• If you plan on making a good amount of money off of games, make sure to have a “Game Pass Draw”. Upon arriving, your guests will receive a “Game Pass” ticket that has a list of the games with boxes beside them. Upon trying each game, they will recieve initials from the operators. When they have filled their pass, they can drop it into a special “Game Pass” draw. This will cause them to break the ice on playing games and may even hook them into one.

• If you are having a toonie toss, save it until around the time of your late night snack. This will cause minimal dance interruption and maximum participation. This generally happens around 11 – 11:30Pm, and still leaves plenty of time to reignite the party.

• Do all draws at once and post the winners on a wall rather than doing a live draw, except for grand prizes. This will eliminate the dead air and long, drawn-out name and number calling, while maintaining the atmosphere and energy of your night, causing guests to stay longer.

• Promote, promote, promote. Even if you sell 150 tickets, you are likely to only see about 60% of those people turn up. Create a Facebook event early, but make sure to keep posting reminders each month to keep it fresh in everybody’s heads. Give your bridal party tickets to sell to any well-behaved people they may know, as a stag and doe is rather informal so knowing everybody there is not necessary.

• Parents and family members are generally the first to arrive, so having music and games suitable for that age group is recommended in the early hours.

• These are general suggestions, for a wealth of stag and doe planning and ideas contact me to book a meeting.

• Be sure to pick a confident speaker.

• Spell out any difficult names phonetically.

• Have them arrive early to meet with your DJ during setup time to go over details.

• Communicate with them on how “loose” they can be on the microphone.

• Unless they have plenty of experience public speaking, leave the Grand Entrance announcements to the DJ.

• Find out any venue rules before writing their script.

• 2 emcees working together can take much of the anxiety out of the job while also providing dynamic and fun hosting.

• Make sure to choose at least 2 songs, one for your bridal party and one for the bride and groom.

• Try to pick 2 songs that are roughly the same speed, as the crowd will likely be clapping along, and changing the rhythm can dampen the energy.

• Have the DJ announce the people coming in unless your MC is well versed in shouting over a microphone. The is guaranteed to have a projected voice and will have no trouble being heard clearly over the music.

• Spell out any difficult names phonetically either for your DJ or your MC.

• Having a brief title to each person (ex. Matt Sheppard, Chris’s childhood best friend) is beneficial in helping introduce the person, as well as filling a bit of time as they are initially walking out.

Many venues do not allow clinking of the glasses, due to the rental glasses often breaking during these times. Always have at least some kissing plan in place if clinking the glasses is not accepted at your venue, as people will almost always try to clink.

Make sure your MC covers the kissing plan in their introduction.

Some Examples of easy/fun kissing plans:

• Mimic the couple: A couple must come up in front of the bride and groom and perform a kiss, the bride and groom must copy.

• Sing a song with love: Guests must either stand at their seat or come to the podium and sing a song with the word love in it.

• Napkin Wave: Guests must spin their napkins in the air, attempting to get the entire room to join in. Once everybody is waving, Couple will kiss. (DJ’s Choice)

• Trivia: Have trivia cards at each table where guests can answer questions to get the bride and groom to kiss. (Can also be used for which tables can eat first).