Part of your role as a wedding DJ is to keep the party going. If you want to be successful in this career, then you will need to add some DJ wedding games, party ideas, and competitions to your repertoire.
But why?
It’s because people tend to look at wedding DJs as much more than just a DJ. You are considered an entertainer too, and guests expect a little bit more than a DJ who will just play song after song with no audience participation.
It’s not just that though.
Party games and competitions will play a crucial part in getting people to dance at a wedding and to get them onto the dancefloor in the first place.
Having a list of wedding DJ party games is an essential aspect to your core skills, and in fact, could lead to you getting more bookings, or even being able to charge more for your services.
Wedding Reception Games for DJs
Here’s my list of 7 secret weapons you can use that I have developed from being a wedding DJ down the years. Most of them require nothing but a little bit of mic interaction from you as a DJ, some cheap items, and some good songs cued up and ready to go!
Game 1: Is He My Husband?
This party game always goes down a treat. All you need is a blind-fold (you can buy them on Amazon), and some chairs.
Blindfold the bride, and then in front of her on the dancefloor sit a selection of male guests down on chairs.
She then has to guess who her husband is, but only by touching their faces. The men are not allowed to talk or say anything!
Game 2: The Balloon Stomp Game
This is great for kids and adults, and involves a lot of high-energy activity which will also keep people on the dancefloor once the game has ended.
It’s simple to do, and all you need are balloons and string – which at most weddings will already be there.
All participants get a balloon and string tied to their ankle, you start the music, and the players have to protect their balloon, whilst popping everyone else’s balloon.
High-tempo party music works best for this game, with the winner being the last person to have an in-tact balloon.
Game 3: The Car Wash by Rose Royce
With this classic wedding party song, you can get a great audience participation game going.
Get the ladies to form two lines on the dancefloor, facing each other, with their arms held up and touching, to form a car wash tunnel.
You then ask the men to form a line and go through the line of ladies whilst the car wash song is going, and then repeat until the end of the song.
Mix it up a little perhaps as well, by getting the men to form the car wash, and also don’t forget to include the kids who will love this wedding party game.
Game 4: The Balloon Stuff Game
I love this one, and it always produces lots of laughs at weddings.
You will need to organise teams split up into 3 or 4 people, with one of the team members putting on an over-sized t-shirt that you can supply.
The person wearing the shirt is called the “stuffy” and it’s then up to the team members to stuff as many balloons as possible up the shirt in a specific time limit – in other words when the song ends!
The winning team is the one who has stuffed the most balloons up the t-shirt!
Game 5: The Anniversary Dance Game
This is a great way to get people of all ages up to the dancefloor, as well as celebrating the act of marriage.
You start by inviting the bride and groom to the dancefloor, and then ask up further couples based on how long they have been married.
For example you would ask all couples up who have been married between 1 and 5 years, then 6 and 10 years, then 11 and 15 years until you get to the oldest married couple at the wedding onto the dancefloor.
Once you have the oldest married couple, you ask them to offer some advice to the newly married couple on what they believe makes a successful and long-lasting marriage.
Once that advice has been given, you go into a song that celebrates love such as “At Last” by Etta James, “Could I Have This Dance” and then invite all the married couples to dance with the bride and groom.
Game 6: Wrap the Mummy
This is cheap and cheerful wedding party game; all you need is a few toilet rolls and the “Monster Mash” song.
Split the wedding guests up into teams of 4. One person is going to be wrapped as a mummy, with the other team members wrapping them up in toilet roll.
At the end of the song, the winning team is the one with the best wrapped (or funniest-looking) mummy!
Game 7: The Huggy Bear
This is a good game to get all of the guests onto the dancefloor. It’s simple too, and doesn’t need anything other than some cracking party songs and a mic.
Play a fun song, and ask the guests up to dance. You will then stop the music and call out a number.
The wedding guests will need to hug into a group of that number, so for example if you call out the number 6, your guests will need to get into a group of 6 people and hug.
Any guest who is left out and doesn’t get into a number group has to then sit-out.
You carry on the game until you only have one or two people left.
Recommended Wedding DJ Microphone
Playing any of these wedding DJ party games and competition will require you having a decent microphone, and preferably wireless.
It comes with one wireless receiver, a handheld transmitter and a padded zipper case to help protect it. It is battery powered, with an LED power bar, with 2 AA batteries typically offering up to 14 hours of continuous use, with of a line of sight range of about 300 feet.