Evening Entertainment Opinion for a very small wedding

If the venue is small I think all options would be fine. I'd avoid a DJ if the room will feel 'empty' if everyone isn't dancing, personally.

A casino usually goes down well and is a good chance for guests to mingle if not everyone likes to dance.

I think the casino with a playlist would be better - best of both worlds then really xx

I think I would go for a playlist and casino- something for everyone then and also a DJ can be quite loud- which for a small wedding might be a bit too much.

We are only having around 45 at ours in a room that holds double (but we are spacing the tables out and only having them as tables of 8 instead of 10!) so we have been having the same quandry as yourselves.

Unless you are all dancers a disco could be a waste of time and money and make a huge space where people should be dancing look obvious. We have told everyone we have got an iPod / MP3 dock so bring your phone with your own music and we will put that on in the background and we are going to all sit around and get drunk / play games like Jenga / connect 4 etc as thats our thing. Some guests wont like it and think its odd but we love to play games.

I think your casion table and own music idea is great. I may even see if I can dig out my Poker table and pop that in a corner for the poker players

Thanks all for your opinions so far. Its interesting to hear other views, hadn't thought about it being too loud for a small space

1987RAF, i love your games idea and the fact that you're not worrying if its not everyones thing. Its very hard to do want YOU want at your wedding, as i'm finding to my peril!!! I might dig our Jenga out for our little ones, hadn't thought of that.

xx

Hi,

2 separate rooms is a good idea. Casino is an awesome idea!

I would be careful about offering any guest to put on whatever song they like though as one persons idea of 'The best party song ever!' could be a real party killer....

James x

Hi there

A DJ and even live music can still work really well, even with a very small number of guests. As as Singer / DJ I've done a couple of 35 guest weddings, a 40 and even one 9 guest wedding in the last few years! All really successful with lots of dancing!

If you go up to Gretna Green, most guest numbers will be less than 40/50 and on my trip there (only ventured that far once!), there were 4 receptions side by side ina big partitioned room, each with its own DJ. Every room was having a great time with full dance floors.

Don't worry about volume. As long as you don't have a full live band, with acoustic drums, brass etc. A DJ or singer / singers using backing tracks can completely tailor their volume to suit your room and guest numbers.

What I wouldn't recommend is having a casino or other entertainment in one room and your music in another. This will divide your guests so you'll definitely have one room or the other feeling very empty, with not as much atmosphere. If you like the idea of having say, a casino and music, I'd recommend the casino early evening before your first dance, and concentrate on dancing after that - all in the same room.

Hope this helps!

James

I am just envisaging flitting between Shirley Bassy, Dire Straits, The Tragically Hip, The Birdie Song with a finale of Let it Go ...i might go on early honeymoon!

Hi wedding singer. the only reason i say 2 separate room is they are 2 small rooms with i tiny hallway in between. i think you would be hard pushed to fit the casino in one room and have music/dancing as well. I am thinking now you have all given me some ideas if we put some music on in the other room maybe it could be more relaxing background music while people mill about until the casino goes, the drink kicks in and we can then crank things up a bit......we'll leave the drinks in there, hopefully that will entice them to go back and forth?

Thank you everyone for taking the time to give me your thoughts, i'm enjoying getting my head round it a bit more xx

If it helps, I'm having a casino plus music! I'm creating a playlist and hiring some speakers, so nobody will be able to change the music. With the casino, I'm having roulette and black jack, and often the casino people offer a prize for the winner! You can also have personalised fun money which could be used as the wedding favours, so people get excited when they discover their money during the meal.

Hope that helps!

This sounds awesome!!!

The reason why I commented about having control of the playlist is some guests have some unusual ideas on what song would really make the evening reception.

I had a wedding guest wait right in front of me recently for a whole song whilst performing then after taking out my ear monitors (I can't hear anyone speak if they're in) wanted us to play 'Ghostbusters' as it was his favourite party song???!

This was a fully grown man!! He looked distraught when i politely told him that we wouldn't be playing it. I dread to think what he might have played if he could've just plugged his ipod in!!!

He he, sometimes guests will get very upset about not having their song played, especially as the night progresses and too much alcohol has been consumed!

This is really helpful advice, thank you! We're heading to Gretna Green for our wedding so will be anywhere between 30-55 people depending on who says yes!

We really want music & casino - only concern I have is the hotel we've chosen means we'll use 2 adjoing rooms so there's a big opening but also some wall between them... do you think it would still lose atmosphere this way as it's not like rooms closed off from one another but is technically a bit separated?

I've seen a casino work at a small wedding and it's a greta idea. I've also had a small wedding where a jukebox was hired which was a lot of fun - people got to choose songs and often had banter around it too.