How to entertain guests while we do additional photos

koneko

We are hoping to get married at a hotel that is opposite a zoo that we love. We have been told that we should be able to go into the zoo with our wedding party and have some photos do be there but I am wondering how to entertain the rest of our guests at the hotel while we do this?

RainbowDrops

Garden games, canapes, drinks.

kbl

a lot of the weddings at the hotel I work at, the bride and groom arrange for live music in the bar while the guests gather waiting on the wedding party to finish their photos? also, another thing I've noticed is sometimes there's a video booth set up earlier so the guests can give their messages prior as opposed to after the meal?

74jax

We left our guests for about half an hour and they just mingled etc. It wasn't for photos though - can they come and watch?

floss2

We left ours - the wedding ceremony was at a different place, it was a baking hot day, people wanted to freshen up and catch up with other friends & relatives and generally relax.

Another wedding we went to was all in a hotel - again guests freshened up, mingled, relaxed.

Why do you feel you should be entertaining everyone while you are busy?

Sazzarella

We are having a drinks reception. Kills time between the ceremony and wedding breakfast and that will be when we go for photos.

minerva_windsong

Drinks reception is a good way to go, as most of the time weddings are an excuse for people to chat and catch up with those they haven't seen for a while, and don't really need any other entertainment. In fact I would have though this was a pretty standard thing now to fill time whilst the wedding party went off for the photos. If the finances won't stretch to paying for drinks for people then you can always see if the venue will open the bar. I like the idea of the video booth being set up early as well.

Depending how long your pictures are going to take, could you see if the zoo will do group discount for your guests? Could work well especially for those with youngsters, although then you have the issue of if you do want a big group shot you need to find people...

My other suggestion would maybe be a magician doing close-up magic, but I have to say that there are some people who will just go 'no!' at that and will actively avoid them to not get picked on, so you really need to know your guests to know if that's going to work. Ditto caricaturists - I've been to weddings where they've worked really well and weddings where they've just been a waste of money because no-one wanted to do it.

koneko

Thanks everyone.

We are having a drinks reception of bucks fizz/sparkling wine and fruit juice for the non drinkers so I suppose this will keep them occupied - I suppose I just felt bad for abandoning everyone as soon as we get to the hotel.

Potentially they could buy tickets into the zoo at a reduced group rate, but its a large zoo and they wouldn't get to look around much in the time it will take to do our photos, the zoo will only allow the immediate wedding party in for free (we are annual pass holders so I think its a special favour for that really).

Group photos will be taken on the grassy woodland area at the hotel, but it has limited scope for couple/wedding party shots which is why we wanted to have a few more interesting ones done in the zoo.

I'm not sure what a videobooth is, I'm assuming similar to a photobooth, we'd decided to probably not do that unless we can set it up with my digital camera somehow - its so expensive to hire a booth!

Torry_Quine

It's normal in my experience that the couple and immediate wedding party to go somewhere for photos while everyone else is at eh reception venue. Usually just have a drink and chat to other guests until time for the meal, you really don't need to provide entertainment.

Hezzawithkids

Similar think happened at a wedding we went to last year. There was a good 2-3 hours to fill between the ceremony and the wedding breakfast when the wedding party were all of having the photos done. They provided Pimms and canapes for their guests and we all mingled quite happily. They opened a cash bar for anyone who wanted other drinks. Mind you they were so generous with the Pimms that for some of us (no names) our back teeth were floating by the time the sit-down meal came around!

themull1

I had a ghost tour of the castle we were in and a bird of prey display to entertain the guests for an hour when we had photos taken.