Wedding Magician · Cocktail Hours · Receptions
Wedding magic for the hour you are not in the room.
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For Couples and Wedding Planners
Hiring a wedding magician for the cocktail hour
There is a gap in every wedding day that nobody plans for properly. The ceremony ends, the couple leaves for photographs, and a hundred and fifty guests stand in a room with a drink, half of whom have never met the other half. It usually lasts an hour, and it is the only part of the day with nothing happening in it.
Josh Weidner is a wedding magician who works precisely that hour. Close-up magic moves group to group while the photographs are being taken, so your guests are entertained and, more usefully, talking to people they did not arrive with. By the time you walk back in, the room has already warmed up.
He works cocktail hours, drinks receptions, wedding breakfasts, and evening receptions, at hotels, country clubs, barns, and private venues. Send the date through the form and Josh follows up personally.
Ready to book a wedding magician?
Send the date, the venue, the guest count, and where the gap in your day is. Josh answers every inquiry himself and will come back on whether your date is free.
- I. Entertained through the hour you are away having photographs taken
- II. Mixing your side with theirs, which will not happen on its own
- III. Relaxed by the time you walk back into the room
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Three ways to book a wedding magician
The cocktail hour is the booking that earns its place at almost every wedding. The other two suit larger receptions.
Mingling Magic
The one most couples book. Close-up magic worked group to group while you are away for photographs, with the impossible happening in your guests’ own hands. It fills the emptiest hour of the day and gets two families who have never met talking to each other.
Learn More →
Comedy Magic Show
For a larger reception with a seated moment, a comedy magic show gives the evening a centre between the meal and the dancing. Clean, quick, and written so the guests who take part come off well in front of both families.
Learn More →
Event Hosting
Some receptions want somebody keeping the day moving: introducing the speeches, cueing the cake, and covering the gaps so the venue is not doing it over a microphone. Josh can host that, alongside or instead of performing.
Learn More →See what past clients say
"We booked Joshua to perform strolling magic during the cocktail hour at our wedding. He was amazing! All of our guests loved his performances and people are still talking about how great and mind-boggling his illusions were."
"Josh did a close-up magic show for my wife’s birthday party at our house, and he was absolutely stellar! His magic was fantastic, he was kind, considerate, and professional."
The Gap
The cocktail hour is the hour worth solving
Almost every complaint guests have about a wedding day is about waiting. The ceremony ends on a high, and then there is an hour with a drink, a room, and nothing arranged. Background music does not fill it, because nobody listens to background music. Canapes do not fill it either.
That hour is also the only part of the day the couple is not present for, which is why it is so often under-planned: you do not experience it yourself, and you only hear about it afterwards. It is the single highest-value slot at a wedding to put something into.
The Two Sides
Getting two families to talk to each other
A wedding is two guest lists that have mostly never met, seated together and expected to get along by the evening. Left alone they will not mix; they will stand with the people they arrived with and mix politely at the bar, and the reception will feel like two parties in one room.
Magic moving through the cocktail hour mixes them mechanically rather than socially. Groups form around whatever is happening, those groups contain people from both sides, and the conversation that starts over something impossible keeps going afterwards. It is a small intervention with a disproportionate effect on how the evening feels.
The Day
Fitting around a wedding schedule
A wedding runs to a timetable that is already full and already at risk of slipping. Entertainment that needs a slot of its own, a soundcheck, or the room’s full attention is a liability on a day like that.
Close-up magic needs none of those things. It works in whatever the room is doing, stops instantly when the photographer or the planner needs the room, and adds nothing to the schedule. Josh coordinates directly with your planner or venue so you are not the one relaying it on the day.
Quick facts about booking a wedding magician
Is This The Right Page?
Who this wedding magician page is for
This page is written for couples and planners who have looked at the running order and noticed the hour with nothing in it. If you are trying to solve the cocktail hour, or you want two guest lists talking to each other before the speeches, this is the right place. Josh performs the same clean, adult act he brings to corporate events and galas, so it suits a wedding with a mixed guest list of family, friends, and colleagues.
Common questions about booking a wedding magician
How much does it cost to hire a magician for a wedding?+
When during the day should the magician perform?+
Will it interrupt the photographs or the schedule?+
Our guests do not know each other. Does that help or hurt?+
Can you perform during the wedding breakfast or meal?+
Do you work with our planner or venue?+
Is the material appropriate for grandparents and children in the room?+
Can you do the evening reception as well as the cocktail hour?+
What size wedding does this work for?+
What do you need from the venue?+
Do you carry insurance and provide a Certificate of Insurance?+
Do you travel for weddings?+
Let's Talk
Want to book a wedding magician for your cocktail hour?
Send the date and the venue, and Josh will follow up personally to check availability and see if it's a fit.
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