40 Wedding Reception Games for Guests

On this page

1. How to fit games into a reception
2. Free printable table games
3. Games starring the couple
4. Table games for dinner and cocktail hour
5. Dance floor games
6. Lawn games for outdoor receptions
7. Games for kids at the reception
8. Prizes for wedding games
9. Questions hosts ask

Wedding bingo is the easiest game to add to a reception. Leave a card and a pen at each place setting, and guests mark squares as things happen: the first dance, a happy cry during a toast, grandparents on the dance floor. Add the couple’s names and date, and print one card per guest.

How to fit games into a reception

Receptions already run on a tight schedule, so games work best in the gaps: cocktail hour, the wait between courses, and the stretch after cake when some guests don’t dance. Pick two or three that need no announcement, plus one the DJ or emcee runs from the microphone.

Ask the couple before planning anything that puts them on the spot. Some couples love the shoe game. Others would rather spend those ten minutes dancing. For more ideas, the wedding games section collects everything for the reception and rehearsal dinner.

Free printable table games

1. Wedding bingo

The card above fills in over the whole reception, so there’s nothing to run. First guest to five in a row takes the card to a bridal party member for a small prize. Keep a second prize for the first full card, which usually happens near the last dance.

2. How well do you know the couple?

A 16-question quiz for each table: where they met, who said “I love you” first, who takes longer to get ready. Fill in the couple’s real answers in the maker, and they print only on the answer key. Tables answer as a team, and the DJ reads the answers after dinner. The winning table heads to the dessert table first.

3. Wedding word scramble

Twenty scrambled wedding words, from VEIL to BOUTONNIERE. Put one sheet and a pen at each table for the wait between the salad and the main course. It needs zero explanation and keeps a table of strangers working together.

4. Advice and wishes cards

Cards with prompts like “A date night idea for the two of you” and “Open this card on a hard day.” Guests fill them in during dinner and drop them in a basket. It’s the one game the couple gets to keep, and some couples read one on each anniversary.

Games starring the couple

5. The shoe game

The couple sits back to back, each holding one of their own shoes and one of their partner’s. The emcee reads questions like “Who’s the better cook?” and each of them raises the shoe of the person they think fits. Guests watch for the mismatches. Ten to fifteen questions take about ten minutes. Our he said, she said game has more questions in the same style if you want to swap some in.

Shoe game questions to read aloud:

1. Who said “I love you” first?
2. Who’s the better cook?
3. Who takes longer to get ready?
4. Who’s the better driver?
5. Who’s more likely to get lost?
6. Who hogs the blankets?
7. Who’s the bigger night owl?
8. Who made the first move?
9. Who apologizes first after an argument?
10. Who spends more time on their phone?
11. Who’s the better dancer?
12. Who’s more likely to cry at a movie?
13. Who plans the vacations?
14. Who has the bigger sweet tooth?
15. Who’s the messier one?
16. Who’s more competitive at game night?
17. Who remembers birthdays and anniversaries?
18. Who’s more likely to adopt another pet without asking?
19. Who controls the TV remote?
20. Who’s the better kisser? (Save this one for last.)

6. The anniversary dance

The DJ invites every married couple to the dance floor. Every so often, the DJ calls a number of years (“If you’ve been married less than 5 years, please sit down”), and couples leave until only the longest-married pair is dancing. Many couples hand that pair the bouquet. It takes one song and gets a big round of applause.

7. Kiss cues

Instead of clinking glasses, guests have to do something to get the couple to kiss: sing a few seconds of a song with “love” in the title, tell a story about the couple, or stand up as a whole table and wave. Put the rules on a small card at each table.

8. The money dance

In many families, the money dance (also called the dollar dance) is a reception tradition: guests pay a dollar or more for a short dance with one of the newlyweds. It gives every guest a moment with the couple. Skip it if it’s not part of either family’s customs, since some guests find it uncomfortable.

9. Guess the first dance song

Before the first dance, guests write their guess for the song on a slip at their table. When the music starts, anyone who got it right enters a drawing for a prize. It builds a little suspense around a moment that’s already happening.

10. Bouquet giveaway

A gentler version of the bouquet toss: the couple hands the bouquet to someone who matters to them, like the longest-married couple, a grandmother, or the next friend to get engaged. The DJ can turn it into a quick guessing game about who’ll get it.

11. Photo booth challenge

Leave a list at the photo booth: a photo with someone you just met, a photo recreating the couple’s engagement pose, a photo with the officiant. Guests who complete the list collect a prize at the end of the night.

Table games for dinner and cocktail hour

These keep a table of eight or ten people talking, even when half of them met at the ceremony.

12. Couple trivia from the microphone

Between courses, the emcee reads five quick questions about the couple. Each table writes answers on a card, and the best table gets to go to the buffet first. It’s the couple quiz in a faster form.

13. Centerpiece giveaway games

Instead of letting centerpieces go to waste, give them away with a quick contest at each table. Whoever’s birthday is closest to the wedding date wins, or the guest who’s traveled farthest, or the person who’s known the couple the longest. Put the rule on a card in the centerpiece.

14. Under-the-chair prize

Tape a sticker under one chair at each table, or a few chairs across the room. At a set time, the DJ tells guests to check, and whoever finds a sticker wins a prize. Almost no setup, and it wakes up the room.

15. Table photo scavenger hunt

A card on each table lists shots to take: the whole table jumping, someone dancing with a grandparent, a photo of the cake before it’s cut. Ask guests to share photos with the couple afterward. Good for younger crowds who have phones out anyway.

16. Napkin portrait contest

Each table gets a marker and draws the couple on a paper napkin or card. The couple picks a winner during their table visits. The worse the drawings, the funnier the display.

17. Fill-in-the-blank love story

A short story about how the couple met, with blanks for nouns, verbs and adjectives. One guest per table asks the others for words without reading the story, then reads the finished version aloud. Write it yourself from the real story and keep it kind.

18. Candy jar guess

Fill a jar with wrapped candy (count it as you fill it) and set it near the guest book. Guests write their name and a guess on a slip, and the closest guess takes the jar home.

19. Speech-length guess

Guests write down how many minutes they think the best man’s or maid of honor’s speech will last. Someone times it, and the closest guess wins. Warn the speakers first so they’re in on the joke.

20. Find the guest

A card with prompts like “find someone who flew in for the wedding” or “find someone who’s known the couple since grade school.” Guests hunt for a name for each square during cocktail hour. It’s a great icebreaker when the two families don’t know each other.

21. Table name stories

Name each table after a place that matters to the couple, like the city of their first date or a favorite vacation spot. A card on each table asks guests to guess why. The couple reveals the stories during their table visits.

22. Would you rather at the table

Put a small stack of “would you rather” questions on each table for the lull before dessert. Pick clean ones that grandparents and teenagers can both answer from our would you rather questions.

23. Two truths and a lie about the couple

A card at each table lists three statements about the couple, one of them false. Tables vote, and the couple reveals the answer when they stop by. Write a different card for each table so neighbors can’t copy.

Dance floor games

24. Guess the song intro

The DJ plays the first few seconds of a song, and the first table to stand up and shout the title wins a point. Keep it to 8 or 10 songs across a mix of decades.

25. Limbo

A broom handle or a pool noodle and two volunteers to hold it. Kids and adults both love it, and it draws a crowd fast. Keep it to one song so it doesn’t take over the dance floor.

26. Snowball dance

The couple starts dancing alone. When the DJ calls “snowball,” each of them grabs a new partner from the crowd, and the dance floor doubles every time until everyone’s up. It’s the easiest way to get a shy room dancing.

27. Dance-off circle

Guests form a circle, and volunteers take turns in the middle. The couple judges. Only volunteers go in; never pull a guest into the circle who doesn’t want to go.

28. Grown-up musical chairs

Set out a row of chairs at the edge of the dance floor for one round with the couple’s closest friends. The DJ controls the music. It’s short, loud and gives everyone a break from the playlist.

29. Conga line

The DJ starts a conga line, and the couple leads it through the tables, picking up guests as they go. Everyone who joins ends up on the dance floor at the end of the song.

30. Line dance lesson

Ask the DJ to teach a simple line dance, step by step, before playing the full song. It gives guests who never dance a set of steps to follow.

31. Freeze dance

The DJ stops the music, and anyone still moving sits out. Last dancer standing wins. It works best early in the evening, when kids are still at the reception.

Lawn games for outdoor receptions

Set these up at the edge of cocktail hour or on the lawn after dinner. Guests drift over, play a round and wander back.

32. Cornhole

Two boards and eight beanbags. Rentals are easy to find, and the rules take ten seconds to explain. Some couples paint boards with their names and date.

33. Giant block tower

A giant set of wooden stacking blocks. Players pull one block at a time and place it on top until the tower falls. Set it on flat ground, away from where people walk.

34. Ring toss

Rope rings and a set of wooden pegs. Easy for all ages, and it takes very little space.

35. Bocce

A slower game for guests who’d rather talk than run: roll balls toward a small target ball, and closest scores. Works on grass or packed dirt.

36. Croquet

Wickets, mallets and balls on a flat lawn. Nice for a garden wedding, and good for older guests who want a game without much exertion.

37. Horseshoes

Two stakes and a set of horseshoes (or rubber ones for families with small kids). Keep the pit well away from where kids run.

Games for kids at the reception

38. Kids’ activity packs

A bag at each child’s seat with crayons, a coloring page, stickers and a printed word scramble or word search. Kids 7 and up can do the wedding word scramble above.

39. Kids’ wedding bingo

Older kids can play the same bingo cards as the adults; they tend to spot “someone spills a drink” long before anyone else does. Give kids their own small prizes.

40. Venue scavenger hunt

A short clue hunt around a safe, contained part of the venue, with a grown-up in charge and a treat at the end. Our scavenger hunt clues for kids show how to set up a clue chain, and you can rewrite the clues for your venue’s spots.

Prizes for wedding games

Keep prizes small and tied to the day: a centerpiece, a bottle of the couple’s favorite hot sauce, a mini candle in the wedding colors, a small plant, or first pick of the dessert table. For table games, a prize the whole table shares (first in line for the buffet, a round of mocktails) works better than one prize for one person.

Out of prizes? Bragging rights cost nothing. Have the DJ announce each winning table by name, and let that table lead the next song onto the dance floor.

Questions hosts ask

By the Party Game Book editors. Every game here is free to print for personal, classroom and non-commercial use. How we make and check our games.