A few years ago one of my friends, Melissa Paul, formerly a wedding planner in Philadephia, came in to the shop with an interesting idea for cocktail napkins. It seemed one of her brides was looking for a clever way to get their friends and families to mix and mingle at their wedding welcome party. Basically, the bridal couple was looking for an ice breaker for a room full of people that had never met before. Preferring to keep things simple and as cost-effective as possible, Melissa wanted to design cocktail napkins that would double as a trivia game. Once we determined it was not only possible but incredibly fun, we officially dubbed them “Trivia Napkins” for lack of a better title. Now, a couple years later, they’re one of our favorite details to offer clients hosting any kind of party. They’re very popular with our brides and grooms for their wedding receptions, as well as for rehearsal dinners, birthday parties, anniversaries (a riot!) and for bar/bat mitzvahs.
For the original project with Melissa, we designed four different napkins with four different trivia questions. One question per napkin. Three were multiple choice (see the photo above for an idea) but the fourth napkin design was a simple true or false question. Ordinarily, cocktail napkins are an inexpensive way to personalize or brand your event. One plate gets made to print the monogram or design onto the cocktail napkins. But with our trivia napkins, not only is the plate larger but with multiple questions multiple plates are required. As a result, there are higher costs. But for many brides and grooms, it’s a cost that’s worth it for the novelty and playfulness they provide. And frankly, when we say there are higher costs, we’re not talking crazy amounts in the whole scheme of things. These napkins are great to start a conversation with or to chuckle about as you wait for your cocktail at the bar. In fact, we’ve actually had guests squirrel them away in their evening clutches and bring them in to the shop to order for their own events!
[Photos: Gabe Fredericks (top); Laura Novak (bottom).]
