Looking for ideas to make your wedding ceremony fun, memorable, interactive, high-energy, and full of laughter? Read about how some previous Kickass Couples have begun their wedding day as they mean to go on, by getting the fun (and often the booze) flowing right from the start!
Include a ceremony quiz!
You can do a quiz in a few different ways. It could be ‘Mr and Mrs’* style where I ask questions such as ‘who's most likely to get lost?’ or ‘who takes the longest getting ready in a morning?’ You can do this just as the couple and holding up voting paddles, or by whipping off your shoes and sitting back-to-back holding up the relevant shoe to indicate your answer - this way, you don’t know what answer your partner is giving, but all your guests can see whether you agree or disagree!
You can get guests involved, too, by giving them all voting paddles to join in with. I will usually ask guests for some bonus specific questions to ask before the ceremony starts, which always adds an extra level of surprise and fun!
PROS: can involve everyone, is quick and simple, makes for great reactions and photos!
CONS: might require additional props/prep if you decide to have voting paddles.
***on ‘Mr & Mrs’... I usually avoid unnecessarily gendered language, but I use this in reference to the TV Gameshow of the same name in the 60s and 70s, briefly resurrected with celebrity contestants in the early 2000s. Really dating myself here, aren’t I. We can easily rename it as something appropriate to your genders, or just call it a couple's quiz!
Drinks, shots and cocktails
Quaich: Sharing an alcoholic drink in a ceremony is actually a very old wedding tradition, especially in Celtic cultures. Drinking from a quaich, which is a double-handed cup, symbolises trust and sharing. You can either take it in turns to drink from it, or hold a handle each and take a drink together. Traditionally, whisky would be used - but put your own spin on it with a spirit of your choice instead!
Shots: who doesn’t love a shot? (some people, apparently. Never mind. More for the rest of us). You could kick things off with a shot right at the start - just the two of you, or all of your guests - to calm the nerves and build a buzz. If you’re going to get everyone involved, it’s best to decant your spirit of choice into individual mini bottles. These can be handed to guests as they go to take their seats, or just put out on their chairs. If you have kids or people who don’t drink, it’s nice to have a soft drink alternative. Alternatively, you could have a surprise trolley wheeled out at the end and have everyone join you in a toast as you are pronounced married at the end. Pure party vibes.
Cocktails: cocktails can be really symbolic - combining different elements together to create a unique blend is just like a marriage really, isn’t it. So you could end your ceremony by working together to create a cocktail which represents the two of you, and then share your first drink as a married couple together. You could even then see if your venue / caterers can create the same drink as a signature cocktail for guests after the ceremony. Let's shake things up!
Bubbles: Love a bit of champers? Popping a bottle has been an intrinsic part of big celebrations for centuries, so why not do it in your ceremony? You could then keep the cork as a ceremony memento.
PROS: "DRINK!!" (said Father Ted style. Wow I really am making some dated TV references in this blog post, aren't I?)
CONS: excludes kids / non-drinkers; some venues won't allow you to provide your own; needs pre-planning; could get quite spenny.
Planting a plant / FLOWER / TREE
Ok this one comes with some caveats. Because I’ll talk about how plants and trees need care, attention, and the right conditions in order to thrive, and that it will grow and change, just like your marriage… which means that if your plant or tree dies within a couple of weeks, it’s not a good look. Hopefully you're not superstitious. If you go for this option, do your research and go for something hardy which you have experience caring for and that has potential to last for years to come.
PROS: great if you're into plants / gardening. Gives a lasting memento of the ceremony
CONS: needs a lot of stuff and organisation; it might die.
Pets
I love pet involvement in a wedding. Dogs are the most obvious example and I have a whole separate blog post of ideas for how to include them.
But we can still include your pets even if they can’t be there on the day. Get some giant head cutouts of them, and we can include some ‘marriage advice from the pets’ into the ceremony. Sidenote: when I did that at Kady and Chris’s wedding for their cats, we ended up with mentions of licking bumholes. Not something I ever thought I would be saying in a wedding ceremony, but here we are.
(On a serious note: I won’t facilitate butterfly releases in ceremonies - see this article for why)
Wine box / memory box / time capsule

Seal up your vows and notes from your guests into a time capsule or wine box. You can then make a tradition of opening and rereading them all on your anniversaries!
If you want to add notes from guests, it’s good to get guests to fill those out before the ceremony starts and to give them prompts. So you could have a card and a pencil out on everyone’s chairs, with prompts such as ‘share a happy memory of the couple’ or ‘suggest a date night idea’.
Secret script input from guests
On a similar note, something I have also done is gather some secret input from a select few special friends or family members. I ask them questions about what makes you work so well as a couple or what their advice for a happy marriage is, and then I sprinkle those into your script secretly so that you don’t hear it until the day itself - it makes for great genuine reactions! Another alternative - although riskier - is to ask people to add a note to a jar or box to be picked at random during the ceremony and read aloud. It depends how much you trust your mates!!
PROS: guests feel involved; genuine reactions and surprises
CONS: some guests might feel excluded; potential jeopardy with content (but I love the drama)
Lil' surprises
Hiding rings under a random guest’s chair so that you get a surprise ring bearer always goes down well. But you could also hide some other rewards / prizes / challenges under chairs or in the ceremony space - things such as drinks tokens or, if you're into escape rooms / Taskmaster / games, you could hide clues or words from a phrase which they have to rearrange to work out the meaning of!
Singalong
Aah, the good old ceremony singalong. This one depends how outgoing you and your guests are, really. It’s definitely not for everyone. But if you pick the right song and provide lyric sheets, people often get really into it. You could even give out prizes for the most enthusiastic! Attempting a cappella is a risk, so either use a backing track or if you have live musicians booked for your ceremony ask whether they’d be up for helping out! You can have a song at any point during the ceremony, really, or have your exit song as a singalong - stay at the front and join in while everyone sings the verse, then set off back down the aisle together as the chorus kicks in!
PROS: can create great energy and atmosphere; memorable; great with live musicians
CONS: very guest-vibe-dependent! Needs prior prep eg lyric sheets and backing track
Having said all of that, I’m a big believer in not adding things into your ceremony just for the sake of them - they have to be relevant to you in some way or reflective of you as a couple. Often, the best ideas are ones that come from getting to know you and your passions. I have had ceremonies which include embroidery. Or climbing ropes. Special handshakes. Quiz questions written on lollipop sticks and pulled from a jar, because that’s how the couple plan their date nights.
Don’t feel the need to include extras into your ceremony just for the sake of it. It needs to be right for you.
Any celebrant ceremony which tells your story, includes entertaining anecdotes, and encourages great personal vows will already be way more fun than the ‘standard’ ceremony. We've got you.
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