Wedding trivia works best as one short round of about ten questions, run by someone with a microphone while everyone is still at their tables. The whole thing, from “get your phones out” to the winners, takes ten to fifteen minutes. Most of the work happens before the day: the screen, the internet, the questions and a person who knows what to say.
Pick a format first
There are three common ways to do it, and they need different things from the venue.
Paper at the tables
Each table is a team with one answer sheet and a pen. The MC reads the questions, someone collects the sheets and someone else marks them. It needs no internet and costs nothing, but the marking takes ten minutes or more, and somebody has to do it while dessert is served.
Questions on a slideshow
You put each question on the projector and tables hold up a card or call out the answer. It is fast, but nobody keeps score, so there is no winner and the round fizzles out.
A phone quiz
Guests scan a QR code on the screen and answer on their own phones. The scores add up by themselves and the leaderboard shows after every question, which is what gets tables shouting at each other. It needs internet for every phone and a laptop on the projector. Kahoot is the tool most people know; we wrote up what Kahoot does well at a wedding and where it falls short.
The rest of this guide assumes the phone version.
What you need in the hall
A screen the back tables can read
A rough rule from AV people: if guests need to read text, the farthest one should sit no more than about six times the picture height away. A typical 3-meter (10-foot) event screen shows a picture about 1.7 meters tall, which is readable to about 10 meters (33 feet). Many halls seating 150 are deeper than that. If yours is, add a TV halfway down the room or have the MC read every question and answer aloud. Do that anyway; it helps grandparents too.
Shade
Summer receptions in rooms with big windows wash a projector out until sunset. Ask the venue whether the curtains close, or use a large TV instead.
A laptop that stays awake
Bring the power cable, the HDMI cable and an adapter if your laptop only has USB-C. Turn off sleep, screen savers and notifications. A message preview popping up in front of 150 people is a bad way to learn about someone’s group chat.
Internet for every phone
Ask the venue for the guest WiFi name and password, and whether it opens a login page first. Phones handle those login pages badly, and a guest who has to tick a box in a pop-up before playing often gives up. Put the WiFi details on the screen next to the QR code and tell people mobile data works too. Then walk to the back table with your own phone and check you get a signal. Basement halls and old stone buildings are where this goes wrong.
A microphone and someone to hold it
The MC, the DJ, or a friend who is not giving a speech. Phones need no sound.
Write ten wedding trivia questions
Ten is right for one round. Twenty is too many: by question fourteen people are checking their drinks.
A mix that works:
- three easy ones anyone can guess (who is the better cook?)
- four that reward people who know you (where was the first date?)
- two that only close friends will get
- one warm one to finish (who said I love you first?)
Keep each question to one line and each answer to a few words. Agree on the right answer as a couple before you type it in. More than one couple has found out at the reception that they remember the first date differently. A photo question (a baby picture, your first apartment) is an easy win.
If you need a starting point, we have 60 wedding quiz questions about the couple sorted by topic.
Where the round fits in the evening
The best slot is after the main course is cleared and before the cake or dessert. Everyone is seated, nobody is eating, the bar queue is short and the dance floor is not open yet.
Keep it away from food service, when staff walk in front of the screen and guests have their hands full. Keep it away from the speeches too: they need the room’s attention, and a trivia round straight before them makes the evening drag. And do it before the dancing starts, because once people are on their feet you will not get them back to their seats.
At a UK wedding breakfast, the gap between the main and the dessert works well. If evening guests arrive later, a second short round after they come in gives them a way to join the day.
How long it takes
| Part | Time |
|---|---|
| Guests scan the code and type their names | 3 to 4 minutes |
| The MC explains the rules | 1 minute |
| Ten questions, each with answer time, reveal and leaderboard | 5 to 8 minutes |
| Podium and prizes | 2 minutes |
Put the QR code on the screen while the plates are being cleared, so most people have joined before the MC starts talking. Twenty seconds to answer is enough for a one-line question. Longer than that and the room goes quiet in the wrong way.
What the MC says
The MC does not need a script, but these lines cover the parts people forget.
Before the round:
“While the plates go, phones out please. Scan the code on the screen, type your name, and you’re in. There’s nothing to download. If the code won’t scan, type the letters under it. Grandparents, grab the nearest teenager.”
At the start:
“Ten questions about Anna and Tom. Each one is on the screen for twenty seconds. Right answers score points, and the top three come up here at the end.”
During the round, the MC reads each question and its answers aloud, counts down the last five seconds, and reacts to the reveal: “Seventy percent of you think Tom cooks. Tom, do you want to tell them?” A ten-second story from the couple after a surprising answer is the best part of the game. Keep it to one or two, or the round doubles in length.
At the end, call up the top three, hand out the prizes and tell the room what happens next (“And now, the cake”).
Older guests and people without smartphones
Most grandparents can scan a code if someone sits next to them. Ask each table to make sure nobody is left out, and let two people share a phone and play as one name. If a table has no phones at all, give them a paper sheet and let the MC mark it at the end. Nobody minds.
What goes wrong
- The laptop goes to sleep or shows a notification. Check the settings at setup, not five minutes before.
- The WiFi has a login page, or the phones get no signal at the back. Test from the farthest table.
- The MC sees the game for the first time on the night. Do a run-through at home with a few friends, on the same laptop.
- Three guests are called Mike. Ask people to add their last initial.
- Questions only five people can answer. Keep the in-jokes to one or two.
- Phones are nearly dead by late evening. One more reason to play straight after dinner.
Running it with Say Kampai
Say Kampai is a phone quiz made only for weddings. Guests scan the QR code and play in the browser with no app, the leaderboard shows after every question, and the two of you appear on the screen as characters drawn from your photos. The MC moves on from the laptop or a phone, or turns on auto mode. The free test with up to five players is enough for that run-through at home. It opens soon.
If you want something on the program besides the quiz, our list of wedding reception games for guests has games for the tables and for the whole room, and the shoe game questions make a good second game later in the evening.