Entertaining our guests

While we were off taking photos around the park our guests had two hours to waste before dinner. As the venue was 40 minutes from Winnipeg, where most of our guests were from, I didn't expect them to drive home between ceremony and reception which meant that I needed to occupy their time so that they weren't bored.

We opened the bar at 4:30, immediately after the ceremony was over, and had the appetizers we made on Thursday put out buffet style by our servers (the Girl Guides). Of course I've had no luck documenting the appetizer portion of my wedding as no one seems to have taken pictures of them during cocktails. I don't even know how the presentation of them ended up looking! People told me they really enjoyed everything and it was gone quickly, which is good!

But I would have really liked to see what it looked like! Hopefully a pictures will surface one day...

Along with the appetizers & cocktails, our DJ moved his system from the ceremony location back to the reception venue to start the background music.

We got lucky with our venue, in that it was a beautiful campground and park so our guests were able to stroll their paths, walk across the bridge and if that wasn't enough I also set up a photo booth area for people to pose for their own pictures.

Originally I thought to do a DIY automated photo booth but trying to figure out what camera to use, how to have people remotely click, etc gave me a headache! I decided to ask one of my many amazing friends to man the booth during cocktails and take the pictures manually. I later posted them on our flickr account for people to download.

Here a few of the shots he took...

Lastly we set up lawn games, borrowed from our parents, for people to play. This wasn't just used during cocktails but after dinner and speeches. If you have the space at your wedding I strongly recommend it. Not everyone enjoys dancing all night and it is a fun way to occupy the kids that come.

{One of the many signs I made for the day, its actual printed to look like a chalk board via Mrs Bunting's DIY Faux Chalkboard on Weddingbee - Photo by Darren Hull Studio}

{My aunt playing lawn golf - photo by Darren Hull Studios}