Games and activities cocktail hour - ideas and advice?

* unlike any other that our guests will have been to

(just saw the typo, I'm sure there are others, but I just had to correct it!!! haha)

Can you make the ceremony later? You have guests arriving at 2pm for drinking and partying and aren't serving any food until 6pm. Depending on how far everyone is from the ceremony site, that is a long time to be drinking and not eating. What do you mean "what's left of" the alcohol? Are you not planning on having enough to host the whole cocktail 2 hours? I would try to shorten this. I would also try to make your activities more outfit-appropriate. Most of those games are not appropriate to be playing in evening wear, and to me aren't really appropriate for this type of event. Can you hire a band or DJ for this time instead of background music? That would be more entertaining in my opinion.

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There are lots of hors d'oeuvres (canapés, appetizers, snacks) being served between 3:45-5:45

Sorry, I wasn't clear about the 'what's left' of the alcohol. I meant this only for the signature cocktails - we are preparing two signature cocktails in large jugs/punch bowls, and guests can serve themselves from this - otherwise there will be wine and beer (and of course, water and alcohol-free on hand too!). So by 'what's left' I meant, once those two punch bowls are gone, that's it for the signature cocktail. Only beer and wine from then, until after the reception when the spirits get broken out. We plan on getting much more alcohol than we need, whatever's left over we will sell back or keep for ourselves. We'd rather have too much than not enough!

No can do for a band or DJ, not in the budget.

Fair point about the evening wear, for the three-legged race anyways. Ring toss should be easy enough in a dress to be honest though.

Anyways, we can't change the start time, the invitations are already sent out and everything planned.

As for the first 'welcome hour', we've told our guests to show up between 2-3pm (so they don't have to be there AT 2pm, but they can arrive AS OF 2. Mingling pre-ceremony, if you know what I mean.) Here in France, nobody shows up on time for anything, so we had to do it this way.

Now just looking to plan those two hours post-ceremony pre-dinner, so any more ideas you might have for how to occupy that time, please share!

I would steer away from the three legged race and add activities you could invite guests to play in their evening wear. Maybe include corn hole or tables with board games/fun couple quizzes laid out? Something guests can partake in without putting too much stress on their clothes and their bodies?

Also, maybe add some snacks in with the welcome drinks, even if it's beer nuts, crackers and cheese, pretzels or fruit. 2:00-6:00 without food on a stomach full of booze is a road to uncomfortable, sick or very rowdy guests.

Croquet? Lawn darts?

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The dinner is long because we're in France and believe me, nothing gets done quickly here! It's a four-course meal with speeches in between courses. Our caterer has said predict about 30-45 minutes per course, so we're leaving some leeway in our timeline for that. We think that dinner and speeches should be over in 3 hours.

Ok good point re: three legged race

As for the Poc Fáda, this is something very special to my fiancé, and a lot of our guests play hurling anyways, it's a part of how we want to showcase the Irish part of our culture.

WOW, thanks for the advice about the coordination! That is so helpful, I will definitely try to calculate guest count/waiting times. I knew I'd get good advice asking on these forums!

I'd recommend pushing your ceremony start time back a bit (perhaps 4:30-ish) and then do cocktail hour following it from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Asking guests to arrive at 2 p.m. and not eat a real meal until 6 p.m. is not appropriate and they will get hungry and cranky. Your guests will also likely get tipsy if they are drinking for 4 hours without sustenance.

For games, I think you have more than enough. I would definitely ditch the three-legged race, that isn't going to work well if people are dressed up for a wedding and seems more appropriate for a company picnic. I'd actually reconsider most of the games since people probably won't want to play them in formal attire. Maybe stick to a photo booth, giant Jenga, corn hole, ring toss and if you really want than bocce ball.

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Yes, this is exactly the kind of thing we're looking for! I will just have to google what Lawn Darts are (lol)...

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Oh that's an excellent idea!
There are lots of hors d'oeuvres (canapés, appetizers, snacks, petits-fours) being served between 3:45-5:45. A table with vegetable platters, mini-quiches, little ham and cheese pastry things, etc...

I did mention that in my original post but I guess it wasn't clear.

Thanks for your suggestions! We are big into sports and board games, maybe we could make a quiz table, that would be fun! Bridal shower games could definitely be adapted

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Pétanque is huge here in the south of France, and very easy to play, there's no way we will be skipping it, but thanks!

Corn hole is a great idea! I wonder if we could make one, since I've never seen it any stores here... shouldn't be that hard. Thanks for the suggestion!

Also open to other creative ideas (other than games) for how to fill the time... liking the way we were going with the quizzes etc. Things to entertain the guests during the garden party!

Hi! I am just seeing this thread! My fiance and I are doing almost exactly the same thing! We are having a two-hour activity hour before the dinner. Wondering how it went for you? And if you have any advice?