Bridal Shower Game Ideas

Encourage you shower guests to take some time with their answers, not just write the first thing that springs to mind. While this is a game, it is also an opportunity to share some real, practical advice with the soon to be wife.

The Setup: Give each guest a pen and piece of paper.

The Rules: Ask the guests to write the first name of the bride downward on the left side of the paper in big letters. Then for each of the letters offer some advice for the bride that starts with that letter. For example if the bride’s name is Claire:

Choose which arguments are really important, ignore the rest.
Let your husband have some time with his friends.
Always point out when he leaves the toilet seat up.
Initiate romance sometimes.
Remeber your anniversary.
Evolve everyday as a person and a couple.

When all guests have finished, one by one read them to the bridal shower without revealing the author. Have the bride pick her favorite advice, that guest is the winner.

This fast-paced game is a perfect fit for guests of all ages at a bridal shower. Not only does it provide tons of fun for your bridal shower guests but the photos and videos you take can become true treasures. Be sure to have a camera ready for the frenzy of the dress making and the finished wedding dresses at the fashion show.

The Setup: Break your shower guests up into teams of 3-5 players and give each team five rolls of toilet paper. The teams will need to select one of their members to be the “bride”, who will wear the toilet paper wedding dress and model it later.

The Rules: Set a time limit of 20 minutes and turn your dress designers loose. The “brides” stand still as their teammates create a dress by wrapping, tying, tucking, or attaching the toilet paper anyway they can figure out. The teams can focus only on making a dress or add on a veil, a bouquet or a train.

Once the time limit has expired play some wedding music and one by one have the “brides” model the dresses catwalk style for the entire bridal shower. The real bride selects her favorite toilet paper wedding dress and that team wins the game.

The time invested in preparation for the Bride Said, Groom Said game not only pays off with your guests learning about the couple, but the bride might even learn something about the groom.

The Setup: Before the shower, ask the bride and the groom a series of questions about their courtship and plans for married life. The questions can be about when they first met, their first date, when they knew they were in love, the proposal, meeting the future in-laws, how many kids they hope to have, who will be doing the cooking, or anything else you think will produce a heartwarming, funny, surprising or interesting quote for you to use.

Select the best 12-15 quotes from the interviews, mix them up, and print them out on a game sheet with a blank space after the quote. For example:

1. “The first time we kissed I knew I was in love.” __________________

Make sure that you remove or edit any words that would give a clue to the author of the quote. For example if the pronoun “she” is used change it to “he or she” .

The Rules: Pass out the game sheets with the quotes from the bride and groom. Give the shower guests ten minutes to read them and guess either ” bride said” or “groom said” in the blank space next to each quote. Once the time limit is up, reveal the answers and the guest with the most correct answers is the winner. After the game allow some time for the bride and shower guests to discuss the bride’s quotes and share any related stories.

Groom’s Quotes Video (optional): Once you have picked the quotes you are going to use from the groom, print them out and give the groom a copy. Set up a video camera and record the groom reading the quotes and telling any related stories or fun tidbits about the quotes. Once the game has ended and the bride has had a chance to discuss her quotes, surprise the bridal shower by playing the video of the groom’s stories about the quotes.

The bride serves as your partner in crime for this game so take some time to plan with her beforehand. She needs to tell a story to the bridal shower about herself and the groom. Just keep in mind this should be fun for her, not a monologue she has to memorize.

The Setup: Ask the bride to tell a story to the bridal shower guests about herself and the groom when they were courting. It can be when they first met, when they feel in love, a frustrating vacation that brought them closer together, an embarrassing moment, anything the bride would like to share with the guests about her love story. Have the bride tell you the story in private beforehand, while you make notes of details for question to ask on the pop quiz.

The Rules: Early in the bridal shower give the bride the floor and let her tell her tale without making a big deal out of it. You should be somewhere you can hear the story but not where the guests can see you, with your preliminary list of questions and a pen. If the bride accidentally forgets to include a detail that you planned to use on the quiz, cross it off the list. If the bride adds a detail you were not expecting, add that question to your list. Once the bride finishes continue with your other bridal shower activities.

After some time has passed, presents have been opened and wine has been sipped surprise your guests with the pop quiz. Pass out pen and paper, then one by one read off each of your questions about the bride’s story. When all questions have been answered have the bride remind the guests of the correct answers, whoever got the most right is the Love Story Pop Quiz winner.

Tiebreaker: During the bride’s story count how many times she says the groom’s name. If the pop quiz ends in a tie, ask the guests involved in the tie to write down their best guest as to the number of times the groom was mentioned. The person who is closest without going over is the winner.

While just a simple prank, this game is a great way to lead off your bridal shower since it sets a tone of whimsy and fun. Just be sure to sell your guests on the idea that there is lingerie in the box that they will have to model. You might be shocked at how fast women can pass something around.

The Setup: Get a small, lightweight teddy bear and put it in a box that looks like it should contain lingerie. Next, tape the box shut and tie ribbon wrapped around it to keep it secure during the game. Remember, if the box accidentally pops open too soon the prank is ruined.

At your shower have the guests stand in a circle and explain to them that there is a teddy in the box and whoever is holding the box when the music stops has to model the teddy in front of the entire bridal shower. Obviously the joke is that the guests should expect the “teddy” to be lingerie, not a bear. Without actually saying the teddy is lingerie do everything you can to lead them to believe they will be expected to parade around in a teddy should they lose.

The Rules: Start playing music and have the guests start passing the teddy in a box around the circle. Give the bride control of music and have her face away from the circle. At a random point the bride stops the music and whoever is holding the box when the music stops must model the teddy for everyone. Have the guest open the box to let them in on the prank. The guest must hold up the teddy bear and move it around to “model” it.

The Bear is the Prize (optional): Once the “loser” has modeled the teddy bear, let her know that she gets to keep the bear as a prize. So the loser is really the winner!

It has been said that the truth hurts. With Two Truths and a Lie About the Bride the truth can make your belly hurt from laughing so much at the surprising and funny stories you will hear.

The Setup: Early on in your bridal shower let the guests know that you will be playing Two Truths and a Lie About the Bride later so that they will have some time to consider which truths and lie to use. People often have a hard time making the selections so a little extra time can be a good thing. After all the better the truths and lie are the more fun the game will be. When you are ready to play the game pass out pens and paper to the guests.

The Rules: One by one each guest stands up and in random order shares two true statements about the bride and one lie. They can be short stories about something the bride and that guest did together or just simple statements about the bride. All of the other guests write down which statement they think is the lie, if they guess correctly they receive one point. For every incorrect guess made, the guest that shared the two truths and the lie gets one point. The guests can keep track of their own point total by putting a check mark next to each correct guess and writing down the number of incorrect guesses on their turn. When all of the wedding shower guests have had their turn, the person with the most points is the winner.

Don’t Rush: The best part of this game is hearing the discussions that develop from the truths about the bride. Be ready to slow the game down if people are having fun hearing and telling stories.

Charades has long been a popular party game that not only includes movies, but also books, plays, and songs. For your bridal shower, forget all of that other stuff and focus on what really appeals to your guests; chick flicks!

The Setup: Make a list of around 25 popular movies about weddings or romance. Write each film on a slip of paper, fold it and put it in a bowl. Break your party guest up into two teams.

The Rules: Play charades! The teams take turns having one member draw a film from the bowl and give clues to the title of the movie without talking. That team has 90 second to correctly guess the movie, if they get it right they are awarded one point. If they do not guess the film in 90 seconds the other team gets one guess, if they are correct they get one point. Alternate turns between the teams until one team wins by reaching ten points.

If you need a quick refresher on the rules of charades along with commonly used hand signals you can find it HERE.

Bridal Shower Charades Movie List:

Bride Bingo has becomes perhaps the signature game to play at wedding showers. While it does require more preparation time than most games, chances are that it will also be one of the most memorable events at your shower.

The Setup: Make Bingo cards with the word “BRIDE” across the top instead of Bingo. Then create a list of around 30 short phrases or names related to the wedding. For example, traditional wedding elements like the wedding cake, wedding dress, bouquet, garter belt, or wedding rings. Also names of people in the wedding itself like the name of the bride, groom, their parents, best man, maid of honor, members of the wedding party, and the officiant.

Once you have a list of around 30 short phrases and names fill up the empty squares on the bridal bingo cards by randomly adding from your list. Make sure you make at least one bridal bingo card per guest. Then write each entry from your list on a slip of paper, fold it and place it in a bowl. Give one bridal bingo card to each guest and make sure there are plenty of Hershey’s Kisses available(to mark the squares).

The Rules: Start the game by drawing one of the slips of paper from the bowl and reading it to the bridal shower. For example, it might be “wedding dress”. The guests check their card to see if one of their squares contains “wedding dress”, if so they cover that square with a Hershey’s Kiss. Continue drawing from the bowl until one player wins the game by getting five spaces covered in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally. You can of course play as many times as you like, just put all of the slips of paper back in the bowl and start a new game.

Tip: If you are tech savvy, you can save some time by using a website like Print-Bingo.com to help fill in the squares. If you type in the entries on your list, the website will randomly fill up the bride bingo cards and allow up to download the finished cards to print.

Be sure to let your guests know that while the bride does keep the panties after the game, the point is not to get the bride a new panty collection. The guests should focus on picking panties that best represent themselves, be it sexy, functional or just plain funny. The bride having panties that remind her of the friends and family at her bridal shower is a much more touching gift than a bunch of new panties.

The Setup: When you send out your bridal shower invitations tell the guests to bring a pair of new panties for the bride that represents their own personality(be sure to include the bride panty size). Also, let them know that they are to keep the panties a secret. As the guests arrive, privately get each pair of panties and put them in a box for later. When you are ready to play the game, string up a clothesline and use clothespins to pin up each pair of panties along with a number; start at one and continue in order until you run out of panties. Pass out pens and paper to your guests.

The Rules: Your guests guess who brought which pair of panties, so they should write down the number of the panties and who’s personality they think those panties represent. When everyone has finished the guests get one point for each correct answer, the person with the most points is the winner.

After the Game: Pull the panties down one at a time giving each guest a chance to explain why they selected their panties. When you are done, put all of the panties in a nice gift bag and surprise the bride with her new panty collection that represents her friends and family at her bridal shower.

What’s In Your Purse (sometimes called Purse Raid) is a fun, fast paced game that rewards the purse pack-rats at your bridal shower.

The Setup: Before your bridal shower make a list of around 20 items that could be found in a purse and assign a point value to each. You want to include a mix of things that range from very common to outrageously strange. For more common items like lipstick or car keys award 5 points. As the items get more rare increase the associated point value, until you get to 20 points for the bizarre items like a mini-liquor bottle or something that glows in the dark.

At your bridal shower have your guests sit with their purses open and pass out pens and paper.

The Rules: Call out the first item on your list and its point value. The players have 15 seconds to find it in their purse and hold it up above their head. Everyone who had the item when the time limit expired writes down the item and how many points they got for it. Repeat for your entire list, the person with the most points when you finish is the winner.