The good mixer… by wedding planner Clare

Turn perfect strangers into friends for life with these fool proof ways to get your guests minglin

1.     Have badges of honour made up for guests, stating each person’s relationship to you, a nickname, or a favourite in joke to spark conversations.
2.    Swap a traditional table plan for escort cards handed out at the drinks reception, then write instructions on the back like ‘ask grandma rose for her apple crumble recipe’ and  ‘tell Ben about your trip to Florence’
3.    Put guests into teams and turn the pre dinner drinks into a get to know you pub style quiz, with questions about you and the groom through the years,  the prize? T shirt saying ‘I won Alex and Emily’s wedding quiz and all I got was this lousy t shirt’!
4.    Place your favours in a single central location rather than on the tables, and label each with a guest’s name.  Ask people to pick a favour at random from the pile, then encourage them to work the room  until they find the true owner
5.    If your venue offers the option, go with circular seating.  Round tables of no more than 10 guests make it easier to chat with the entire group, not just the person next to you.
6.    Get strategic with your table plan and seat people with common interests or age groups together so they’ll have lots to bond over.
7.    But don’t isolate anyone.  While creating whole tables of guests who have never met sounds like the ideal way to force them to interact, people are generally more confident when they know a few people.  Aim for a 50/50 percentage of existing and potential friends on each table.
8.    Laminate funny photos of all the guests and use them as place mats on their table, but not at their actual seat.  Picture and story swapping will ensue.
9.    Arrange the drinks, dinner and dance floor in different sections of the venue.  Creating movement stops people settling in one spot.
10. Compose a jokey line of introduction about with of your invitees and print it on their neighbour’s place card (but avoid anything to cheeky or embarrassing).
11. Give the most outgoing guest on each table a monogrammed chef’s apron and ask them to carve a joint of meat for their group.  They’ll naturally fall into the MC role for the table.
12.Play a modified version of musical chairs during the wedding breakfast by asking every other guests to move one seat to their left after each course – but without removing a chair from the tables each time!
For more information on wedding planning, or if you’re looking for a wedding planner in Dubai. Drop the lovely Clare an email and she’ll be happy to help. Email: clare@theperfectmoment.com
Thanks Clare for sharing your wedding advice 🙂 x x x
*Image from Rachel & Steves wedding by Photographer Craig George*