Japanese weddings. All the ladies in their finest, particularly the unmarried ones, desperate to prove that they haven’t been left on the shelf. All the guys in their pricy suits that will be shed as soon as the nomihoudai all-you-can-drink hits home.
From the special envelope in which you are supposed to hand over the “gift” (i.e. fee) to the series of bizarre photo opportunities of the couple (the grand entrance, the “kiss” and a million costume changes), Japanese wedding parties can seem like a sequence of curious rituals more eccentric than romantic.
One of these is the games. While bingo may be a pursuit mostly enjoyed by pensioners in my native land, in Japan young ‘uns at weddings compete to win expensive prizes provided by the bride and groom.
There are also sometimes quizzes where everyone has to answer questions about the happy couple.
And as technology evolve, so do weddings.
We recently stumbled upon this, the rather suitably named Party Quiz, which allows the guests to play multiple choice tests with questions set by the organizers.
All participants answer the group quiz on their phones, eliminating the need for time-consuming distribution (and collection) of paper and pens.
Plus you can add photos and other customized elements to the question slides, and the results are of course communicated to everyone’s handsets instantly, including ranking (so you can see who scored the lowest, natch).
It works with smartphones, tablets or regular Japanese mobiles (for those still in the “Stone Age”). All you then need is a screen and projector to display the questions for everyone.
The system is also rather nicely priced — just ¥500 (about $5) multipled by the number of participants.
While the tech might not exactly be cutting-edge, we like how this works smoothly and practically with local customs to create a better experience for participants.
