Bridal showers can be boring, subdued events, or they can be fun, interactive, and boisterous. Planning a bridal shower can be almost as difficult as planning the wedding itself. But it doesn’t have to be. With a few simple ideas, the bridal shower can be fun, personal, and memorable.
A bridal shower is a time for rejoicing and there is an aspect of camaraderie among women. Such senses of female bonding and merriment can be enhanced by planning some exciting games to play at the event. Here are some tips to create a fun and memorable shower using games to engage your guests.
Games
Bridal shower games are an integral part of any bridal shower. Failure to plan them in accordance with the guests can be embarrassingly bad news, though.
From bridal bingo to simple word searches, games can liven up any event and ensure the guests have fun. While not necessary, consider giving out small prizes or raffle tickets to participants and winners. This helps encourage participation and makes the games more meaningful.
One of the most exciting parts of almost all bridal showers is the games. They can be a bit naughty sometimes, but they are always fun to play. One of the things though that many party organizers fail to consider when thinking of bridal shower games is the ages of the attendees. This failure often results in awkward moments during the party and may make some of the guests feel uncomfortable.
To keep this from happening, there should be thorough planning for the shower. If the age bracket of those planning to attend the shower is not known, the safest thing to do is to come up with bridal shower games that are appropriate for all ages. Below are some ideas for bridal shower games that everyone will surely enjoy.
Bridal Shower Bingo
You cannot get any safer than playing bingo at a bridal shower. And everyone enjoys a game of bingo, whether young or old. But bridal shower bingo comes with a twist. The bingo cards can be hand-made or a bingo set can be bought and the cards modified. You can purchase a blank bridal bingo sheet in our Etsy shop here.
Instead of using numbers and letters on the bingo cards, have your guests substitute what they think the bride will receive as gifts. They will write in items for each square on the board. Part of the fun here is in creating and personalizing the cards. When everyone has completed filling out their boards, it is time to play the actual game. As the bride opens her gifts, players will mark off what they have written on their bingo boards as those particular presents are opened.
As another idea, guests can create their bingo cards and come up with their own phrases and words. In the blank squares, they can write things down that are wedding-related such as bride, ring, gown, etc. Then have someone call out typical bridal words and have players who wrote those down mark them off. The first person to get 5 in a row either across, down, or diagonally wins!
Bridal Bingo is not only a fun game, but a cheap and easy one to prepare as well.
Bridal Shower Charades
Everyone enjoys a game of charades. As long as the naughty and controversial topics and words are avoided, this game will be safe enough to be played by both the bride’s best friend and her grandmother. To make this more fun (and difficult), try to avoid topics that are too common and general. If possible, try to come up with words and phrases that have a personal meaning to the bride.
The Bride-and-Groom Trivia Game
Usually, this game puts the bride on the hot seat as she answers questions about her husband to be. Buy a Does the Bride Know the Groom game board here in our Etsy shop. Prefer it the other way around? You can also get a Does the Groom Know the Bride game board.
A twist to this game though is putting the guests on the hot seat and asking them questions about the bride or groom or even about weddings in general. Let the bride ask the questions and grill the guests at the party.
Guess the Gift
This game kills two birds with one stone. One of the most awaited parts of a bridal shower is the opening of bridal shower gifts. It can be more fun by turning it into a game where guests try to guess the contents of the gifts. This works extremely well for baby shower games, too.
Word Creation
Hand out a piece of paper to each guest with the first and last name of the bride and groom written at the top. Set an egg timer for five minutes. Each guest is to create new words from the names at the top of the paper. Score one point for each word you get and 5 points for each UNIQUE word that was not selected by any other player. The winner gets a prize.
Wedding Night Black Out
It’s time for the wedding night but the honeymoon hotel is experiencing a blackout. The bride must get ready for the wedding night in the dark. Blindfold the bride-to-be and hand her a suitcase full of odd apparel such as a big bra, slippers, a small negligee, men’s boxers, welding gloves, a floppy hat, or anything else that looks fun. She is to put the items on over her clothes while blindfolded. Be sure to take pictures at the end.
Mum’s the Word
As guests arrive give everyone a faux wedding engagement ring and a list of cliche wedding words such as “bride, groom, wedding dress, honeymoon” etc. Anytime a guest is heard using one of the taboo words, they get their engagement ring confiscated by the first person to call them on it. The person with the most bling (I mean rings!) at the end of the shower wins a prize (and they get to keep the rings.)
You can grab a sign announcing the Bling It On wedding ring game here in our Etsy shop.
Reminiscing Mysteries
When you send out the invitations to the shower, also send along a blank Who Am I sheet. Ask the guests to anonymously write down their favorite memory of a shared experience with the bride. At the party, have the bride read the experiences and guess which guest wrote which memory. If she can guess correctly, that person is out. Once she has read through all of the responses and made her guesses, draw a winner from the pile of memories the bride did not guess and give them a prize. At the end of the day, the bride has a stack of precious keepsakes.
These are just some of the ideas for bridal shower games that are appropriate for all ages and that everyone will have a grand time playing. Do you have any other ideas, either games you have played or something you used in your own bridal shower?
Looking for printable shower games instead? Head over to read our fun Printable Bridal Shower Game To Play!
