Murder Mystery-- good or bad idea?

I don't like it. (I do enjoy murder mysteries though they are a lot of fun, but not with that many people) Maybe do this at the shower or the rehersal dinner?

I think one of the main reasons I want to do one is because I'm terrified that everyone will end up just sitting around bored. Since we are playing 1920s style music, people may not be as 'inspired' to get up and dance and have a good time.

I agree with Mrs. Smith. I don't think it is a good idea especially if some people may feel left out and I don't really see the connection to your theme except the setting may be in that era. Maybe if you want to make sure everyone is engaged in something pick provide some 1920s era inspired parlor games. This way you can have a variety of things people can choose from. Or maybe hire a dance instructor who can teach the type of dances that will go along with your songs. A murder mystery just doesn't evoke images of joy and glee that a wedding should evoke. :-)

I would love it. Is all your music 20's inspired? A good DJ will play to the crowd. I agree with the dance instructor.

I think these are wicked fun..but maybe not for a wedding reception theme. They make great dinner parties with about 8-10 people, but more than that and it gets very difficult.

Not for a wedding reception, but for anything else, absolutely. Murder mysteries are FUN.

I think it would be fun for another type of party. if you think guests will get bored- i did see on pinterest one couple set up a "games" table... board games that people can grab if they get that bored. but i dont think you need to worry about guests getting bored!

I think the 1920s is really cool to do, but I don't think a murder mystery is a good idea. I think it might be a better idea to do the murder mystery at the rehearsal dinner or a jack and jill/shower party or something, like the other person stated. It would add into the whole theme.

I mean, if you're going to do everything by the book in 1920s style for your wedding, I guess you might as well do it. No offense, but it might be hard to get people to dance to 20s music the whole night if that's the plan.

If you end up having a variety of music and alcohol...you won't have to worry about anyone being bored. You could always add in the 20s music into cocktail hour and the main songs for your dances and stuff. So then everyone is happy.

Speaking from experience, go for it! We got married last May and did a 1920's murder mystery at our wedding reception. Everyone but one guest loved it! The guests are still raving about it to this date. My sister-in-law was the only one that complained. She felt that she didn't have enough time during dinner to just get caught up on news with out of town guests. To this I said that there was plenty of time to catch people one on one afterwards & between dances.

My advice is to use an experienced murder mystery company to run it because you have so much going. They keep things moving and have 3 actors run it and to lead guests to reveal key clues and plot points. This will make your reception alot less stressful where you can enjoy it better. Plus the professional actors are pretty good at picking out guests that will participate. They assigned characters at each table and each table worked as a team. Worked Great!! Reception was Europe/International theme playing Italian music during

FYI, we went through www.grimprov.com . They have franchises in many states. They also offered a dj service to tack on too but we already hired another DJ. They are also on Facebook as murder mystery company. They took pictures of our reception and posted them which was an added bonus. You can did through their photos and find our picts to get an idea of character props and guest facial expressions showing how much fun they had. We had about 75 guests.

Also, it is interesting that when we were talking to people before the wedding that we were going to do a murder mystery, people didn't think it was a good idea for a real wedding reception but that all changed when the troupe got things rolling. One skeptical guest told me during the event that it was the best idea ever! They had a great time bribing other guests for clues

Highly recommend going through them, or at least the Detroit area grimprov.com group.

Have you considered doing a murder mystery rehearsal dinner?

I love the idea! I was looking because I'm thinking about doing it myself

One of the big differences is a downloadable game or real entertainers that come to your party an perform interactively with your crowd. I have found that having actors manage the event is far better, reduces the risk that people will get stuck or bored, and also they can keep the fun going the whole event. I would try http://www.riddlesbrood.com/murdermystery if your in the New Jersey area.

The Grimprov troupe worked with our independent DJ when to play background music and when not to. The background music was played during during dinner but when there were major plot point interactions with the Actors, there was no music playing.

Can not recommend Grimprov enough because my wedding reception is STILL to this day the talk of all our guests. That was over 5 years ago!!!

It was a great way to get guests who don't know each other mingling as well as it was getting ages 12 to 89 years old guests to be engaged and having a good time. My 88 year old uncle who normally hates attending large family events, was having the time of his life and raved about it weeks later at how much fun it was!!!

My biggest skeptics of my idea were the ones who thought it was best idea during and afterwards. They had a blast bribing and misleading people in trying to collect clues!

We did have our independent DJ still do the music and traditional dances post mystery part. Guests were already primed to have fun dancing and the older guests even stuck around longer because they had lots to talk afterwards even though they didn't dance.

Highly recommend!!!

Good Luck!

PS If you do follow through with having a murder mystery at your reception, please let us know how it went for you. Love to know if you had the same great experience. Thanks, T

Hi Teresa! Which murder mystery company did you use. Im very into this idea

Kim

nevermind! hehe i kept reading and you greatly already posted all the details