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Wedding Shoe Game – A fun reception game

/0 Comments/in ideas, Wedding /by Steven Duncan

One of the most prevalent and interactive games that’s bound to put a smile on your guest’s face at your wedding reception is the Wedding Shoe Game. As a wedding photographer, I’ve come across quite a few different little fun games the bride and groom can play with their guests, or for their guest’s amusement, and the Wedding Shoe Game is one of my favourites!

Groom shoes
Wedding shoes
Wedding shoes

How to play the Wedding Shoe Game

Basically, the idea of the game is to make your guests laugh at your antics as you answer questions about your relationship together, and to see if you both have the same answer to questions that you ‘should’ have the same answers to 🙂 For example, a common question might be “Who of you said ‘I love you’ first?”. Now if both the bride and the groom were paying attention to their relationship, one would assume both would answer the same – but this is where the fun comes in as sometimes answers differ.

The reason why it’s called the ‘Wedding Shoe Game’ is because in order to play, both the bride and groom sit facing away from each other – usually in the middle of the dance floor – and take off their shoes. They then trade one of their shoes for the other’s so that each has one of the groom’s shoes and each has one of the bride’s.

The MC, or whomever, then reads out a list of questions about the couple’s relationship. In order to answer, the bride and groom holds up one of the shoes – if the answer in their mind is the groom, then they hold up the groom’s shoe, if the answer is the bride, then the bride’s shoe.  Hilarity ensues when they both hold up different shoes as neither of them know what the other’s answer is.

Shoe game

Sample questions for the Wedding Shoe Game

The great thing about the Wedding Shoe Game is that you are able to customise the questions that are asked based on the bride and groom’s personality and interests. There are the usual overarching questions such as the ones below, but say for example the bride and groom used to play against each other in Table Tennis; perhaps one of the questions might be ‘who is better at table Tennis?’

The idea is to keep the questions not too serious, but light and fun, also it might be an idea to narrow the list down to around 20 questions, just so the game doesn’t take all night.Whose idea was it to play this game?

  • Who said “I love you” first?
  • Who is more romantic?
  • Who is a better dancer?
  • Who is the most organized?
  • Who has the most clothes?
  • Who has the most shoes?
  • Who spends more time on Facebook?
  • Who spends more time on Instagram?
  • Who is the better driver?
  • Who calls their parents the most?
  • Who will pay the bills?
  • Who will wake up first?
  • Who works out more?
  • Whose friends will be over more?
  • Who buys the best gifts?
  • Who is more likely to be running late?
  • Who is a better dresser?
  • Who spends more money?
  • Who will be doing the grocery shopping?
  • Who is more likely to get a traffic ticket?
  • Who will be doing the laundry?
  • Who is the loudest?
  • Who has the smelliest feet?
  • Who planned the honeymoon?
  • Who is the better kisser?
  • Who will be making dinner every night?
  • Who always replaces the toilet paper roll?
  • Who chooses where you eat for dinner?
  • Who is the better cook?
  • Who got better grades in school?
  • Who made the first move?
  • Who is better at keeping secrets?
  • Who is the messiest?
  • Who would drive on a road trip?
  • Who remembers family and friends’ birthdays?
  • Who will squeeze the toothpaste from the middle of the tube?
  • Who will make the bed?
  • Who loses things the most?
  • Who will make the coffee in the morning?
  • Who is better at sports?
  • Who is more creative?
  • Who watches the most tv?
  • Who is more likely to kill a spider?
  • Who mows the lawn?
  • Who wants a baby first?
  • Who will pick your next vacation spot?
  • Who will clean the house?
  • Who will use up all the hot water?
  • Who always knows what time it is?
  • Who will determine the next car you buy?
  • Who has the craziest family?
  • Who loves the other more?

It’s a great game to play to break up the evening, and there are tonnes more silly little games that people have thought up over the years, but if you’re looking for a sure winner that will make people laugh, try the Wedding Shoe Game!

Bridesmaid gift ideas

/0 Comments/in ideas, Wedding /by Steven Duncan

As a wedding photographer, I’ve been privvy to a vast variety of different bridesmaid gift ideas, so I thought I might make a list of some of the more thoughtful bridesmaid gift ideas that I’ve come across at my weddings. Giving your bridesmaids a gift before your wedding ceremony is a modern traditions and is seen today as a way for the bride to thank her entourage on a personal level for helping her plan and put together her big day.

Bride and Bridesmaids looking at ring

Bridesmaid gift ideas

Jewellery

The most common of bridesmaid gifts are pieces of jewellery. Usually given to accentuate what the bridesmaids are wearing on the day, and also to give a bit of uniformity between the bridesmaids – if that’s the style you’re going for at your wedding. Jewellery can also be very personal, it’s usually small and easy to package as a gift. Generally jewellery gifted in this way should be something you’d know your bridesmaids would like to wear and enjoy after the day itself.

Personalised gowns

During your wedding preparation with your bridesmaids, it’s fun to dress up in matching gowns that have been embroiled with either their names, or fun monikers, such as ‘bridesmaid #2’ or even ‘bride’s b****’, depending on your personality 🙂 There are a number of different ideas when it comes to this sort of thing and while the gowns are personalised specifically for this one wedding, they can be used at home for lazy days also.

Gowns

A services gift certificate

Here’s one that’s not directly related to your wedding! How about gifting your bridesmaids a gift certificate for a massage, or a beauty treatment, or even a portraiture sitting with a professional photographer? This can be a great idea to allow your bridesmaids to pamper themselves after your wedding day and to show them that you think they are all beautiful and care about them outside the sphere that was your wedding day.

Personalised items

One common gift I’ve been seeing lately are personalised items such as wine glasses to drink from at the reception, or even clothes hangers to hang dresses on. These are easy, simple gifts people are bound to use more than once, or at least put them someplace in their home so that they will be reminded about your wonderful day and the role they had to play in it.

Wedding reception

Personal artwork

This one may not be to everyone’s taste, but if your the artsy type, one of the most personal bridesmaid gift ideas I’ve ever seen was a personalised piece of art drawn and painted by the bride herself. This is heartfelt, personal and cheap! And it’s something that your bridesmaids will no doubt put on display once they get home. Failing that I’ve also seen professional artists at weddings where they would hand out quickly drawn caricatures of guests at your wedding reception, but this really falls more into the reception souvenir category along with photobooth photos.

Clothing

Be it shoes, a bag, or even her dress, having a formal dress for each girl at a wedding can get expensive, so many brides opt to make this their bridesmaid’s gift. It’s practical too in many ways, as if it’s the type of dress that would not look out of place at a club, or even at work it may get quite a bit of wear out of it. This goes for shoes also, and you can never have too many clutch purses to choose from can you?

Bridal Party Dresses

There are of course a thousand other ideas for bridesmaid gift ideas, just to list a few other ideas – body products, candy, movie tickets, etc. But really whatever you decide to give, or not give your bridesmaids, I’m sure they’ll love you just the same 🙂

Wedding shoes selection tips

/0 Comments/in ideas, Wedding /by Steven Duncan

When meeting with new clients as a wedding photographer, I’m often asked questions regarding tips and tricks to help with your wedding day. One recurring tip I tend to give out is regarding your wedding shoes. It’s usually something that not many people think about when planning their wedding. People are too often caught up in the big decisions such as your wedding venue, who is going to be your celebrant, and your wedding photographer, it’s easy to forget what’s going to be put on your feet. That isn’t to say that wedding shoes gets completely overlooked, I know how important a woman’s shoe collection can be 😉 It’s more to do with the style of your footwear that I’m talking about.

wedding footwear

Wedding shoes tips

Think about the terrain

Where will you be holding your wedding ceremony, but also where are you going for photos after? I always suggest that a bride should have with her some form of comfortable flat-style shoe that she can wear after taking off her high heels after the ceremony. There’s nothing less elegant than a bride trying to bush hack through the undergrowth of a forest in high heels because she wants photos done in the Australian bush, similarly on a beach, it’s near impossible to walk in high heels.

Wedding shoes thongs

How long is your dress?

Adding on to the idea of having flats at your wedding, high heels are worn in order to make you look taller, which is fine at your ceremony. You’re not likely to be walking any further than the length of the aisle and usually on a firm, flat surface. But after the ceremony, like I said bushwhacking isn’t elegant. Chances are your wedding dress will be long enough to hide the fact you aren’t wearing high heels any longer anyway. So don’t worry too much about that.

Find some high heel helpers

If you absolutely must wear high heels at all times, high heel helpers may be your best bet. These come in a number of different styles and colours and they simply add more surface area to the pointy end of your stiletto shoes, making your wedding shoes more sturdy and able to traverse less uneven terrain, such as grass.

High heel helper

Wear in your shoes

While worn shoes don’t make the best wedding photos when doing close-up detail shots of your bridal affects, wearing in your wedding shoes can help save you from a days worth of raw, blistered feet as a result of walking about on brand new shoes. This doesn’t mean wearing then out on the town, simply wearing them for an hour or two around home would help plenty. This would also help you determine where to add anti-rub gel packs to help with any rubbing.

Putting on shoes

Don’t forget the boys!

While the bridal wedding shoes is usually the focal point of your wedding style, and can be utterly elegant and a marvel to look at, chances are your men’s shoes are more likely to be seen by guests than your own! Especially if you’re wearing a long wedding dress. Chances are you’ll have the men running about quite a bit, and possibly climbing things when it comes to your wedding photography. So keeping your men happy with good shoes are a must.

Wedding shoes
Groom shoes

Do not go cheap

Remember these are the shoes you’ll be wearing all day, and like I said earlier, often these shoes are brand new. This causes huge pain later in the night when you’re trying to dance the night away at your reception. It’s really not uncommon to see brides taking off their shoes all together, which is a shame as they’ve probably put a lot of time and effort into choosing them. A good quality, sturdy and comfortable shoes are a must and they don’t often come cheap.

Bridal shoes

Bomboniere ideas for your wedding

/0 Comments/in ideas, Wedding /by Steven Duncan

Bomboniere gifts, or ‘favours’ to your guests on a wedding day have become quite common place over the years, however it’s usually a bit of a task to find bomboniere ideas that really speak about who you are as a couple and that your guests might actually want. As a wedding photographer I’m in a great position to get to experience weddings of all sorts, of couples of all different personalities, so I get to see a whole heap of different bomboniere ideas. I thought it might be helpful if I gave you a bit of a list of the more unique, or practical I’ve seen.

bomboniere ideas

But first, a bit of history behind the idea of bomboniere gifts. The practice of giving bomboniere dates right back to 14th century Italy, when the families of engaged couples swapped small packages filled with sweets as a sign of good fortune. Over time, those horrible sugar-coated almonds became the preferred choice of sweets and are pretty much now the staple of Australian bomboniere gifts… unfortunately. Hopefully this list will give you other ideas! 🙂

Bomboniere ideas

Lolly Bar

This idea I’ve seen a few times at weddings I’ve covered. The idea is that your guests are given a small bag or basket of some description in order to fill up themselves with a selection of sweets. It’s also there to augment your menu during the reception of course 🙂

bomboniere bar

Bridal party deck of cards

This one can be fun, how about printing off a deck of cards featuring an image of the bride and groom, along with their entourage as King, queen, Jack, etc? Doing this is surprisingly cost effective when done on the scale needed for wedding favours, and you can literally personalise it with yourself!

Home made sauce or Jam

I often mention this to new wedding photography clients as an idea to get the older members of your family involved in your wedding day. It’s common to have members of the family who might want to be involved with your wedding, but cant for whatever reason. Why not let them sort out your bomboniere gifts with their cooking skills? This is right up there with the lolly bar in terms of how often I see this at weddings.

Home made jam

A scratchy lottery ticket

While perhaps not the most personal of bomboniere ideas, an instant win lottery ticket would be very cost effective (or expensive, depending on how much you want to spend) and can create a sense of excitement and even delirious joy in the off chance someone strikes it lucky! Could even double as a last minute gift for your guests to give back to you via your wishing well.

A picture frame

If you happen to have a photo booth at your wedding reception, and if it’s like the SvenStudios photo booth, that prints proper sizes prints for your guests to keep, why not keep them in style with their own photo frame?

photo frame

Polaroids

As a bit of a segway from the photo frames, perhaps have a few polaroid instant cameras floating about your reception? your guests can pick one up and create their own little keepsake from your wedding.

Individual caricatures

Or how about even having a cartoon artist wandering about drawing everyone? This bomboniere ideas as it always makes people smile and how awesome is having a piece of art to take home from your wedding?

bomboniere ideas

Lego minifigs or small toys

For the child in all of us, a recent wedding I was a photographer at had little bags of toys for every guest, and included were lego minifigs. Both young and old had a blast opening their little lego man and spending time building them while waiting for their entrée to arrive. By the end of the night, every table had a small army of little men running about. It was pretty awesome… Because everything is awesome.

Lego

Wedding cake design ideas

/0 Comments/in ideas, Wedding /by Steven Duncan

As a wedding photographer, I tend to be at weddings quite often. I know right? crazy! As such I get to witness a vast array of different ideas from very different people. One detail among many is one I suppose not many think about well in advance of their wedding day, and that’s their wedding cake design. Your wedding cake design really isn’t a one-size-fits all thing, often your wedding cake design reflects the personalities, or perhaps the combines tastes of the newly married couple, and it’s one way to express this to your guests.

I’ve witnessed a few trends in wedding cake design over the years, and I decided to write up this blog as a bit of a guide, or a resource to help you decide on your own wedding cake design. Perhaps you’d like to be different and avoid all of these, or you might like a particular one and want to copy it. Either way, thanks for looking, you can see more of my wedding photography in my wedding photography portfolio.

Traditional designs

We’ve all seen the Disney fairy tale version of wedding cake design in almost any romantic comedy, drama, movie without exploding cars or spaceships; right? Multi-tiered, rounded, white frosted wedding cake design that looks as though it was made by fairy cooks that rode their pink unicorns to the sugar-plum bakery. Delightful to look at, and they have an almost timeless quality to them, hence the reason why most weddings will have one. Tradition is tradition for a reason because it just works for the occasion. Wedding cake design is no exception.

Traditional design
Traditional cake design
Traditional cake design
Traditional design
Traditional cake design

Modern designs

Couples are often nowadays opting for something that looks like a traditional design, but has a bit of a modern twist to it. Take for example these four I picked out from weddings I’ve photographed. The square shape is more bold than elegant with it’s straight edges and imposing figure, but they will still often have the cream to white colour scheme as their more traditional design sisters might. Kind of like a movement away from the art-deco style of the 60s to the more flat and bold style of post-modernism. This is often complimented by a loud coloured lining made from a fabric or icing.

Modern cake design
Modern cake design
Modern cake design
Modern cake design
Modern cake design

Something a bit different

Some couples like to break the norm completely, opting instead for something very unexpected. Perhaps you’re a huge fan of lions? or you don’t really want a huge multi-tiered cake as you’d never get through all the left overs? Or my favourite, why not pre-cut the cake and just make an awesome pyramid out of doughnuts?! That way the guests can simply take a piece without getting a knife dirty.

Cup cake design
Lion cake toppers
Doughnut cake design
Small design