Why Your Wedding Is the Perfect Place to Play Matchmaker

Your wedding is a brilliant place to introduce friends to one another, and another bonus of having them meet are potential love connections.

When my husband and I were wedding planning, one of the things we were most excited about was connecting all of our rockstar guests. So we created mini-books featuring everyone and introducing them to each other—and yes, giving a shout-out to our single-and-ready-to-mingle friends! Our guests loved it so much that we spent our first year as newlyweds creating guesterly, a website where you can quickly and easily make your own little guest books.

So while I'm not advocating over-the-top PDAs or reception shenanigans, I'm a big fan of inspiring people to hit it off. Here's why you should spark some love connections between guests on your wedding day:

They're vetted—really vetted.

I have hundreds of friends and acquaintances on social media, but the 125 people we invited to our wedding were all people we knew well, loved and hoped would be in our lives for the next 10 or more years. That meant that each and every person was someone we thought was fun, loyal and "good people"—and that our friends had a better-than-average chance of meeting someone great. Bonus: If anyone hits it off, you know you already like their new boyfriend or girlfriend!

It's the best of both worlds.

Some dating apps do an amazing job of showcasing potential matches who are friends of your friends, but we all love that spark of real-life chemistry. Weddings combine the best of both worlds—a group of people who are guaranteed to be awesome and held to a standard of social accountability, plus an instant gauge of chemistry.

The third time's the charm.

Over the course of a wedding weekend (say, rehearsal dinner to welcome drinks, reception and postwedding brunch) your guests will get to see a lot of each other. That means they have multiple opportunities to hit it off—remember how you used to accidentally "bump into" your high school crush? A line-up of wedding events give your guests the same opportunity.

Flirting is fun.

If your friends organically get to flirt all night, they'll think your wedding rocks. You could serve cheap wine and hot dogs and get caught in a surprise blizzard, but if they get to flirt and laugh the whole time, they'd still think it was the best wedding ever.

You can play matchmaker.

It doesn't have to be obvious—ask two friends to do a wedding-related "secret mission" for you, like track down your bouquet. Have a little fun with it—worst case scenario, no one ever even realizes it.

Rachel Hofstetter, Cofounder of guesterly

When guesterly cofounders Rachel and Lorne Hofstetter started planning their wedding, they let one word guide their planning: inclusive. Wanting friends and family from near and far to feel welcome and involved, they created a DIY guest guide booklet—and guesterly was born!

Want more ways to help guests bond at your wedding? Of course you do! Here are eight ways to keep them entertained at the reception table.