So you’ve decided to go ahead and book a professional magician for your big day? Great choice!
Whats next? Well I’ve put together a list of my top 10 tips for anybody who has or is thinking about booking a professional wedding magician for their big day. This list is taken from my experience over the years of performing at hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of weddings!
Enjoy!
1. Number Of Guests
Weddings sit around the 80-150 guests mark and usually, one magician is the right call to entertain this many people for a few hours! However, if you have many more than this, one magician on his lonesome is unlikely to get around all your guests and deliver the jaw-dropping gasps your guests have been waiting for.
Feel free to ask me about the specifics of your wedding and your number of guests as all weddings are different. I’m always happy to offer my professional opinion and if needed, recommend and help you book a second (or even third!) magician for your day, if necessary.
2. Table Decorations
I get it, a big bunch of flowers in the middle of each table does look pretty. However in my experience, this is far outweighed by the negatives of having big centrepieces at each table.
First and foremost, it means that the guests at each table can’t see or talk to each other unless they are directly sitting next to each other. I find that weddings with big centrepieces often have a bit less atmosphere at each table as you’ve effectively split everyone into small 2’s or 3’s instead of the big 10’s or 12’s you intended them to be in when you spent all that time making your table plan!
Secondly, it also means that when performing at each table, around half the table will get an obstructed view of your magician, meaning you’re not getting even nearly the fully fun and impact from the performance!
3. Huh? What?!
During the meal and the evening reception, wedding DJ’s sometimes can be found blaring the music loud!
This is a huge issue that I see at weddings almost weekly. It means that your guests can’t have a comfortable conversation and won’t be able to hear and take part in the magic! You want your reception to be relaxed and fun; there will be plenty of time later on to get that party started!
Do yourself a favour and have a chat with your DJ before your big day to make sure you’re all on the same page!
4. Speeches
Encourage your wedding party to keep the speeches short and sweet. As a professional speaker myself, I know from experience that most people aren’t! There’s nothing worse than going to a wedding and sitting through an hour and a half of the same story repeated because the top table didn’t check their material against each other and everyone’s speaking for 15 minutes each.
5. Timings
Don’t worry if your wedding is running behind! You aren’t the first and trust me, you won’t be the last wedding to do so!
A wedding professional will always allow time for this and your venue will usually be able to make up any lost time in the changeover periods. Don’t let this little thing stress you out on the big day; after all, your magician is there to help keep people occupied if things are taking linger than expected!
6. Tell EVERYBODY!
Some wedding couples like to keep the fact they’ve booked a wedding magician a secret or surprise for their guests. In my experience, it’s always best to let people know. In fact, tell everyone! Shout it out! Put it on your programmes!
This way, when your magician approaches groups of people they all know what’s coming and can get hyped/ excited and prepare themselves for the magic. The alternative is this sort of awkward situation where people are unsure how to react when I say I’m a magician; I’ve even had people at first think I’m just another guest that “knows a few tricks”! Granny nearly fell over when I then showed her a miracle and she realised I wasn’t just an uncle that knows a card trick!
7. What Time?
I often see people asking wedding magicians to perform at all parts of the wedding (drinks reception, during the meal and at the evening reception) and while this might suit some people’s weddings; it’s not what I’d usually recommend.
Everybody loves magic but, just like everything; we love it in moderation.
I usually recommend 2 hours is the perfect amount of time to bamboozle all your guests but still leave them wanting more.
8. Children
Magic is obviously great for kids! However, they do often love it a little bit too much and end up following the magician from group to group. This becomes a) quite annoying for the magician and b) can even start to ruin the experience for your guests. Magic can often be a bit like a good thriller movie. Once you know the big twist, it becomes a lot less amazing and interesting. Children often like to show everyone how smart they are and soil the outcome of the trick for everyone else. No fun!
9. Wedding Couple
Most professional wedding magicians will always make time to come and visit the happy couple and show them a special something just for them. Usually, the best time for this in my experience is as the rest of your guests are making their way into the wedding breakfast. This is often one of the very few breaks the couple will get throughout the day and so is a perfect time to relax, regroup, and share in some magic to remind them why they’re there and to enjoy themselves along the ride!
Top Tip: make sure your photographers know that this is plan to get some ace photos of you two with your magician, losing your minds at the magic!
10. Payment
The mark of a professional can often be found in how they deal with the business side of things. Most professional wedding suppliers now take payment up front.
I do this so that nobody has to worry about money on the big day and everyone can sit back and relax without having to stress about the little things. However, if you are still paying some suppliers in cash on the day, make sure all the cash is prepared in clearly marked envelopes to make it as easy as possible for you and so you don’t end up giving the wrong money to the wrong people!