Congratulations on your engagement, and on deciding to hire a professional magician to perform at your wedding!
Hopefully you'll have seen some of the tricks which you can expect and you'll have an idea of your magician's style, but it can be tough trying to decide exactly how to fit a magician into the timetable of your day.
Luckily, magic is a very flexible form of entertainment. It can fit in around your other plans and activities, so there are a number of ways to work it into your day.
Here are four of the most popular and effective times to introduce magic to your guests.
1. While the photographs are being taken
Generally speaking, only the bride, groom, bridal party and close family members are involved in the photographs. The rest of the guests - which can include several hundred people - are left to their own devices.
Magic acts as a great distraction during this part of the day, keeping guests busy and entertained during what would otherwise be quite a boring, awkward time.
Your magician can mix and mingle with guests, performing to small groups at a time. This makes the atmosphere fun and relaxed, giving guests an excuse to start chatting. Furthermore, magic builds excitement and anticipation, so your guests will start to look forward to what else the day will bring!
2. During the wedding breakfast
This might not be an obvious answer, but hiring a professional wedding magician is a great way to keep up the pace during the wedding breakfast.
Unlike music or a band, magic isn't the kind of entertainment that can carry on in the background while people are eating. It commands attention and interaction, but you won't want to distract your guests from their meal.
As a result, your magician will appear between the courses of the meal, performing to each table in turn. When the next course is served, the magician will move away to let the guests enjoy their food.
Aside from keeping guests entertained at a point when they'd otherwise just be waiting, this serves another purpose. As you probably know, drawing up a seating plan can cause quite a lot of drama. By keeping your guests entertained with something so engaging and awe-inspiring, they will forget any problems they have with who's seated at their table!
In addition, magic can help to introduce people who are shy or who may not know many others. Magic is a fantastic ice breaker and a real conversation starter.
3. Between the daytime activities and the evening party
Depending on how you've arranged your timings, there can be a quiet, dull time between the end of the speeches and the start of the evening party. The day guests will be waiting for the next form of entertainment or activity to start, while the evening guests will only just be arriving.
Hiring a wedding magician is the perfect way to bridge this gap.
Mix and mingle magic, table magic and even a secret room are all options which you can use to keep day guests entertained, and to prevent them from returning to their rooms (if they're staying at the venue).
Alternatively, some meet and greet magic can help to get your evening guests into the party mood as they arrive.
4. During the evening
Hiring a wedding magician for your evening reception can work in a similar way to performances during the wedding breakfast. If you're planning a formal affair, the magician can move around the room, performing for each table.
However, be careful about how you choose to structure your evening entertainment. Hiring a magician as well as a band, DJ or other entertainer can work, but try not to have both acts performing at the same time. On one hand, it would be difficult to hear a magician over loud music; on the other hand, a magician would distract guests from most other forms of entertainment.
There are a couple of ways to work around this situation.
Firstly, you could just be efficient about your timings. Ask your entertainers to perform at different times - perhaps the magician could work the tables if you're having a meal, then ask the musicians to start up once people start to dance.
The alternative is to set up a 'secret room', separate from the main reception space. Most guests will need a break from the lively party at some point - whether it's for a rest from dancing, to grab another drink, or just because they don't like loud music - so don't let this space go to waste.
Station your magician in a separate area from the other entertainment to make sure that all evening guests are entertained, whether they're in the main reception space or not.
Make magic work for you
These are the four most popular options for brides and grooms who are hiring magicians to perform at their weddings. If one of these options sounds like a perfect fit then get in touch today for a quote.
However, if you're still unsure of how to incorporate magic into your wedding day - or if you have another idea in mind - then call or email for an informal chat. Professional magicians have decades of experience of performing at various different events, so they have plenty of ideas of how to add a little magic to your day.
