No Dance floor at wedding reception

I went to a wedding without a dance over a year ago and everyone left pretty much as soon as desserts finished. There was an announcement that everyone was welcome to stay and socialise (there were over 300 there) and pretty much everyone just left. I felt a bit bad for the couple but it was a dry wedding, no games or other entertainment provided, it was crazy hot in the room (a lot of us had headaches leaving that were from the heat) and we already had to sit through some extremely painful speeches.

If you are set against dancing, I think the casino idea is best as it would last a lot longer than just paper games (eye spy, etc.) and isn't something that forces guests to participate as much (some might be shy or rather be able to talk to others than play a game).

I plan my company party every year, and one rule is "No dancing", just because we've done it in the past and it's a huge flop. Either engineers don't like to dance, or they don't like to do it in front of coworkers. We have done casino night (goes over really well), just a string quartet (everyone left early), dueling pianos (went over ok, but I think this would go over really well at a wedding), comedy sportz (this went over pretty well, but I think it's difficult to do with too large of a crowd).

Of course, you are doing a wedding, and people will be less inhibited. I have friends that did karaoke, and it went over well, but they do karaoke with their friends a lot, so they knew a ton of people would want to do it. If your crowd is all grumpy aunt martha and shy cousin billy, it probably won't work so well.

I also had a friend who had no activities at the end, but she also had no alcohol. People stayed for about a half hour after dinner to chat, but then left.

I don't particularly like dancing, but I made a concession to have dancing, but I'm only having retro music, and we are having some peoeple teach period dances. We will also be having board cames/party games for people who don't like to dance. But I understand if some people leave early because I don't have booty dancing.

Everyone has been so helpful! I love forums!

The guest list is only 60 people. A good 80% of those is family. We aren't big dancers :p and our friends will be fine so long as we sit them next to the bar haha.

The venue is ours for 4 hours. I was thinking if we do cocktails for an hour and dinner 2hrscit's a big family style with unlimited servings. Then we have cake cutting and a toast. I wouldn't be bothered if people left after dinner. If they left during dinner yeah I might be sad.

Definitely having background music.

Dueling pianos sounds like fun! Definitely need a photo booth.

I thought about leaving booklets on the table that let people write in like a guest book.

I thank everyone for sharing their experience/ideas. I'm the first one in my family and friends getting married so you guys here are such a huge help

Thanks!

Dueling pianos sounds AWESOME...but wow, talk about taking space! LOL

We were just saying how it would be mucho fun to somehow have Guitar Hero at the reception! HA! Of course we were only partially serious....

I've never been to a wedding without dancing... Truthfully that's my favorite part so I'd be very bummed if it wasn't there. Also I know my friends would just get up and leave after dinner. I would spend the extra money for a dance floor and a DJ.

Drunken Bingo?