suggest what one of my colleague's daughter's did. Plan a picnic/beach day, play volleyball, bocce, and/or lawn games. Order some take out BBQ platters and enjoy the conversations that ensue.

An escape room really makes people have to work together! It's a lot of fun! Maybe a paint nite or bowling? Lazer tag and dinner? Something fun that gets folks together!

View quoted message We are 12 too!

View quoted message Love all these ideas!!

Escape rooms, bowling, mini-putt, axe throwing, micro-brewery crawl, game night (minute to win it type of mini games), murder mystery, karaoke (the one where you can rent a room secluded from everyone else), potluck, cooking class, ice skating, cross-country skiing, hiking, snowshoeing, wing night, watch a hockey game somewhere...

That's all I could think of, off the top of my head.

I've been wanting to get everyone together for even a dinner to get to know each other! But trying to work around 12 people's schedules is like near impossible haha!

My bridesmaids are all girls from different parts of my life and didn't really know each other. So I hosted a cottage weekend for them and did a Bride Tribe Jeopardy. The categories were: "Which bridesmaid is most likely to... at the wedding", " Tweets from your past", "How well do you know the bride", "How well do you know the groom", and "Stories that wont make the speeches"

The girls loved it and it was a great conversation starter as each bridesmaid had to explain some of the answers.

Highly recommend!

For my FSIL's wedding my fiance had to go to sort of a house party with the wedding party. They put everyone into pairs and they played games like beer pong and such and also talked about the wedding. Just hosting something at your place whether it's a games night of BBQ or just a party can always work.

You can also go the 'office team building' route and do an activity with all of you together like an escape room or axe throwing. But that may cost more money than throwing a get together yourself.

I was in the same exact boat but only for my BM's as the GM's knew each other already from HS. What I did was got them all together for a girls night and had a passion party! Only one of the girls didn't come for that part as she was too uncomfortable with her sexuality in front of others. After that we ended up talking about planning the wedding social over some wine and beer!

If you are getting them all together maybe just have a good ol' fashioned house party! If you end up going to a restaurant then you are making them pay for even MORE stuff so I would avoid that. (Especially because at most restaurants there is a min. gratuity for parties of more than 8-12 people...)

We do plan on getting everybody together but it's just going to be revolving around our wedding social and what everyone is expected to bring and do. We will probably order pizza though!! lol My parents also have a cottage so we might decide to do a weekend in the summer where they can really get to know each other too.

P.S. Congrats on the engagement and welcome to the wedding wire community!