As the COVID-19 pandemic winds down, wedding season is coming back in full force. As the maid of honor, it is my responsibility to host the bridal shower. It can feel like a daunting task because you must wrangle the bridesmaids, find a venue, pick a theme, and make sure all the RSVPs are in on time. Once everyone is gathered, you must keep them entertained and engaged. The best way for this is to plan for different games throughout the bridal shower. When deciding which games to choose, it is best to select a few that break the ice and have guests interacting and getting to know each other.
When planning a bridal shower, it is important to plan out the timeline to ensure there is a good flow. This also allows you to determine if you have enough games for the timeline or if you need to add more. The bridal shower I planned was from 11-2 and I found five games was more than enough for that timeframe. You will find that most of your time will be spent quieting everyone down, getting their attention, or making sure they are not cheating.
Included in this post is a list of 5 popular bridal shower games that will be a hit at any bridal shower. I have also added the templates for the games free for download.
- The Ring Game
This game is a classic and can be altered to fit any bridal shower theme. For example, my bridal shower was Harry Potter themed and we used glasses instead of rings for the game. The Ring Game encourages conversation and competitiveness amongst guests. The rules are easy – if you get caught saying the word “Wedding” or “Bride,” your ring is taken from you. Same thing goes for when you catch someone saying one of the words—you take their ring. Whichever guest has the most bling at the end of the shower wins a prize.
To set up the game, display the sign and the plastic rings (or whatever the item) by the entrance so each guest can grab one on their way in. I found that it is good to have someone posted by the door to make sure everyone gets a ring and understands the rules.
2. Bridal Bingo
This was another huge hit at my sister’s bridal shower. There are templates for this game with the card already filled in but I chose to give blank cards to the guests. For this game, hand out the blank bingo card to each guest. Throughout the bridal shower have the guests fill in the card with what gifts they think the bride will receive/open. When it comes time for the bride to open gifts, the guests fill in their card and when someone gets a bingo they get a prize. Due to the potential for multiple bingos, we had a couple rounds with small prizes and then handing out a big prize for the first person to get all of their card filled.
3. Would She Rather
This game is a lot of fun because it gets the bride involved. This is best played as a timed game. If it is not timed, guests start to compare answers and it could run longer than needed. We set our time to 2 minutes and it was plenty of time for everyone to fill out their card. This one had the potential for several winners which is why we gave out small prizes for this game. This allowed for each of our winners to get a prize.
4. How Well Do You Know the Bride
This game is a lot of fun because it really tests the guests knowledge on the bride. Sometime before the shower, you should send the questions being used to the bride and have her send you the answers. Again, this is a timed game to avoid guests comparing answers (cheating). We set our time to 2 minutes and there was plenty of time for the guests to fill out the answers. We even had two people get all answers correct! One way to get the bride involved is to have her read out the answers when scoring the game. To score, we used the honor system and had everyone grade their own game. This saves time in collecting and grading and allows more game time and less dead time during the shower.
5. Find the Guest
Time permitting, this is a great game to get your guests to mingle and get to know each other. This can be played in the beginning when everyone is settling in or while eating. This could be difficult to play under a time limit so you could put a deadline. For example, hand out the game cards or have them sitting at the table and tell everyone that these will be collected after eating and before other games begin. This can be another big prize game or small prize if there are more than one winner.
Bonus Game: How Well Does the Bride Know the Groom
I do not have a printable for this game yet. I will work on one and upload when I have it available. This game is great to get the bride involved in a game. Before the wedding, you send a list of questions to the groom (similar to How Well Do You Know the Bride) and have him provide his answers. During the shower, you ask the bride these questions and see how many she gets correct. One way to make this fun is have a consequence to getting the answer wrong. For example, every time my sister got a question wrong, she has to put a marshmallow in her mouth. At my Harry Potter themed bridal shower, I had to eat a Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans for every incorrect answer. We played this while the guests were eating but after the bride had finished. This was also a great kick off to the games.
There are many more games that can be incorporated into the bridal shower. These are the six games I played at my sister’s wedding and everyone had a blast. We kept everyone engaged throughout the shower and there was minimal dead time. I hope this helps you plan for your or your friends bridal shower. Please let me know if you want any more information.
