PULTEVENT
Wedding MC software: 7 jobs one laptop does at the reception
A hotel function room outside Manchester, twenty past five. The band is still soundchecking, the venue coordinator has handed me a timing sheet with three crossings-out, and the best man has just told me his speech is "about twelve minutes, maybe fifteen." On the projector screen behind the top table, the couple's names and the date sit over a slow loop of their engagement photos. In forty minutes I need to cue their entrance song, and the only thing I'm holding is a wireless mic and a laptop.
★ Free for the first 3 days, no card required
For years my reception kit was a patchwork: one device for the slideshow, a phone for the entrance music, printed quiz cards, a stopwatch app for the speeches and a notebook that always ended up with gravy on it. Every handover between those things was a place where the night could stall for ten seconds while I tapped the wrong screen.
PULTEVENT is what I built to stop that. The host console runs in a laptop browser, the projector or TV shows whatever I choose, and guests play from their own phones by scanning a QR code, with no app and no sign-up. Their phones need internet, so the venue Wi-Fi (or decent signal) is part of the plan, not an afterthought.
7 parts of a reception the software handles for the MC
1 Welcome screen with the couple's names
As guests find their seats, the screen shows the couple's photo or a slideshow, with a caption you edit yourself: first names, date, venue, maybe the wifi password for the phone games later.
How to run it. Ask the couple for five or six photos in landscape. Portrait shots from a phone look lost on a wide screen.
The room has something to look at while the photographer finishes outside, and nobody stares at a blank projector.
2 The couple's entrance
Their chosen clip or song sits as a single button. You announce them, press once, and confetti or fanfare runs over the screen as they walk in.
How to run it. Play it through the venue speakers at the soundcheck, at full volume, with the coordinator watching the doors.
The one moment every camera in the room is pointed at. It should start the instant you say their names.
3 How well do you know the couple
A short quiz answered from phones: where they met, who said I love you first, what the dog is called. Scores and the fastest table appear on screen.
How to run it. Get half the facts from the couple and half from their parents. Parents supply the questions that get the loudest reaction.
It turns a room of two families who barely know each other into one audience for ten minutes.
4 Guess the baby photo
Childhood pictures of the couple, the bridesmaids, the groomsmen. Guests guess who is who, and you reveal each name with a click.
How to run it. Collect photos privately through one person, usually a sibling, so nothing leaks into the group chat.
Grandparents love it, and it gives older guests something to shout about without touching a phone.
5 Speech timing and break screens
Event timing shows the room what is next: speeches, cake, first dance. During breaks a screen with a countdown tells everyone when the dance floor opens.
How to run it. Set the countdown to the time the kitchen actually gives you, not the time on the printed schedule.
Guests stop asking you when the band starts, and smokers come back inside on their own.
6 Messages from people who couldn't travel
A grandmother in Lagos, a cousin on deployment, a best friend with a newborn. Their clips play one after another on the big screen.
How to run it. Watch every clip in advance and trim the long ones. Nobody needs the first ten seconds of someone finding the record button.
It fills the gap before the speeches and brings the absent people into the room.
7 End credits
At the end of the night, a film-style credits roll: the couple, parents, bridal party, the venue team, the band, the photographer.
How to run it. Write the names the week before and check spellings with the couple. A misspelled mother-in-law is remembered longer than the credits.
It gives the night a clear ending and thanks the suppliers in public, which they remember when you ask for a referral.
One console, one screen
Entrance clip, welcome screen, games and credits are buttons in the same browser tab.
Guests use their own phones
They scan a QR code on the screen and answer in the browser. Nothing to install.
Timing on the big screen
Break screens with a countdown tell the room when dancing starts, so you don't have to.
Your running order inside
Open and edit the script document in the console while the starter is being served.
Why one laptop beats four gadgets
The trouble at a reception is rarely one big failure. It's the small gaps. You finish introducing the maid of honor, reach for the phone with the music on it, type the passcode wrong, find the wrong playlist. Four seconds of silence feel like forty when two hundred people are waiting.
With everything in one browser tab, the next thing is always one click away. The entrance clip, the welcome screen, the quiz, the break countdown and the credits are all buttons on the same console. The projector shows only what you send to it, so you can prepare the next item while the room is still watching the current one.
I still carry a backup phone with the entrance song downloaded. Old habits. I just haven't needed it in a while.
Keeping the running order inside the console
Script documents open and edit inside the console. That matters more than it sounds. Wedding timings change constantly: the photographer runs late, the groom's uncle wants to say a few words after all, the kitchen asks for another ten minutes. I update the order on the laptop at the side of the stage instead of scribbling on a sheet that is already a mess.
"Can we move the cake before the speeches?"
"Give me thirty seconds."
Thirty seconds later the order is changed, the break screen shows the new time, and the coordinator has seen it on the screen too.
Games that respect a wedding crowd
A wedding room is the widest audience a host ever gets: a toddler, a ninety-year-old, the couple's work friends, a vicar. Phone games work because nobody is dragged on stage. Guests who want to play scan the QR code; guests who don't simply watch the screen and laugh along.
Keep the interactive part short. Two games of about ten minutes each, one between courses and one before the first dance, is plenty. The point is to warm the room up for dancing, not to replace it.
Two families, two languages
More and more of my weddings are bilingual: a Polish bride and a Scottish groom, a Spanish family and a Dutch one. Guest screens follow the language of each guest's phone, so an aunt reads the game buttons in her own language while the quiz questions stay the ones you wrote. The host can switch that off if you'd rather everyone saw the same thing.
Built-in quiz decks are mostly in Russian today, so for a wedding you write your own questions in the quiz builder. For a quiz about two specific people you'd be doing that anyway.
What to check at the venue walk-through
Ask where the projector or TV input is and bring a long HDMI cable plus an adapter for your laptop. Ask for the guest Wi-Fi name and try it on your own phone from the back of the room, not next to the router. Old country houses with thick walls can kill signal at the far tables.
If the connection is patchy, the parts that run from the laptop (entrance clip, welcome screen, baby photos, video messages, credits) still work. Only the phone games need guests online.
Try it before a real couple is relying on it
Start with the free 3-day demo, no card needed. Build a mock reception with your own photos, plug the laptop into your TV and run it end to end once. The full version is a one-time license with no subscription; pricing is on pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to set up a reception in the console
- 1
Collect photos, the entrance song, video messages and quiz facts from the couple three weeks out.
- 2
Build the welcome screen with their names and date, and load the entrance clip as a button.
- 3
Write the couple quiz and prepare the baby photo round.
- 4
Paste the running order into a script document and set the break screens to the real timings.
- 5
At the venue, connect the laptop to the projector and test the entrance at full volume.
- 6
Show the QR code before the first game, then close the night with the credits.
FAQ
Do I need a second person to run the screen?
Do wedding guests have to download an app?
What if the venue Wi-Fi fails mid-reception?
Can I use it alongside a band or DJ?
Can I show the couple's slides from their planner?
Is the host console in English?
What does it cost?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
Start free