Centerpiece on Your Wedding
September 26, 2008
The question of who will get to take home the centerpiece can sometimes be a central discussion at wedding reception dinner tables, particularly if the centerpiece is particularly pretty or original.
Making a game of who gets the centerpiece, then, can be an amusing diversion and one many guests will enjoy participating in. Here are some ideas for giving away that reception table centerpiece.
How about a game of 20 questions? The MC or DJ asks a series of 20 questions, but first gives the guests the basic background information, that is, that the answer is an animal, place, person or thing. The game is repeated until one person at each table has won the centerpiece.
One of the most popular ways brides give away the table centerpieces is to put a number on the bottom of the centerpiece and give each guest a number. At some point in the evening, a number is called, each guest checks his or her number and whoever has the called number gets the centerpiece.
For example, you might provide each table with a number, but make it a lower number (ie. between 1 and 10) and the DJ or MC could move from table to table and have each guest do something a certain number of times. So, at the first table, for example, the guests might need to do “head, shoulders, knees and toes” six times and whoever does it first gets the centerpiece. Or, at the second table, the guests might be required to sing the alphabet 3 times or sing “twinkle, twinkle, little star” three times and whoever does that first get the centerpiece.
Another fun activity for divvying up the centerpieces is to require guests to produce a certain item. The DJ or MC moves from table to table, announcing what guests at that table will be required to produce in order to get the centerpiece. Whatever it is, the guest at each table who produces the requested item will get the centerpiece.
Perhaps you could create an activity where the person who has the strangest talent (as voted on by the tablemates) wins the centerpiece.
If you like musical chairs, you can play a game of musical dollar bills in order to give the centerpiece away. Someone takes out a one-dollar bill and music begins playing. Everyone at the table passes the dollar bill around the table and when the music stops, whoever is left holding the bill gets the centerpiece. That person can then be awarded with the centerpiece.
Some fun, and fairly traditional, ideas include the birthday person getting the centerpiece. At each table, the person who has a birthday closest to the wedding gets the centerpiece. Or if there are married couples at the table, the couple who have been together the longest can get the centerpiece, or the couple who were married most recently.
