Keep/cancel....wth is left!? 😂

Instead of the bouquet/garter toss, we did the anniversary dance. The longest married couple got the toss bouquet. We did not do cake in the face. That was replaced by us just feeding each other a piece of cake and giving a quick kiss.

I would note that the people that spent the most time on the dance floor were some of the older people, mostly parents' friends. You'd be surprised who will be up there dancing!

A lot of people do games instead like the shoe game

We are doing a first look. That will last for about an hour. Then we are having Our Vows. We are doing a sand pouring ceremony. After that we will Have our grand entrance and our 1st dance. Then we will have a couple's dance for the married couples and I will give each one of them a framed picture that I printed from Facebook of them. And the couple that has been married the longest will get chocolate covered strawberries. Then we will do our cake cutting and serve dinner. Then I am having a 2 hour murder mystery show ...there is a wedding theme with 4 actors. That is taking the place of all the silly bouquet in garter toss stuff I don't love. Then we will have about 45 minutes to dance and mingle. There will be my day!

We did the shoe game (just a quick like 5 mins or so) and had a photo booth, both a hit for my crowd! Most people will just enjoy dancing and mingling 😊

I agree with the PP who said you will be surprised at who ends up dancing. We really didn't think my DH's family would dance, especially his parents (they have never danced in their lives). Well, we couldn't get them off the dance floor. We didn't do the garter toss or bouquet toss. A lot of people don't anymore and no one misses it. We also didn't do any cake smashing; we just cut the cake and fed each other. We had an open bar all night and a great band which I think really helped people enjoy themselves. For those people who just wanted to chill, we had a fire pit and chairs with blankets on the patio adjacent to our reception space. We also had a photo booth which added to the fun. Here was our timeline of the reception:

4:15-5:45 cocktail hour (ours was 90 minutes with tons of apps and open bar with a solo guitarist; we joined our guests for cocktail hour)

5:45 dinner announced and guests find their seats (we didn't have a grand entrance)

6-7:30 plated dinner served; 5-piece band played Rat Pack tunes during dinner

6:05 welcome toast from bride on behalf of bride and groom

7:30 bridesmaid toast on behalf of wedding party

7:45 cake cutting

7:55 first dance; after 30 seconds band leader invited everyone to join us

8 open dance floor; open photo booth; 9-piece band played swing, 50-70s, Motown and funk music

9 s'mores served around fire pit

10 grilled cheese sandwiches served

11 last dance; end of reception

I don't think it's necessary to add "filler" to your party if you don't want to. I agree that people will possibly surprise you by dancing! I also think that even without games or "things to do" that people will mingle and chat with others, catch up, etc.

We are having a couple of “games” that are not really organized events.

Our favors will include $20,000 lottery scratchers for each guest. The theme will be “imagine the places you’d go if you won”. They can scratch them right there during the reception whenever they want to. (Imagine if one of our loved ones actually wins!)
We will also be hiding a white rabbit somewhere in the venue. Find the white rabbit during the course of the reception and you will get a prize. It won’t be an active “hunt”. Just something that will happen by chance.

5-5:30 Open bar as guests arrive

5:30-5:45 Ceremony

5:45-6:30: Cocktail hour

6:30-7:30 Buffet Dinner

7:30-8 Toasts/Speeches

8-9 Newlywed Game (Dessert bar is opened during this time, guests can help themselves).

9-10 Jeopardy