Wedding Blog
This past weekend, I celebrated Mr. Tomato’s birthday by throwing him a surprise party. He’s never had a surprise party before, so he was indeed surprised! His face was of complete utter shock when he opened the door and a huge group of friends popped out. I couldn’t stop grinning. It was priceless. 
I had planned out a photo hunt activity, and divided the teams so that everyone at least knew one other person in their group but could meet some new faces, too (it’s my plan for seating arrangements at the wedding reception as well).
The photo hunt was a big hit, and to my pleasant surprise it also turned out to be a pre-wedding mixer. Everyone that attended Mr.Tomato’s party happens to be coming to our Napa wedding as well, and I didn’t realize until afterwards that since a lot of our friends don’t know each other yet, it was a chance for them to be introduced and mingle before the big day. If you’re having a wedding celebration that spans over the course of a few days, this could be an idea to consider. 
Here is an example of the directions I made up for the photo hunt:
~~~
Greetings! Thank you for coming out and celebrating Mr.Tomato’s birthday with us! This Photo Scavenger Hunt should be a blast. Your team has been assigned to location SAN JOSE-SANTA CLARA.
OBJECTIVE: To be the team that wins the most points! (Yeah yeah, there will be a prize…)
HOW TO WIN POINTS: One point will be given for every picture taken in your specific location that consists of ALL team members (except for the photo taker) and one of the following…
Photo Checklist
Ball
Balloon
Bottleneck
Chocolate cake
Clear
Cover
Donuts
Dome
Fish
Fold
Glow
Group
Happiness
Human pyramid
Identical twins
Jack
Law enforcement
Lens
Mansion
Mario
Music
Pipe
Pollution
Religion
Recyclable
Reflection
Sportiest car
Sticky
Thousand Words
$1000
XXL dog
XXS dog
Water
Yarn
HINT: Items on the Photo Checklist can be based on interpretation,
not literal translation.
BONUS POINTS
The following are worth five points each:
1) Photo of someone from your team shaking hands with a cop.
2) Photo of someone from your team inside a food truck.
3) Photo of four team members walking like the Beatles:
~~~
I gave each team an hour and half to travel to their location (15 min
away) and try to take as many pictures on the list as they could.
Afterwards I set up three stations with laptops and card readers, so
that each team only had to insert their flash cards for an instant slideshow.
The results were hilarious! One team actually DID get someone to shake
hands with a cop! They said the cop was not sure what to make of their
request, but eventually obliged. 
Some of my favorite pictures from Mr. Tomato’s winning team:
“Human Pyramid”
“XXL dog” vs. “XXS dog”
“Jack”
“$1000″ (They went to the ATM. Smart!)
Walking like the Beatles…
My favorite: “Donuts” (They made “donut circles” with puddles and a
shopping cart)
Are you having any pre-wedding mixers to allow guests to know each other before the wedding?
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Share this post: Pre-Wedding Activity: The Photo Hunt
We did a similar photo-scavenger hunt at a national sales meeting as an icebreaker and it was tons of fun. Great job on the hunt items!
Wow that looks like so much fun, what a great idea!
Awesome idea! I think I will do this for my out-of-town guests to do together the day before the wedding to get to know each other. I wanted to do an Amazing Race type of day where they had to complete certain activities and race to the finish line, but I was worried that that would involve too much planning and might be expensive! This is the perfect alternative and those photos will be priceless…
That’s so fun - I really like the ‘XXL Dog’ and ‘XXS Dog’!
Yeah, that was a really good idea with the items to be hunted. Forces people to be creative and that really gets them to mingle with each other. Good job!
i loved it! what were the prizes?
HAhaha, those pics are absolutely priceless!! Yea, what were the prizes??
Hahaha that’s so funny! I really like the idea of letting the guests mingle with each other even BEFORE the weddnig!
I do have a comment though - I went to my friend’s wedding in March, and the couple split my group up so that we were all at different tables. While I understood their desire for different people to meet, I was a little disappointed that my group couldn’t enjoy the wedding TOGETHER. Some of us were halfway across the room from the others and it was kind of sad we couldn’t all sit together!
However that’s just my view 
Since you had this opportunity for people to meet one another, there will be no strangers @ your wedding/reception!
i’m gonna steal this idea for my bday party! how fun! i love the creative ideas/interpretations. you have smart friends. did you give extra points for creativity?
Hello all! I was intending for the “prize” to be free drinks (on me) during dinner that night…but alas, a lot of people had other dinner plans and actually no one seemed interested in the prize. I guess they had too much fun during the actual activity to care! (and they only cared about being “the winning team”)
C.C., I do understand your concern about “breaking” groups up though–and actually I will have a few tables at my wedding where certain groups of friends are completely intact. But for the guests who will only know one or a few of the other people attending, this was a good activity. =)
great idea! are you from san jose too?!?
That looks like so much fun to do regardless of whether or not we’ll have time before the wedding. I plan to steal you list for fun with my friends after the wedding!
We had a bride do this and it worked great. This was the icebreaker to get people to start taking pictures for them at the events.
Have everyone bring their own digital cameras and you can also pull this off as photo upload cards for the place settings.
Once the photos were uploaded then everyone got to see the photos and rate and comment on them and then they gave a funny prize to the guests with the best shots.
It really got the party going before, during and a week after the reception.
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Mrs. Tomato, Napa Valley
Age and Occupation: 25, Technology Project Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Engineer
Engagement Date: October 22, 2006
Wedding Date: July 1, 2007
Blogging Since: May 1, 2006
Venue: Auberge du Soleil
About Me: I love all things beautiful. From handmade stationery, feminine fashion and delicate flowers to the little moments in your life treasured with your loved one. I am also notorious among my friends to be a deal hunter! My best deal was perhaps my Monique Lhuillier dress for $1100 (orig. $5000). I also tend to use a lot of exclamation marks! =)
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