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Wedding reception activities

Reviewed August 2026

A wedding does not want games. It wants things that occupy the gaps — between the ceremony and the meal, during the speeches, and the long hour when the photographs are being taken and nobody knows what to do.

One thing here takes the microphone: the Shoe Game, five minutes between courses, and the only people on the spot are the two who chose to be. Everything else is passive by design: it needs no host and no announcement. The children’s table pack is the highest-value item on the list, because it buys eight parents an hour.

The Shoe Game

Free

The couple sit back to back, one shoe of each, and answer "who is more likely" by raising a shoe.

  • 15 min
  • 8–200 people
  • Any age
  • Minutes to set up
  • Sit-down
  • Inside or out

What you need

Two chairs · A list of questions · The couple’s shoes

How to play

  1. One partner and the other sit back to back, each holding one of their own shoes and one of the other’s.
  2. The host asks "who is more likely to…" questions. Each raises the shoe of their answer.
  3. Matching shoes is a point for the couple; splitting is a point for the room.
  4. Fifteen questions is plenty. End on a kind one.

How it ends

No score that matters — the mismatches are the show.

Reception Bingo

In the event kit

A card at each place: things that will happen at the reception. Cross them off.

  • 60 min
  • 20–200 people
  • Any age
  • Minutes to set up
  • Sit-down
  • Inside or out

What you need

A card per place setting · Pens on the tables

How to play

  1. Things that will happen — a speech runs long, someone cries, the first person on the dance floor.
  2. At each place setting. It runs quietly through the meal without needing a host.
  3. Keep it fond. Nothing that would land badly with the family.

How it ends

A full line wins a small prize. Announce it once, then leave it alone.

How Well Do You Know the Couple?

In the event kit

Twenty questions about the two of them, answered separately in advance.

  • 25 min
  • 6–200 people
  • Any age
  • An evening of prep
  • Sit-down
  • Inside or out

What you need

A question sheet per guest · Pens

How to play

  1. Ask each of them the same twenty questions separately, in advance.
  2. Where they disagree is the good material. Keep those in.
  3. Guests answer, then the couple reads out what they each said.

How it ends

Highest score wins. The disagreements are the entertainment.

Advice for the Years

In the event kit

Envelopes marked with anniversary years. Guests write a letter for one of them.

  • 20 min
  • 10–150 people
  • Any age
  • An evening of prep
  • Sit-down
  • Inside or out

What you need

Four envelopes, each marked with an anniversary still to come · Cards · Pens · A box

How to play

  1. Four envelopes on a side table, each marked with an anniversary still ahead: the first, fifth, tenth and twentieth for newlyweds, the next round numbers for a couple already decades in.
  2. Guests write a letter and drop it into whichever year they choose.
  3. A sign explaining it, so nobody needs it explained twice.

How it ends

Opened on those anniversaries. The one keepsake with a decades-long payoff.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Free

A list of shots to get, teams with one phone each, twenty minutes.

  • 25 min
  • 6–150 people
  • Any age
  • Minutes to set up
  • Up and about
  • Inside or out

What you need

A printed list per team · One phone per team

How to play

  1. Twelve to fifteen shots on the list. Mix easy ones with a few that take nerve — everyone in the team upside down, a stranger joining in.
  2. Teams of three or four, one phone each, a clear boundary and a hard time limit.
  3. Set up a group chat or shared album so photos arrive as they go.

How it ends

Look through them together on a screen. Points for completion, extra for the funniest.

Lawn Games

Free

Three sets out on the grass. Nobody organizes anything, people just play.

  • 120 min
  • 10–200 people
  • Any age
  • Minutes to set up
  • Up and about
  • Outdoors

What you need

Two or three of: bocce, ring toss, a giant tumbling tower, croquet, cornhole · A small sign with the rules

How to play

  1. Set two or three games out in an open corner, away from the food line.
  2. A small rules sign next to each so nobody has to ask.
  3. That is all. Do not organize a tournament — the point is that people drift in and out.

How it ends

Nothing ends. Best value activity at any outdoor event, and it entertains children and grandparents alike.

Children’s Table Pack

In the event kit

A folder at each child’s place. Coloring, a word search, an I-spy of the room, four crayons.

  • 60 min
  • 2–30 people
  • Ages 3–11
  • An evening of prep
  • Sit-down
  • Inside or out

What you need

A printed pack per child · Four crayons per child in a bag

How to play

  1. Four pages: coloring, a word search, a list of things to spot in the room, and a blank page to draw the day.
  2. One pack and a small bag of crayons at each child’s place.
  3. Crayons, not markers. Markers and a white tablecloth is a decision you make once.

How it ends

No winner. Buys the parents an hour, which is the entire point.

Skip to content

Wedding reception activities

Reviewed August 2026

A wedding does not want games. It wants things that occupy the gaps — between the ceremony and the meal, during the speeches, and the long hour when the photographs are being taken and nobody knows what to do.

One thing here takes the microphone: the Shoe Game, five minutes between courses, and the only people on the spot are the two who chose to be. Everything else is passive by design: it needs no host and no announcement. The children’s table pack is the highest-value item on the list, because it buys eight parents an hour.

The Shoe Game

Free

The couple sit back to back, one shoe of each, and answer "who is more likely" by raising a shoe.

  • 15 min
  • 8–200 people
  • Any age
  • Minutes to set up
  • Sit-down
  • Inside or out

What you need

Two chairs · A list of questions · The couple’s shoes

How to play

  1. One partner and the other sit back to back, each holding one of their own shoes and one of the other’s.
  2. The host asks "who is more likely to…" questions. Each raises the shoe of their answer.
  3. Matching shoes is a point for the couple; splitting is a point for the room.
  4. Fifteen questions is plenty. End on a kind one.

How it ends

No score that matters — the mismatches are the show.

Reception Bingo

In the event kit

A card at each place: things that will happen at the reception. Cross them off.

  • 60 min
  • 20–200 people
  • Any age
  • Minutes to set up
  • Sit-down
  • Inside or out

What you need

A card per place setting · Pens on the tables

How to play

  1. Things that will happen — a speech runs long, someone cries, the first person on the dance floor.
  2. At each place setting. It runs quietly through the meal without needing a host.
  3. Keep it fond. Nothing that would land badly with the family.

How it ends

A full line wins a small prize. Announce it once, then leave it alone.

How Well Do You Know the Couple?

In the event kit

Twenty questions about the two of them, answered separately in advance.

  • 25 min
  • 6–200 people
  • Any age
  • An evening of prep
  • Sit-down
  • Inside or out

What you need

A question sheet per guest · Pens

How to play

  1. Ask each of them the same twenty questions separately, in advance.
  2. Where they disagree is the good material. Keep those in.
  3. Guests answer, then the couple reads out what they each said.

How it ends

Highest score wins. The disagreements are the entertainment.

Advice for the Years

In the event kit

Envelopes marked with anniversary years. Guests write a letter for one of them.

  • 20 min
  • 10–150 people
  • Any age
  • An evening of prep
  • Sit-down
  • Inside or out

What you need

Four envelopes, each marked with an anniversary still to come · Cards · Pens · A box

How to play

  1. Four envelopes on a side table, each marked with an anniversary still ahead: the first, fifth, tenth and twentieth for newlyweds, the next round numbers for a couple already decades in.
  2. Guests write a letter and drop it into whichever year they choose.
  3. A sign explaining it, so nobody needs it explained twice.

How it ends

Opened on those anniversaries. The one keepsake with a decades-long payoff.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Free

A list of shots to get, teams with one phone each, twenty minutes.

  • 25 min
  • 6–150 people
  • Any age
  • Minutes to set up
  • Up and about
  • Inside or out

What you need

A printed list per team · One phone per team

How to play

  1. Twelve to fifteen shots on the list. Mix easy ones with a few that take nerve — everyone in the team upside down, a stranger joining in.
  2. Teams of three or four, one phone each, a clear boundary and a hard time limit.
  3. Set up a group chat or shared album so photos arrive as they go.

How it ends

Look through them together on a screen. Points for completion, extra for the funniest.

Lawn Games

Free

Three sets out on the grass. Nobody organizes anything, people just play.

  • 120 min
  • 10–200 people
  • Any age
  • Minutes to set up
  • Up and about
  • Outdoors

What you need

Two or three of: bocce, ring toss, a giant tumbling tower, croquet, cornhole · A small sign with the rules

How to play

  1. Set two or three games out in an open corner, away from the food line.
  2. A small rules sign next to each so nobody has to ask.
  3. That is all. Do not organize a tournament — the point is that people drift in and out.

How it ends

Nothing ends. Best value activity at any outdoor event, and it entertains children and grandparents alike.

Children’s Table Pack

In the event kit

A folder at each child’s place. Coloring, a word search, an I-spy of the room, four crayons.

  • 60 min
  • 2–30 people
  • Ages 3–11
  • An evening of prep
  • Sit-down
  • Inside or out

What you need

A printed pack per child · Four crayons per child in a bag

How to play

  1. Four pages: coloring, a word search, a list of things to spot in the room, and a blank page to draw the day.
  2. One pack and a small bag of crayons at each child’s place.
  3. Crayons, not markers. Markers and a white tablecloth is a decision you make once.

How it ends

No winner. Buys the parents an hour, which is the entire point.

Planning the reception?

The planner takes the date, the headcount and who it is for, then works out which of these fit the time you actually have.

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Kit & Occasion
OPENING YOUR INVITATION

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Planning something yourself? Kit & Occasion plans the whole event — free to start.

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You’re all set

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Planning something yourself? Kit & Occasion plans the whole event — free to start.

YOUR REPLY
PICK YOUR MEAL
ALLERGIES OR FOOD NEEDS

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SIGNED IN

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Your events stay on this device after you sign out.

Delete your account?

This permanently deletes your account, every event saved to it, your published invitations and the replies your guests sent. It cannot be undone. Events kept on this device stay here.

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One account keeps the same event on your laptop and your phone.

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Plan it. Build it. Host it.

Tell it about your party once. The invitations, the menu, the printed kit, the shopping list and the games build themselves from your answers — so the time goes into the gathering, not the planning.

A garden party set on cream paper: the printed invitation, menu card, thank-you tags and cupcake toppers in one design, with a sage napkin and a glass of water A garden party set on cream paper: the printed invitation, menu card, thank-you tags and cupcake toppers in one design
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How it works

The design kit makes itself from your answers.

Say what the party is, when, for how many and for whom. The invitation, welcome sign, menu, banner, toppers, food cards and thank-you tags are made in one design with your words already on them. Type a name here and it is set on every sign below in that design’s own lettering. Nothing typed is kept or sent anywhere.

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Why we built it

More time together, in person.

In an increasingly digital world, the planning should be the easy part. One plan builds every piece, and the evening goes to the people in the room.

In the world

Printed, and on the table.

A garden-soiree welcome sign on an easel at a wooden garden gate, with matching pennants strung above Cupcakes with garden-soiree toppers on a cream stand beside wrapped gifts with matching thank-you tags A lemon-bordered invitation on cream linen with a lemon and its leaves The garden-soiree kit laid out on cream paper: menu, place card, toppers and tags A blush-and-gold arch invitation with a silk ribbon and a wax seal A garden-soiree menu card standing on a set table by a window A celestial arch invitation with gold star confetti and a navy ribbon A chandelier gala invitation beside a champagne coupe and a wax seal A pastel balloon invitation with two macarons and a pink ribbon A papel picado invitation with a marigold and a halved lime A dinosaur-dig birthday table: the printed welcome sign in a frame, cupcake toppers, food placards and thank-you tags on favour bags, all in one design A game-day snack table with the printed welcome sign, food placards in front of the bowls and a string of pennants

The arithmetic is done for you.

Change the headcount and every quantity follows — the same figures the planner prints.

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What are you planning?

Pick your occasion and the planner opens with it already chosen.

The games

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Prop a laptop on the table and the screen runs the game: one person taps, everyone else shouts. Or deal the cards, with the rules right there on the page. Nothing to install.

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A television in a living room showing the games page
The app

The whole plan, in your pocket.

The same planner, invitations, kit and games on your phone, with your events kept in sync.

A long table laid for a party: a floral welcome sign on an easel, a matching menu and place cards, white roses in a jug and brass candlesticks

Plan the whole event

Free, all of it — the theme, the menu with quantities, the guest list, the budget, the shopping list, the checklist. What costs money is the printed kit, once.

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Just play a game tonight

Open a pack for your occasion on any screen. No account, nothing to install. Add the names at the table and it is personal before the first round.

Browse the games
LOADING THE GAMES

We couldn’t load the games

Part of the game library didn’t arrive. We’re not showing a partial list, because it would leave packs missing formats with nothing to tell you so. Everything else on the site works, and nothing you have saved is affected.

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Game night

Games people ask to play again.

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Build my game night

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Tonight, in playing order

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How many are playing?

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On the TV

The screen runs the game.

It reads out the rules, keeps the score and runs the clock, so whoever is hosting gets to play too. Open this page on the laptop or the TV and press Play.

Every game the TV hosts needs at least three players, so a night for two is played at the table. The best of it is just below.

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At the table

Or deal it out.

Card games, dice games and the ones that need nothing but a pen, each quick to learn and hard to stop playing. The rules are on every card.

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Built for the room, not the download.

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Fill this in first

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Your side

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Nothing in the colour library answers to that. Try the city with its sport, or the country.

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On the screen tonight

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Fills the screen and sizes the board for the room. Escape to come back.

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WHO IS IT ABOUT?
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IN THE GAME NOW
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EDIT THE QUESTIONS
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Saved on this device only. Nothing you type here is uploaded, and it stays put if you close the tab.

LOADING THE GUIDES

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Part of the content library didn’t arrive. We’re not showing a partial index. The planner and the games are unaffected.

Planning guides

Guides for the event you are actually planning

Written to answer the question, not to rank for it. Every figure in them comes from the same engines the planner runs.

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Nothing published here yet

A hub goes live when it has pages worth ranking. Publishing an empty shell to hold the keyword is how a site earns a thin-content problem.

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Next step, if you want one

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CELEBRATION TRAVEL

Where to take it

For the events that go away — costed per head for a long weekend, with the months worth going. Pick a place and the planner starts with the trip already known.

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Worth booking

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THE LONGER READ

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THE REST OF IT

Party arithmetic

Free calculators

Each one answers in a single screen, prints as a list you can take to the shop, and uses the same arithmetic as the planner — so the number does not change if you carry on there.

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For guests

Every answer below is worked for this many, and each calculator opens on it.

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The short answer

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YOUR EVENT
Which do you know?
Invitations going out
People you want in the room
How are they invited?
How far are people coming?
Total budget
Weeks until the event
Adults
Children
Hours
What are people drinking?
How are you serving it?
What is the main?
How is it being cut?
Table
How is the room being used?
The room, in feet — optional
Table
How far should it hang?
How many tables
Conditions
Kind of event
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This kind of event
COMMON QUESTIONS

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THE NEXT NUMBER YOU WILL NEED

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What you need

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How it ends

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The planner takes the date, the headcount and who it is for, then works out which of these fit the time you actually have.

NOT FOUND

This page isn’t here

The link may have been copied incompletely, or the page it pointed at has moved on. Everything the site knows is still one step away.

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Why it exists

Planning a party is mostly admin

Somebody has to work out how much chicken feeds thirty, whether the sprouts and the potatoes can share an oven, what a fourteen-year-old will find embarrassing, and which of the eleven things on the list has to happen before the invitations go out.

None of that is the fun part, and all of it is knowable. That is the whole idea behind Kit & Occasion: the answers exist, they are just spread across forty browser tabs and the memory of whoever hosted last year.

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How it works

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What is free and what is not

The planning is free. All of it — the menus, the quantities, the guest list, the budget, the shopping list, the games, the checklist. Not a trial, and not capped at one event.

What costs money is the printing: a coordinated set of signs, labels, table cards and game materials in your own colours, sized correctly, with the paper worked out and the assembly written down. It is the gap between having a plan and having a party, and it is the part people dread. One payment, no subscription.

Start with whatever you are planning next

What the printing is

One set, drawn for the occasion and coloured for yours

The welcome sign, the menu, the place cards, the labels and the games, on six of the tables it has been set for. Pick one and the planner opens knowing what you are planning.

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Kit & Occasion

One connected tool for the whole event. The planning is free; the printed kit is the part you pay for, once.

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Plan it. Build it. Host it.

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