I'd actually wanted to have way more reviews posted by now, but then I realised that a lot of them would benefit from having photos! Photos I don't yet have! So I'll hold off as long as I can on those and prioritise the review posts based on what needs a photo the least.
So, here we are: the DJ's.
Read MoreContinuing on from my previous post about Chinese door games, which take place the morning of the wedding and involve only the bridal party (and in particular, the wanton humiliation of the groomsmen), the Western side of things traditionally involves games played after you're married. As you likely know, these take place during the reception and seem to try to involve as many single people at your wedding as possible.
We hadn't really considering either Chinese or Western games at our wedding, purely because it sounded like way too much additional planning and/or thinking. Surprisingly, it was our wedding DJs who first mentioned the Western games to us, providing us with a long, long list of games to play at our wedding. With the lone exception of the bouquet toss (which we aren't doing), every single one of the games listed is horrifyingly awkward.
The one that Blake finds the funniest is to get people paired off (single or otherwise) in a slow-dance and wedge a balloon between them. The first pair to pop their balloon wins, where the awkward part is that you can only pop the balloon by applying pressure with your bodies. And unless one of you has a pin hidden in your belt, it generally involves lots and lots of hilarious-looking wiggling.
The one that I find the most awkward and the absolute worst is perhaps one of the most popular - the garter. I've only seen it in movies (as of the time of this post), never in person, and I remember wondering what on earth was going on. It seemed a lot weird to me that the single ladies at the reception get to catch a flying bunch of flowers while the single guys get to catch something that I'd been wearing on my thigh! I shudder at the thought, really. Not for me, noooooooope.
Most of the games seem to focus on just unmarried singles or just married couples, which is another thing that bothers me. A lot of the games seem to be about pairing people up if you're not paired up already, or the expectation that you will be paired up in the future and won't you be lucky then? I'm all about potentially embarrassing people for a good-natured laugh when appropriate, but I don't like perpetuating the stereotype that everyone has to be with someone to be happy. Ironic given that we're talking about our wedding, but just because it works for us doesn't mean it works (or should work) for anyone else. I could be reading too much into this but it really does make me uncomfortable, probably because I know a lot of people are made to feel like shit just because they're single, even if they might want to be.
As it is, Blake and I find it pretty weird that the DJ is the one suggesting these wedding games to us, and all the games strike us as archaic or perpetuating traditions with which we don't relate. We get that they'll be funny and that's cool and all, but we still don't want to do them. We will set up other things to keep people entertained, but at the end of the day there will be music and alcohol. What else do you really need?