Quirky extras for your wedding

janbaby

Hi All I'm trying to think of some cheap quirky extras for my wedding. I bought 30 pairs of flip flops in Penneys (€1 each ) and I'm gonna put them in the bathroom in baskets for the end of the night. I'm also doing an "emergency" kits with plasters and hair spray, sowing kit, hair clips and all those kinda things. I would love to have some candles or those lanterns for the evening. Has anyone use these before?

Any other ideas......

Toots

Are you having kids at the wedding? If so, we put a colouring book and crayons at each of the kids' places for the dinner and they went down a bomb, the kids loved them and the parents got a bit of peace during the dinner I love the flipflops idea, especially with all the killer high heels that are the trend these days!

smelltheglove

I LOVE the flipflops idea.We had kids and had a little play area in the niddle of the roon during the meal for the kids,smaller tables, colouring sets and toys.

I have seen magicians and clowns etc at weddings too. The only advice I can give you is be true to yourself, dont do things because people will expect them, do it because you want to!

For us, with a husband in music, I arranged guitar picks, I had themprinted up with around 20 different pictures, instead of place cards I had the thankyou cards in envelopes on the tables with a poem I had written to thank my guests for their presence etc, inside those envelopes I was able to put the guitar pics which suited each individualperson, i.e. a pick with the picture of my eldest daughter was put into envelopes of her daddy and his family, I had the album cover of a friends band on one which went to the band members who were there and that circle of friends, funny pics of my hubby went to his side, of me and my sister to my side etc etc. As I used the envelopes as the place cards I was able to ensure people got the picks I thought they would like, I also inserted scratch card and one personper table was given a dodgy scratch card where they would believe they won 20k, I was able to choose who got this and who I thought would receive it well and find it funny! It suited us and we had great fun seeing the expressions, cheers and whispers when people scratched away.

nordine

where did you get the dodgy scratch cards.

That sounds fun.

smelltheglove

I got them on ebay although most were in sterling so I emailed a seller and asked could they source euro cards. I moved house this past week and found a few in the bottom of a drawer, haha havent found them in the unpacking yet though! I bought loads spare so I ended up passing some along for 2 more weddings too and both couples came back saying it was great.

magneticimpulse

Disposable camera's on each table...or if brave a fixed digital camera. A blackboard and chalk and people have to leave a message on the blackboard with a photo of themselves in it. I think something like this is good, because the Bride and Groom wont be taking photos themselves. The photos will be mainly focused on them...so they might not actually get any photos of some guests which attended. This way they can remember all their close family and friends who turned up on their special day.

A more professional way of doing that at a recent wedding was a guy making keyrings for each of the guests. I got a photo of myself and my mam and we each got a keyring.

janbaby

what do u think of the idea of having a wish tree and on each table leave a tag so people can leave the bride and groom a message and hang it off the tree? Either the tree idea of I was thinking about somewhere that people could hang the message from with mini clothes pegs

ana_conda

Letting off Chinese lanterns can be really fun....and really cheep if you shop online

Here's one example I found on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/6-Mix-Shapes-Chinese-Fire-Sky-lanterns-Wishing-Balloons-/120702854981?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c1a736745

For the lanterns to work best you need a still calm night. I've seen it at 2 different weddings and its really beautiful..... when it works!

janbaby

love the lanterns

reilig

We brought our own wine to the hotel. We printed up our own labels for the bottles and just removed the front label from each bottle before sticking it on with paper glue. The grooms was the white and it said that it was pressed from grapes grown in the grooms parish and it had some funny lines on it. Same for the red (for the bride). It was so simple to do and went down a real treat with the guests,

Gulliver

We made our own fudge and put it in little party favour boxes. We bought some tiny chocolate cups (like little muffin-shaped chocs in foil) and spread them on the tables. We also told the guests to take whatever flowers/decorations/candles of ours they wanted from the church as it was during lent (yeah - chocolate/lent - I know!) and the priest said the church would have been stripped anyway. People seemed happy enough about that.

ana_conda

reilig wrote: »

We brought our own wine to the hotel. We printed up our own labels for the bottles and just removed the front label from each bottle before sticking it on with paper glue. The grooms was the white and it said that it was pressed from grapes grown in the grooms parish and it had some funny lines on it. Same for the red (for the bride). It was so simple to do and went down a real treat with the guests,

I love this...really original and well thought out!

Fair play

janbaby

Gulliver wrote: »

We made our own fudge and put it in little party favour boxes. We bought some tiny chocolate cups (like little muffin-shaped chocs in foil) and spread them on the tables.

We're doing something along these lines. I got glass sweet jars in Ikea and filled them with retro sweets. Lydl are selling them at the moment. Each table will be called after the sweets eg blackjacks!

Toots

I love the lantern ideas, but just make sure your hotel is ok with it. We had our reception in a hotel surrounded by woodlands, so these were a no-no in case they caused a forest fire :eek:

k4899g

Love the laterns but if it's by the coast the coast guards advise you to tell them first as they've had a few false call outs when they were mistaken for flares!

Rew

k4899g wrote: »

Love the laterns but if it's by the coast the coast guards advise you to tell them first as they've had a few false call outs when they were mistaken for flares!

Not to mention the airport and the local Gardai and most importantly you local UFO spotter:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article4926692.ece

smallerthanyou

At my sister's wedding in the height of high summer (that one hot day we had last year) she organised for an ice-cream van to be at the church when all the guests got out. I can remember did people have to pay or was it already paid for in an all for one charge she paid.

janbaby

I love the ice cream idea! Brilliant people are always starving after the church too so that solves that problem!

Plazaman

janbaby wrote: »

I love the ice cream idea! Brilliant people are always starving after the church too so that solves that problem!

Seen this before at a wedding, the ice cream van was outside the church along with a barbershop quartet who were singing as the guests came out. Both followed onto the hotel for the sherry reception. The amount of ice cream spills on good shirts/suits/dresses was a laugh and I think a change of clothes or two for some of the kids were required.

janbaby

Never thought of messy kids and dresses being wrecked! Big napkins will be needs so

rameire

i had a bouncy castle, it was great, for the adults and kids.
also had a childrens entertainer, who had puppets, balloons, drawings, and jokes, that was great for the kids.

dollybird2

The ice cream van outside the church is something I hate for various reasons but mostly this - think of those with kids dressed up for the day!
We had cameras on the tables - waste of money developing them, the vast majority of photos were blurred/floor/tablecloths etc. If I had my time back I wouldn't waste my money.
Also had the bathroom baskets & flip flops - these went down a treat and were all used which was great.

Love the retro sweets idea - that's funky. And I love old sweets! If they were in the middle of the table out of kid's arm's reach (if you are having kids to the day) then better again!

A lot depends on your guests - will there be children for example.

Edited to add - regarding bouncy castle - be careful in case of any accidents that could occur and spoil the day or lead to insurance issues