Wedding venue add-ons: which activities to offer, at what cost

Couples increasingly look for a venue that makes their life easier. Every activity you offer is one less supplier to find, one less quote to compare, one more reason to sign with you. You still need to pick the right ones: some wedding venue add-ons earn a lot for very little effort, while others tie up staff and equipment for a thin return.

This guide reviews the activities and services a wedding venue can offer, with the cost, the effort and the most profitable way to build each one into your offer.

Why a venue should offer activities

Three reasons that go beyond direct revenue:

• You stand out in comparisons. Between two venues of the same standard and price, couples often choose the one where “everything is already sorted”.
• You stay in control of the day. Activities you know, set up in the right places, avoid suppliers discovering the venue on the day and unpleasant surprises (a bouncy castle on a fragile lawn, a photo booth with no power socket).
• You create memories tied to your venue. Guests remember the game of pétanque at sunset or the brunch by the pool, and they talk about it.

Include, offer as an extra, or recommend: three models

Before choosing what to offer, choose how. The three models sit happily side by side in the same offer.

Model	How it works	Upside	Downside
Included in the package	The activity is part of the base price	Strong selling point, simplicity	The cost applies to every wedding, even when the couple does not want it
Paid extra	The couple adds it if they wish	Extra revenue, a clear base price	Too many extras make the quote hard to read
Recommended partner	You refer couples to a trusted supplier	No investment, no risk	No direct revenue, less control

A rule that works well: include what costs little and almost everyone uses, offer as an extra what is expensive or only appeals to some, and recommend partners for anything that needs expertise you do not have.

A grid to decide

For each activity you are considering, ask four questions:

1. What does it cost per wedding, once the purchase is paid off? A €1,000 set of games used at 30 weddings comes to about €33 per wedding, before upkeep.
2. How much staff time does it need: setting up, supervising, packing away, cleaning?
3. What risk does it carry: breakage, injury, fire, noise for the neighbours? Does your insurance cover it?
4. What perceived value does it have for the couple? An activity that costs you little but that couples would have paid several hundred euros for elsewhere is an excellent candidate for inclusion.

The activities one by one

Lawn games

Mölkky, pétanque, cornhole, croquet, giant wooden games: the drinks-reception activity par excellence. It keeps guests busy during the couple’s photo session, mixes generations and needs almost no supervision.

Cost: a set of eight to ten games costs from a few hundred euros to around €1,500 depending on quality; to rent, wooden game suppliers often charge €70 to €300 for a weekend.
Effort: low (bring out, put away, check nothing is missing).
Our advice: include it. It is the textbook low-cost activity, used at every wedding, that couples notice during the viewing.

The kids’ corner

Parents enjoy the evening far more when children have a space of their own. A kids’ corner can range from a simple furnished room (rugs, cushions, a teepee, board games, colouring, a screen for a late film) to a proper crèche with entertainers.

Cost: a few hundred euros to furnish the space. Supervision (babysitter or entertainer) is paid by the hour; rates vary widely by region, number of children and whether an agency is involved.
Effort: medium, with real responsibility as soon as children are involved.
Our advice: include the furnished space and recommend a partner for supervision, paid by the couple. You keep the selling point without taking on childcare liability. Check with your insurer what your policy covers.

The photo booth

Photo booths are still in demand, especially for instant prints. But they are expensive, fragile equipment that needs setting up and maintaining.

Cost: renting a booth usually costs €350 to €900 for the evening depending on options (details in how much a wedding photo booth costs). Buying a professional booth runs to several thousand euros, before consumables.
Effort: medium to high if you run it yourself (set-up, paper, breakdowns).
Our advice: recommended partner, or a paid extra if a supplier offers you a negotiated rate. Plan a sheltered spot with a power socket, scouted in advance.

A digital disposable camera for guests

The idea: each guest scans a QR code with their phone and gets a small disposable camera with a limited number of shots. The photos stay hidden during the party, then are revealed all at once, for everyone, in a shared album. This is not just a gallery where people upload their photos (we explain the difference in our comparison of wedding photo apps): it is a game that runs all evening.

Cost: with Time to Flash, a one-off payment per wedding based on guest count, no subscription: €29.99 for up to 100 guests, €34.99 up to 150, €39.99 up to 200. Compare that with film disposable cameras on the tables, around €10 to €15 each plus developing.
Effort: next to none (a poster to put up).
Our advice: include it, or offer it as a perk to couples who sign. We explain below why it is the easiest activity for a venue to build in.

Fireworks

Spectacular, but heavily regulated. Rules vary by country and region. In France, for example, a display above certain thresholds (more than 35 kg of active material in categories F2 or F3, or any category F4 item) counts as a pyrotechnic show: it must be declared to the town hall and the prefecture at least a month ahead and fired by a qualified, certified operator. In summer, local orders often ban fireworks because of fire risk.

Cost: for a professionally fired display, expect rarely less than €1,000, and often much more depending on length.
Effort: high (firing zone, safety, neighbours, animals, clean-up).
Our advice: recommended partner only, with written rules in your contract: an insured professional operator, a firing zone you define, approval subject to the regulations in force. Cold spark fountains, used indoors for the first dance or the cake, are a simpler alternative, to be confirmed with the supplier and your insurer. As for sky lanterns, they are banned in many areas: best to rule them out.

Next-day brunch

Brunch extends the celebration, lets guests who travelled far make a weekend of it, and makes money on a day when your venue would be busy with the clear-up anyway.

Cost: the caterer sets the price; venues that offer it often list something in the region of €20 to €45 per person, depending on the menu.
Effort: medium if a partner caterer handles it, high if you do it yourself.
Our advice: paid extra, with a partner caterer. It is one of the most appreciated services, and the ideal argument for selling the whole weekend.

A drinks reception with a twist

If your venue has a strong identity, make it an activity: a tasting of the estate’s wines, a cellar tour, local produce, a cocktail bar, a food truck. That is often what guests talk about most.

Cost and effort: very variable. A tasting of your own wines mainly costs time; a cocktail bar or food truck goes through a partner.
Our advice: paid extra or partner. If you make wine, a short tasting included in the package is something no one else can copy.

Evening atmosphere

Braziers and a fire pit with marshmallows, a chill-out corner with deckchairs and blankets, fairy lights in the trees, an outdoor cinema the next day: these little touches cost little once bought and change the feel of the place.

Cost: a few tens to a few hundred euros of equipment.
Effort: low, but watch the safety rules for anything involving fire.
Our advice: include them; they make the photos people remember.

Practical services

Not activities strictly speaking, but they weigh just as much in the decision: a shuttle to the station or hotels, set-up for an outdoor ceremony (chairs, arch), a cloakroom, a space for suppliers, wifi that covers the room. On that last point, see how to equip a wedding venue with wifi.

Adapt activities to the season

A single package all year round is easier to manage, but activities depend on the weather. Plan two variants:

• In summer, everything happens outside: lawn games, a garden ceremony, braziers late in the evening, brunch by the pool. Think about shade (parasols, sails), cool water on hand and fire restrictions during droughts.
• In winter, everything moves indoors: giant board games in a lounge, mulled wine or hot chocolate at the drinks reception, a lit fire, a reading corner for children. It is also the moment to highlight an activity that does not depend on the weather, like the digital disposable camera, which works just as well at the table as by the fire.

These variants are a great way to sell winter dates: instead of offering “the same wedding, only worse and cheaper”, you offer a different wedding, with its own moments. We go into this approach in how to attract more couples to your venue.

Summary

Activity	Cost to the venue	Effort	Suggested model
Lawn games	Low (purchase paid off)	Low	Included
Kids’ corner (space)	Low	Low	Included
Childcare supervision	Medium	Medium	Partner
Photo booth	High to buy	Medium to high	Partner or extra
Digital disposable camera	Low, per wedding	Next to none	Included
Fireworks	High	High	Partner
Next-day brunch	Variable	Medium	Extra
Drinks reception with a twist	Variable	Variable	Extra or partner
Evening atmosphere	Low	Low	Included

Why a photo activity with no equipment is the easiest to include

Most activities carry a hidden cost for a venue: equipment to store, maintain, bring out and put away, staff to set it up, a risk of breakage. A photo activity that fits in a QR code has none of these drawbacks.

• No equipment. No booth to deliver, no cameras to charge, hand out and collect at the end of the night. Guests use their own phones.
• No staff. A poster at the entrance, a few table cards, and it is set up. Our QR poster generator creates these materials for free in the wedding’s colours.
• No location constraint. No power socket or corner to reserve: the activity happens everywhere, from the ceremony to the bar, and the photos cover the whole day instead of one corner of the room.
• A predictable cost. A fixed price per wedding based on guest count, which you can add to the package line by line.

Just one technical condition: guests need internet access to open the page and send their photos. If your room has poor reception, put the QR code where the signal is good (entrance, bar, terrace) and display the wifi password right next to it. Our detailed tips are in where to put the QR code.

Guests’ photos show off your venue

A professional photographer frames the couple. Guests photograph everything else: the room filling up, the table at dessert, the dance floor at one in the morning, the grounds at dawn. These images show your venue as people experience it, from every angle and at every hour, and they are exactly what helps a future couple picture their own day.

The album belongs to the couple: it is private and you have no access to it. But nothing stops you asking the couple, after the wedding, whether they would share a few photos for your website or social media. A few precautions:

• Get the couple’s agreement in writing, and state the use (website, Instagram, brochure).
• Choose images where the venue is the subject: a dressed table, the lit room, guests seen from behind on the dance floor. For a photo where someone is identifiable and in the foreground, you also need that person’s consent.
• Avoid photos of children, which require both parents’ consent before any public use.
• Remove without argument any photo someone asks you to take down.

The rules are covered in our article on image rights at a wedding.

Building an activity into your package: the method

1. Put it in writing in your brochure and on your website, with a concrete sentence: “Lawn games and a digital disposable camera for your guests included”, rather than “lots of activities”.
2. Show it during the viewing. Games out on the lawn, the QR poster at the entrance, the kids’ corner set up: what can be seen sells.
3. Sort the logistics once and for all: where it is stored, who brings it out and puts it away, where it goes on the day. One sheet per activity is enough.
4. Send the couple instructions a few weeks ahead, so they can tell their guests.
5. Ask for feedback after the wedding. Activities nobody uses should come out of the package.

Mistakes to avoid

• Too many extras. A twenty-line quote paralyses decisions. Three clear packages work better.
• Mandatory suppliers with no explanation. Many couples already have their DJ or photographer; an unjustified exclusive drives them away.
• Noisy or risky activities without written rules. Fire, sound, inflatables: everything must be covered in the contract, insurance included.
• Advertising an activity you do not master. A broken photo booth on the day hurts your reputation more than having no booth.

To help your couples plan the rest of their programme, you can also send them our list of wedding entertainment ideas.

Offer Time to Flash to your couples

Would you like to include the digital disposable camera in your packages, or simply recommend it to your couples? We have opened a programme for wedding venues and suppliers. The details are on our page offer Time to Flash to your couples.