Wedding Entertainment
Ideas UK
Par-Tee Events · The Complete Guide
Planning a wedding and wondering how to keep guests entertained from the ceremony to the last dance? This complete guide to wedding entertainment ideas in the UK covers everything from wedding mini golf and garden games to luxury experiences, indoor options, and activities for children. Whether you’re planning an intimate celebration or a large country house wedding, you’ll find inspiration, pricing guidance, and practical planning advice from experienced UK event professionals.
Enquire NowWhy Wedding Entertainment Makes or Breaks the Day
"The food was amazing." "The flowers were stunning." But what guests actually talk about for years? How much fun they had.
The wedding ceremony lasts maybe 30 minutes. The reception can stretch eight hours or more. Great entertainment doesn't just fill that time. It creates the atmosphere, breaks the ice between two families meeting for the first time, keeps children happy so parents can relax, and gives everyone a shared story to tell.
This guide covers every entertainment option available to UK couples in 2025, including honest pricing, practical planning advice, and tips from experienced event professionals. Whether you're planning an intimate garden wedding for 30 or a grand ballroom celebration for 250, you'll find ideas here that fit your vision and your budget.
Wedding Mini Golf One of the Most Popular Wedding Entertainment Ideas in the UK
Wedding mini golf has exploded in popularity across the UK and for very good reason. It's interactive, photogenic, competitive without being intimidating, and works brilliantly for every age group from 4 to 84.
Unlike passive entertainment (a band you listen to, a display you watch), Par-Tee Events Wedding Mini Golf Hire invites genuine interaction. Guests wander between holes, chat, laugh at terrible putting, and naturally mix in a way that even the most carefully considered seating plan never quite achieves. It's essentially structured socialising with a scorecard.
Outdoor Mini Golf at Weddings
Outdoor mini golf setups work beautifully on hotel lawns, country house grounds, and marquee fields. At Par-Tee Events, we design custom courses that complement your venue's natural landscape, using elevated greens, gentle slopes, and themed obstacles that photograph magnificently in the golden hour.
A 9-hole course requires as little as a 5m x 5m area and can accommodate continuous play for groups of 60 to 120 people throughout a three-hour drinks reception. For larger weddings, a 12 to 18 hole layout is recommended.
Indoor Mini Golf at Weddings
Indoor mini golf is perfect for barn conversions, function suites, and any venue where outdoor space is limited or the UK weather is a concern. An indoor setup becomes one of the most photographed moments of the entire day and a talking point guests carry home with them. Learn more about our indoor and outdoor Wedding Mini Golf Hire options.
Why Couples Love It
- Works for all ages, no experience required
- Naturally breaks ice between families
- Can be branded and themed to the wedding
- Exceptional social media content
- No noise restrictions
- Works indoors and outdoors
Things to Plan For
- Requires as little as a 5m x 5m area
- Setup time of 2 to 4 hours before guests arrive
- Best positioned during the drinks reception and/or after the wedding breakfast
- Consider a dedicated attendant for smooth flow. Par-Tee Events always comes with a golfing concierge.
Questions to Ask Your Mini Golf Supplier
- Is the equipment cleaned and maintained before each event?
- Does the hire include a dedicated golfing concierge or attendant?
- Can the course be customised to match our wedding colours, flowers, or theme?
- What is the minimum space required and how does setup work at our venue?
- Can the course be deployed both indoors and outdoors?
- Is the supplier fully insured with public liability coverage?
- Are prizes included in the package?
Garden Games for Weddings
A beautifully curated selection of garden games transforms your outdoor space into a festival of laughter. From giant Jenga to croquet, these classics signal to guests that this is a celebration where everyone is encouraged to play.
Par-Tee Events Wedding Garden Games work best during the drinks reception, that delicate window between ceremony and wedding breakfast when guests are relaxed, champagne in hand, and looking for something to do. The right selection sets the entire tone for the day.
The Essential Collection
Giant Jenga
The perennial crowd-pleaser. Write prompts or wedding questions on the blocks for a personalised twist. Works for all ages, genuinely tense, and endlessly entertaining.
Lawn Bowls & Boules
Effortlessly elegant. Particularly popular at country house and vineyard weddings. Creates gentle competition without anyone getting sweaty in their finery.
Ring Toss & Cornhole
Easy to pick up, endlessly competitive. Can be customised with the couple's initials or wedding colours. Perfect for those who want to play but not too hard.
Badminton & Croquet
Quintessentially British. Croquet in particular photographs beautifully and suits more formal garden venues. Guests always look effortlessly stylish playing croquet.
Hook-a-Duck
A children's favourite that adults secretly love too. Easy to set up near the kids' zone and keeps little ones occupied for surprisingly long stretches.
Giant Connect 4
Tactical, quick to play, and surprisingly addictive. Creates natural head-to-head mini-tournaments. Crowds always gather to watch.
Styling Your Garden Games
The difference between a pile of games in a field and a styled garden games area is considerable. Consider a dedicated zone with bunting, a branded chalkboard scoreboard, vintage crates to display equipment, and an attendant to keep things running. This elevates the experience from "fun" to "unforgettable".
For a cohesive look, wrap wooden game pieces in your wedding colours, add personalised name tags to equipment, and create a vintage-inspired scoreboard with the couple's names and date. View the full Par-Tee Events Wedding Garden Games range.
Indoor Wedding Entertainment Ideas UK for All-Weather Weddings
Indoor entertainment solves two problems simultaneously: it fills the inevitable lulls in a wedding day, and it provides confidence that whatever the British weather decides to do, your guests will be thoroughly entertained.
Photo Booths & Magic Mirrors
The photo booth has become a wedding staple for excellent reason. Guests love a memento, and the couple receives hundreds of candid, joyful images that no formal photographer would ever capture. Modern options range from traditional enclosed booths to open-air setups, 360 degree spinning platforms, and AI-enhanced magic mirrors that apply digital filters in real time.
Custom-branded print strips with the couple's names and wedding date serve as instant keepsakes. Most setups include a prop box with oversized glasses, feather boas, moustaches, and signs, which reliably brings out the playfulness in even the most reserved guests.
Caricaturists & Live Artists
A skilled caricaturist moving table-to-table during the wedding breakfast is one of the most underused entertainment ideas in the UK. Guests receive a personalised piece of art during what can otherwise be a slow part of the evening, and the results are universally treasured. A live wedding artist who paints the reception scene creates a bespoke artwork that becomes a centrepiece in the couple's home.
Magicians & Close-Up Magic
Table magic during the drinks reception or wedding breakfast fills time beautifully without dominating the atmosphere. A skilled close-up magician creates moments of genuine wonder that guests talk about for years. Unlike a stage act, table magic is intimate. It happens right in front of you, and no one can quite explain what they've just seen.
Vintage Arcade & Casino Tables
Vintage arcade machines (original pinball machines, classic video games, air hockey) create a whimsical entertainment corner that works particularly well for modern, relaxed weddings. Casino tables (blackjack, roulette, poker played for fun chips) add a glamorous atmosphere to evening receptions.
Reception Wedding Entertainment Ideas UK: From Welcome Drinks through to First Dance
The reception is the longest and arguably most important part of your wedding day. Entertainment needs to evolve through its distinct phases: the buzz of arrival, the intimacy of dinner, and the energy of the evening.
Drinks Reception Entertainment (2 to 3 Hours)
This is the golden window where guests arrive from the ceremony, champagne is flowing, and everyone is in the best possible mood. This is also where first impressions are made, as two families meet for the first time, old friends reconnect, and everyone takes the temperature of the day ahead.
Prioritise interactive, self-directed entertainment that guests can dip in and out of: garden games, a lawn mini golf course, a wandering musician or jazz duo, a caricaturist. The aim is ambiance and warmth, not spectacle.
Wedding Breakfast Entertainment
During the formal meal, entertainment should complement rather than compete with conversation. Soft background music (acoustic guitar, a string quartet, jazz piano) is ideal. If you want something more active, a wandering magician moving table-to-table creates individual moments of delight without disrupting the flow of the meal.
Par-Tee Events also offer free icebreaker game cards to keep guests engaged and laughing between courses. These are a simple, beautiful addition to any table setting and go down brilliantly with guests of all ages.
Handling the Gap Between Meal and Evening Reception
Most UK weddings have a gap between the formal meal and the evening reception, sometimes up to two hours while the room is reconfigured. This is where entertainment earns its keep. Left unmanaged, guests drift away, energy drops, and re-igniting the atmosphere for the evening becomes a real struggle.
This is where Par-Tee Events Wedding Mini Golf and Wedding Garden Games are absolutely perfect. Guests continue playing in a relaxed, self-directed way, keeping energy high and everyone on-site while the room turns around.
Evening Reception Entertainment
The evening reception calls for high energy. A band or DJ takes centre stage, but consider complementary elements: a DIY cocktail bar, a late-night street food station, a candy cart or dessert table that doubles as an activity, or a sparkler exit. See our dedicated Evening Reception section below for more.
Kids Wedding Entertainment Ideas UK
Happy children mean happy parents. And happy parents are the most relaxed, present, joyful version of your wedding guests. Investing in dedicated children's entertainment is one of the highest-return decisions a couple can make.
The key is creating a dedicated children's zone with age-appropriate activities, supervised by a professional entertainer or nanny. This gives children their own world within the wedding and gives parents permission to enjoy the day as adults.
Entertainment by Age Group
0 to 3 Years
Soft play hire, sensory toys, and a quiet mat area. Focus on safety and gentle stimulation. A dedicated on-site creche team is strongly recommended for this age group.
3 to 7 Years
Arts and crafts (wedding-themed colouring, making something to take home), a bouncy castle, soft play, a magician or kids' entertainer. This age group loves structured activities.
7 to 12 Years
Garden games, mini golf, nerf activities, lawn sports, a dedicated kids' photo booth with props, face painting. Old enough to enjoy mild competition and keep score.
13 to 17 Years
Teens are the trickiest group. Vintage arcade games, a dedicated selfie station, a teen zone with bean bags and their own music. Give them space and they'll find their own fun. Ps. Mini Golf and Wedding Garden Games work well here too!
The Wedding Children's Entertainer
A professional children's entertainer booked for a four-hour block, covering the drinks reception, wedding breakfast, and into the early evening, is an excellent investment. They run games, face painting, mini discos, magic shows, and crafts, giving children a brilliant parallel experience to the adult reception. All reputable children's entertainers should hold current DBS checks.
Wedding Entertainer ideas Uk - The nanny
Adding a Nanny to your wedding day helps prevent any issues with parents not enjoying the wedding day. We have worked with The Shropshire Wedding Nanny and The Littel Wedding Creche previously.
Soft Play for Weddings
Soft play hire for weddings is one of the fastest-growing entertainment categories in the UK market. Once you've seen a soft play area filled with delighted toddlers while their parents are on the dance floor, it's immediately obvious why.
Types of Soft Play for Weddings
Modular Soft Play Sets are the most common option, with padded climbing frames, slides, ball pools, and obstacle areas configured to suit your venue space. Suitable for ages 0 to 6 and typically set up in 60 to 90 minutes.
Luxury Soft Play takes this further with branded, all-white or neutral-coloured equipment that looks beautiful in photographs. Some premium suppliers offer instagrammable soft play with personalised elements and styled balloon garlands.
Soft Play Zones combine equipment with a reading corner, activity tables, and a quiet area, perfect for mixed age groups and for the inevitable toddler who needs downtime during a long day.
Questions to Ask Your Soft Play Supplier
- Is the equipment cleaned and sanitised before each event?
- Does the hire include a dedicated supervisor or attendant?
- What is the recommended age range and maximum capacity?
- What are the floor and surface requirements?
- What does the setup and breakdown process involve?
- Is the supplier fully insured with public liability coverage?
Bouncy Castles for Weddings
There's a reason bouncy castles have been a British children's entertainment staple for decades. They're pure, uncomplicated joy. At weddings, they're enormously popular, but they do require some careful planning.
Are Bouncy Castles Right for Your Wedding?
The honest answer is: it depends on your venue and your vision. At a relaxed outdoor marquee wedding on private grounds, a bouncy castle can be a brilliant addition to the children's zone. At a formal venue, it may be less appropriate, and most venues will have policies on this.
Modern luxury bouncy castle options (pearl white castles, flower-wall inflatables, premium-branded equipment) have narrowed the aesthetic gap considerably. Some contemporary setups are genuinely beautiful and photograph well as part of a styled children's area.
Safety and Compliance Requirements
- All inflatables must meet current UK safety standards
- Operators must carry Public Liability Insurance of at least £2 million
- Inflatables require PIPA (Play Inflatable Safety) annual testing
- A dedicated adult supervisor must be present at all times during operation
- Age and weight restrictions must be clearly communicated and enforced
- Wind speed guidelines must be observed (most inflatables should not operate above 24mph)
Practical Considerations
Bouncy castles require a flat, level surface free of stones and debris. Most standard castles require a power supply (standard 13-amp socket) and appropriate anchoring. Setup typically takes 30 to 45 minutes. Always confirm access routes with your venue in advance.
Icebreakers for Wedding Guests
Two families. Various friendship groups. Colleagues who've never met. The wedding guest list is often a beautiful but potentially awkward collision of different worlds. Thoughtful icebreakers smooth these introductions and accelerate the moment when strangers feel like old friends.
Table-Based Icebreakers
The wedding breakfast seating arrangement is your most powerful icebreaker tool. A beautifully designed table quiz card with five questions about the couple works brilliantly. Guests discuss the answers, learn things about the couple, and laugh together. No awkward forced conversation required.
A personalised "How well do you know the couple?" bingo card keeps guests engaged between courses and generates natural conversation across the table. Download our free icebreaker game cards to use at your wedding breakfast.
Outdoor Icebreaker Games
Mini golf and Garden games are fantastic icebreakers. Consider also: a Wedding Olympics format where guests compete in themed mini events, a giant map where guests mark where they've travelled from, or a prediction board where guests write their forecasts for the marriage.
Digital and Modern Approaches
A shared wedding hashtag with a live social wall, displaying guest photos and messages in real time, is a modern interactive way to bring diverse guest groups together. Guests become contributors to a shared experience rather than passive observers.
Rain Backup Ideas for UK Weddings
Here's the thing every UK couple needs to hear: plan for rain, and you'll never be disappointed. Plan for sunshine only, and you're gambling with one of the most important days of your life. A good rain plan isn't pessimistic. It's professional.
The great news is that with the right contingency planning, rain can actually become part of the story. Some of the most romantic wedding photographs are taken in drizzle, under umbrellas, with steam rising from warm drinks. But you need a plan.
Essential Rain Backup Strategies
Par-Tee Events Pop-Up Cover
Par-Tee Events offer a dedicated pop-up covered shelter that can be deployed quickly on the day, keeping your garden games and mini golf area dry and fully operational regardless of the weather, with no need to move everything inside.
Marquee or Stretch Tent
The gold standard solution. A quality stretch tent provides covered outdoor space while maintaining the feeling of being outside. Allows garden games and entertainment to continue regardless of weather.
Indoor Mini Golf Pivot
Having an indoor contingency planned in advance means your Par-Tee Events Mini Golf simply moves inside. All our courses are designed to be adaptable to indoor or outdoor deployment.
Cosy Indoors Station
A hot drinks station, with proper barista coffee, a hot chocolate bar, and mulled wine in autumn, transforms grey skies from a disappointment into an opportunity for warmth and comfort.
Luxury Wedding Entertainment Ideas UK
Luxury entertainment transforms a wedding from an excellent day into a genuinely extraordinary experience. One that guests will speak about with a specific kind of reverence for the rest of their lives.
The Par-Tee Events Personalised Golf Course
Par-Tee Events are the only company in the UK to offer a fully personalised wedding mini golf course built around the couple's own flower choices, wedding colours, and name details. Every hole is styled to reflect your wedding aesthetic, creating a cohesive, breathtaking installation that is genuinely unique to you. Guests are not just playing golf. They are stepping into a bespoke world that tells your story.
This is one of the most photographed and talked-about elements at every wedding where it appears, and no two courses are ever the same. Enquire about a personalised course from Par-Tee Events.
Experiential Luxury
Silent Disco, with three different music channels and LED headphones, has become a genuine luxury experience when executed with high-quality equipment and professional facilitation. The sight of guests dancing to music others can't hear is both absurd and magical.
Live Painting, with a commissioned artist capturing the wedding reception scene in real time over 4 to 6 hours, results in an original piece of art that becomes the defining memento of the day. Some couples give it as a surprise gift to parents; others frame it as the centrepiece of their home.
Fireworks Display, subject to venue permissions, remains one of the most viscerally spectacular ways to close an evening reception. A professionally choreographed display to a custom music track creates an experience no guest ever forgets.
Gastronomic Entertainment
Late-night street food (wood-fired pizza, gourmet burgers, artisan doughnuts) has become a luxury entertainment category in its own right. Not just catering, but a theatrical experience: the smells, the theatre of cooking, the informality at the end of a formal evening.
Personalised Experiences
Astrology readings, a professional perfumer creating a bespoke wedding scent, or a handwriting artist personalising guests' place cards create individual moments that feel utterly personal. Guests don't just experience the wedding; they receive something made specifically for them.
Evening Reception Entertainment Ideas
The evening reception is where the wedding shifts gear entirely, from elegant celebration to full-scale party. Your entertainment choices here determine whether guests stay until midnight or drift away at nine.
Music: Band vs DJ vs Both
The perennial debate. A live band delivers energy, spontaneity, and a visual spectacle that a DJ simply cannot replicate. A skilled DJ offers seamless transitions, a broader repertoire, and typically lower cost. The sophisticated solution, increasingly popular at UK weddings, is both: a live band for the first hour of the evening reception, handing over to a DJ for the remainder of the night.
Whatever you choose, provide your music act with a clear brief: must-play list, do-not-play list, your first dance song, and any family requests. A professional act will want this information and will use it to read the room effectively.
Complementary Evening Entertainment
A photo booth or 360 degree video booth during the evening reception gives guests a focal activity during the natural dips between songs and handles the social media dimension beautifully. A DIY cocktail station adds a playful counterpoint to the formality of the day's earlier proceedings.
Late Night Ideas
After midnight, energy can flag or it can peak. A late-night snack is almost always gratefully received. Beyond catering, consider a glitter station, a glow stick giveaway for a final song, a sparkler send-off, or a surprise act such as a comedian or unexpected cover band set.
Corporate Event Crossover Ideas
Some of the most innovative wedding entertainment ideas are borrowed directly from the corporate events world. When styled appropriately for a wedding context, they feel fresh, sophisticated, and completely unexpected.
Team-Building Activities Reframed
Corporate team-building classics translate beautifully to weddings with the right framing. A cocktail-making masterclass becomes a group bonding activity with the wedding couple leading their own version. A cookery challenge station (canapés assembled by competing tables) creates laughter, chaos, and edible results. An escape room element, with clues hidden around the venue and a wedding-themed puzzle, gives guests a shared mission that organically breaks down social barriers.
Production Values
Corporate events routinely invest in elements that weddings overlook: professional lighting design that transforms venue atmosphere, a live social media wall displaying guest content, a branded video recap playing on screens, or a professional MC keeping energy and flow throughout the day. These production elements make a wedding feel like an event rather than a gathering.
Experiential Installations
Corporate experiential marketing (immersive photo installations, interactive digital experiences, personalised memento stations) translates directly into premium wedding entertainment. A flower wall where guests create their own mini arrangements to take home, a wax-sealing station where guests personalise their own keepsake, or an augmented reality experience that brings a wedding photograph to life are all borrowed from the corporate experiential world.
Price Guide: What to Expect in 2025
Prices for wedding entertainment vary significantly based on geography (London and the South East command premiums), duration, guest numbers, and supplier quality. The figures below represent current market averages for professional, fully-insured UK suppliers.
| Entertainment Type | Average Price Range | Duration Included | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini Golf (9-hole course) | £800 to £1,800 | Full day hire | Includes setup, breakdown and golfing concierge |
| Garden Games Package | £300 to £800 | Full day hire | Selection of 6 to 10 games |
| Photo Booth / 360 Booth | £600 to £1,400 | 3 to 4 hours | Includes props, prints, digital gallery |
| Soft Play Package | £400 to £1,200 | Full day hire | Price varies by size and luxury level |
| Bouncy Castle | £200 to £600 | Half or full day | Supervisor additional £100 to £200 |
| Children's Entertainer | £300 to £700 | 2 to 4 hours | DBS-checked professional |
| Close-Up Magician | £400 to £900 | 2 to 3 hours | Table-to-table during meal |
| Caricaturist | £350 to £700 | 2 to 3 hours | Approx. 4 to 6 portraits per hour |
| Live Band (4 to 5 piece) | £2,000 to £6,000 | 2 x 45 min sets | London premium applies |
| Professional DJ | £600 to £1,800 | 4 to 6 hours | Includes full PA and lighting rig |
| Silent Disco | £800 to £2,000 | 3 to 4 hours | Based on headphone quantity |
| Fireworks Display | £1,500 to £5,000+ | 5 to 10 min display | Subject to venue permissions |
Hidden Costs to Plan For
- Travel and mileage for suppliers outside their standard coverage area. Par-Tee Events cover up to 100 miles from LE18 as standard within all golf and games packages, with no hidden travel charges added to your quote.
- Venue surcharges for supplier access, electricity, or parking
- Additional hours beyond the contracted time
- Gratuities, not obligatory but appreciated for exceptional service
Wedding Entertainment Planning Timeline
Entertainment suppliers, particularly popular ones, book up fast. Especially for peak UK wedding season dates from May through September. Here's when to act at each stage of your planning journey.
12+ Months Before: Anchor Bookings
Secure your live band or headline entertainment act. Bands with strong reputations fill their calendars a year or more in advance for Saturday dates in peak season. Par-Tee Events Wedding Mini Golf can be booked up to 3 years in advance, so if you have your date secured, it's never too early to reserve your course.
9 Months Before: Key Entertainment Confirmed
Book your DJ, photo booth, and any marquee or stretch tent for rain contingency. These also fill quickly for summer dates. Confirm your children's entertainer if you have significant numbers of young guests attending.
6 Months Before: Timings and Details
This is the stage where we begin confirming timings, setup schedules, and logistics with all of your suppliers. If you have booked Par-Tee Events for mini golf or garden games, we will be in touch at this point to begin building out your bespoke course and coordinating directly with your venue.
3 Months Before: Details and Coordination
Provide all suppliers with venue access details, setup times, and coordinator contact. Confirm your music acts' playlists and do-not-play lists. Brief your venue coordinator on all entertainment arriving and their setup requirements.
4 Weeks Before: Final Confirmations
Contact every entertainment supplier to confirm arrangements. Confirm guest numbers (relevant for photo booths, headphone counts, catering). Finalise your rain plan with specific trigger conditions so decisions aren't left to the day itself.
Wedding Day: Delegate and Trust
Assign one trusted person as entertainment liaison. Their job is to ensure suppliers have what they need. Your job is to enjoy your wedding. Par-Tee Events manages all logistics entirely independently on the day, from arrival through to full breakdown.
Ready to Start Planning?
Get in touch with Par-Tee Events, UK wedding entertainment specialists. We'll design a complete guest experience built around your vision.
Enquire Now →Frequently Asked Questions
These are the questions couples ask us most often when planning their wedding entertainment. If yours isn't here, reach out to Par-Tee Events directly. We're always happy to talk through your specific situation.