CRAFTING YOUR CELEBRATION

Unique Entertainment Ideas for Your Big Day

by Nicole Willis After two years of wedding cancellations and postponements, couples are finally getting to celebrate their big day in a huge way, as wedding celebrations are coming back bigger and better than ever. In 2022, weddings are proving to be anything but traditional, with a variety of fun activities and larger-than-life games being incorporated into the entertainment mix. This year, many couples are opting for fun over tradition with things like food trucks, ax-throwing, photo booths and carnival games to provide a more personalized and engaging experience for guests. From fun food stations and unique entertainment options to party favors and more, we’ve highlighted some of the most unique wedding party trends that are sure to keep you and your guests entertained well into the night.

Interactive Eats

In addition to standard catering, consider providing your guests with an interactive dining experience. Quirky, nontraditional wedding foods are all the rage these days. One of the most popular non traditional food options that many couples are opting for this year is food trucks. There are a plethora of food truck options in Pensacola that offer a variety of different types of cuisines. Three very popular Pensacola food trucks that offer on-site food truck service for events are Joe Caribe’s, which offers Caribbean food; Jordan Valley, which offers Mediterranean; and Lone Star Kitchens 2 Go, offering Tex-Mex. You’re likely to have seen some of these food trucks at various events around the city. Tap the Coast also offers an innovative mobile beverage service. It’s essentially a food truck equipped with taps along with a full bar and beverage station. Their setup is housed out of a trendy vintage camper that’s been remodeled for special events and weddings. Tap the Coast offers just about any drink one could think of from beer, wine, champagne and cocktails to coffee and a variety of other non-alcoholic drinks.

For those looking for something smaller than a food truck that still provides a unique dining experience for your guests, consider a food station or food bar setup. This popular trend is built off of the idea of a salad bar – guests start with a plain base food and dress it up with the toppings of their choice. The Fish House, located in downtown Pensacola, also owns and operates an off-site event and catering company called Great Southern Events, which provides complete event planning and catering services for weddings. Fish House offers several options for food bars, what they call “stations.” One of which is their famous “Grits a Ya Ya” station, which includes tasty gouda cheese grits along with a table of toppings, including shrimp, bacon, green onions and shredded cheeses, to choose from. They also offer a scrambled egg bar and a chicken, waffle and pancake bar, which are both selfserve providing your guests with a do-it-yourself dining experience.

photo courtesy of Whim Cotton Candy

Capture the Moment

Remember your special day in a unique way by hiring a live painter! In addition to traditional wedding photographers, couples are hiring painters to paint a scene of their ceremony in real-time. This trend is increasing in popularity among couples who want to memorialize the scene, details and image of their wedding ceremony in the form of a beautiful painting. The artist sets up in the back of the wedding venue and paints the scene live as the evening progresses. At the end of the night, the couple will have a one-of-akind work of art to display in their home forever. Two live wedding painters who frequently travel to Pensacola are Jacob Event Painting (jacobeventpainting. com) and Melissa Munger Art (melissamunger.com).

Serve any drink you can think of out of Tap the Coast’s converted vintage camper

Offer guests fun wedding favors that won’t be tossed away after the big day by hiring a live caricature artist! Caricature drawings can serve as quirky and enjoyable additions to your wedding. This truly personal party favor won’t disappoint! Guests can remember the day by taking home a unique illustration personalized to them. Local caricature artist, Tim Banfell, offers wedding caricature services that your guests are sure to enjoy. Banfell has experience with illustrating at weddings, parties and events of all sorts. Check out some of his work online at caricaturesbytim.com.

Sweet Treats

Add some playfulness to your wedding with an elevated approach to carnival favorite foods like cotton candy, popcorn and snow cones. Give guests the experience of watching their favorite sweet treat created with Whim Cotton Candy. Whim is a mobile cotton candy vendor based out of Pensacola. They offer freshly spun craft cotton candy with dozens of flavors, colors and toppings to choose from. Whim can match the cotton candy to the color palette of your wedding to provide a playful but mature touch.

Other carnival-inspired dining experiences that many couples are opting for this year are popcorn and snow cone machines. Guests can enjoy a trip down memory lane while enjoying these timeless sweet treats. Consider making the popcorn machine an interactive experience by providing guests with toppings, flavorings and mix-ins. A snow cone machine can be another exciting and nostalgic addition to a wedding party. Snow cone syrups come in a variety of flavors and colors, making it easy for couples to choose their favorite flavors and colors that match their wedding’s palette. Pensacola Inflatables and Breeze Bounce have options to rent popcorn and snow cone machines with all the fixings.

Happy couple poses in front of the Posey Bus photo booth by Supposey Weddings

Turn Up the Tunes

Whether you like it or not, turntables and microphones are triumphing over guitars and drums. The increase in popularity of DJs in mainstream music has now made its way into the wedding scene, with DJs becoming as popular as live bands at weddings. The choices are endless when it comes to the type of DJ you’re looking to hire.

Some use a playlist containing the couple’s hand-selected songs with very few changes or interjections; they will essentially monitor the sound system and music throughout the night. Other DJs specialize in freestyling, mixing and spinning all types of records. Whatever your preference and vibe, you can certainly find a DJ in Pensacola who can get the job done. A DJ Connection is a local company that offers everything you need to have a killer DJ set at your wedding. They offer dancefloors, lighting, fog machines, pyrotechnics and, of course, a DJ setup.

Snap Happy

In today’s “selfie” society, it should come as no surprise that people will be snapping photos of themselves throughout the wedding night. To aid your guests in snapping the night’s grandeur, consider renting or creating a photo booth. With today’s technology, there is great variety in photo booth options. Local company, Supposey Weddings, has a unique photo booth called The Posey Bus. The Posey Bus is a 1973 antique Volkswagen Bus that has been transformed into a photo booth. Guests can enjoy the vintage aesthetic of a photo booth and a VW bus at the same time. Rock Your Photo Booth is another local company that offers unique photo booth options. Their service includes the option for guests to have instant access to their photos by sending them directly to their cell phones. Guests also have the option to use custom filters, create GIFS and create Boomerangs. Pensacola Photo Booth is another

World-famous Grits a Ya Ya from the Fish House in Pensacola

company that offers more of a traditional-style photo booth, but their setup has been upgraded with a professional DSLR Canon camera and LED studio flash. Each of their booths also comes equipped with a 4-layer color printer, so guests have instant access to print all of their pics and selfies. You can also work with Pensacola Photo Booth staff to incorporate your own custom frame or special design for all of your photo booth prints, so they will serve as mementos from your special day for you and all of your guests. You can also set out custom or themed props or personalized signs for a little bit of extra fun and personalization.

Intentional Experiences

Couples are searching for unique ways to spice up wedding entertainment. From ax-throwing and dunk tanks, to enlarged yard games and bull riding, couples have no excuse for their guests to have a boring time. Pensacola Inflatables offers much more than just inflatable bounce houses. They carry everything from classic carnival rides and mechanical bulls to bungee trampolines and huge rock-climbing walls. If extreme isn’t your vibe, the company also offers some more low-key options like dunking booth tanks, giant darts and over-sized yard Plinko. Check them out online at pensacolainflatables.com.

Grizzly Axes is a local company that offers mobile ax-throwing and rage room options. After a night of fun, and perhaps a few drinks, have your guests let loose in a rage room where they can destroy various types of breakables. Ax-throwing is another way that guests can let loose and have fun. Ax-throwing is a great activity to get everyone involved in a competition. If ax-throwing and bullb riding are a little too wild for your festive affair, consider incorporating some casino games. Monte Carlo Casino Productions is a company out of Mississippi that travels to Florida to bring casino games straight to you with things like on-the-go poker, blackjack, roulette, Texas hold ‘em and more. Casino games can bring the same level of fun and excitement as carnival games, but in a more sophisticated way.

Guests enjoying a S’mores dessert station crafted by Great Southern Events in Pensacola

Unleash Your Inner Child

Another trend that many couples are choosing to incorporate as part of their wedding festivities is board game stations. Board games are nostalgic, fun and they can provide guests of all ages with a unique form of entertainment on your special day. This lowcost entertainment alternative is sure to provide your guests with some good old-fashioned fun as they mingle around tables of different board game selections throughout the evening.

Oversized yard games are rising in popularity, most likely because they are easy to set up and can be pulled off by just about anyone. A southern favorite that’s been trending in the wedding world these days is cornhole. This activity can be enjoyed by guests of all ages and adds a little bit of competitive fun to the entertainment mix. To stay in theme with your wedding decor, consider designing or purchasing your own personalized cornhole boards. Etsy.com has some fun wedding-inspired cornhole boards you can check out for some inspiration.

Ring toss games are also very easy to assemble and go very well with the theme of a wedding (think wedding ring!) All you would need is a few pegs or bottles and the ring. Ring toss can be setup in a variety of formats, depending on the level of difficulty you wish to create. Consider creating an easy-to-win ring toss for the younger guests and a more challenging setup for some friendly competition among older guests.

Giant Jenga is a fun way to get everyone involved in a game all at once. Giant Jenga takes the childhood classic, Jenga, and enlarges the size of the pieces. Have your guests take turns removing a piece of the game until the tower comes crashing down. Children and adults alike are certain to love this game. Giant Jenga kits can be purchased on Amazon.

Croquet is another classic game that has been a popular entertainment choice for weddings in 2022. Couples are opting for simplistic games like croquet to complement their mix of entertainment, providing an interactive experience for guests of all ages. Croquet sets are affordable and easy to set-up on pretty much any outdoor lawn space. Although, croquet is a bit more tame than other yard games, it’s sure to provide your guests with loads of competitive fun.

Whether you opt for more traditional styles of entertainment or are looking to throw a full-on party, we hope this list will inspire you to think outside the box with some of these creative festivities that are sure to make your special day all the more memorable. •