I’m quite involved in my friend’s wedding tomorrow, and among the jobs of handing out schedules and ordering people around is the task of allowing tables up to get food in an orderly manner.
At a meeting last week I jokingly suggested I would start a Jeopardy-style gameshow, but unfortunately they liked the idea so now I have to get some questions!
Among the problems are that the bride is from China, and therefore many attendees won’t have English as a first language (or possibly not at all), and my assistant (or perhaps I’m hers, who knows) will have to translate. Then my parents reminded me that trying to have all tables answer at a time would be pandemonium, and suggested perhaps that each table in turn get a chance to answer a question. (Not a bad idea, as it would burn up time, while the previous people went through the lineup).
Anyhow, so far my list appears to have:
What is the name of this church? (Probably on the schedule now that I think about it :smack: )…
What number am I thinking of? (Not extrememly sophisticated :rolleyes: )
and my favourite: First person to hit me with a paper airplane. :o
It’s maybe a little late to set this up, but what about trivia questions about the bride and groom (and/or family, wedding party, etc.)? One table at a time gets to answer a question, and you don’t get to eat until you get it right?
It’s obvious that none of the Chinese are going to have fun at a game like that. I think politeness sould rule this out. Maybe the chinese could explain some of their wedding customs, and you could explain the American customs. Be sure to tell them that for the brides dance people give a hundred dollar bill.
Don’t let them go home whith out teaching them the Chicken Dance, Hokey Pokey, and the Macarana. I hate the Macarana, but they sould learn it.
Not knowing the cultures involved, I would direct the questions to the Bride and Groom, this can lead to comical results over cultural lines rather than loose face to the respective families. Things like shoe size, cake flavor, what was borrowed, etc. This would also allow for directing questions to those you should seat first. Outer tables could be asked harder questions with no answer allowing others to be seated.
I think you have your work cut out for you to make this amusing, especially with people who don’t know the language. Here are some suggestions:
Have either one grand prize, or many small prizes. Many small prizes are probably better. When a table answers a question right, they get a prize. (Toy, candy, something else.)
Make the game topical.
e.g. Ask questions about wedding customs in the USA and China (find them on a website or ask a person from each country), with the US questions going to the foreign guests and the foreign questions going to the US guests.
Or ask questions about the bride and groom’s past (multiple choice). The bride questions go to the groom’s family, and the groom questions go to the bride’s family. E.g. where was the bride born? What colour are the groom’s eyes?
Or, since we all know what a wedding is really about, find a book of sexual records and get your questions from there. Guaranteed to make half the guests want to run you out on a rail, and will make it a reception that everyone will remember.
Well, the ‘prize’ is that your table gets to go up next to eat. And the bride and groom’s table get to eat first already, due to a combination of strange catering billing based on exactly when they start to eat, plus they’re the bride and groom.
I’m starting to think that names-from-a-hat, while far less interactive, may be a more do-able solution to the problem, given that the chance for chaos is so high…
Incidentally, a traditional chinese wedding gift is $$$ in a red envelope. (Which I might have to fall back on, 'cause the wedding is tomorrow and I never did find anything… and I’m in the middle of buying a house… oh my! :eek: )
