Ultimate Bridal Shower Game Guide

Like many wedding traditions, the bridal shower is a custom that originated before it was common for people to marry for love. When a bride’s family did not have enough means for a dowry, family friends would come together and bring enough gifts to compensate. Nowadays, bridal showers are a fun pre-party for the bride and all her friends and relatives. Bridal showers today involve many different age groups.

With the hot trend of a couple’s shower, men have also joined the bridal shower circuit. With so many guests to please, finding the right bridal shower games is crucial! Here is the ultimate guide to shower games that will have all your guests amped for your big day.

Two Truths and a Lie

What It Is About: Though a common game, 2T+1L is a great icebreaker, and a way for guests to learn more about each other. They get to practice their poker faces as other guests try to decipher what’s truth and what’s not.

Materials: Nothing is required except for creative imaginations and great poker faces.

How to Play: Each guest takes turns introducing themselves and tells the group three experiences he or she has had with either the bride or the couple if it’s a joint shower. One of these stories is a lie. Guests who guess the lie receive a point; the guest with the highest number of points wins a prize.

Guess the Dress

What It Is About: Get your guests’ creative juices flowing by having them draw their idea of the bride’s wedding gown. The one closest to her actual dress wins.

Materials: Prepare index cards with the bride’s face pasted near the top, so guests can draw the dress below her. Also, provide guests with pens and pencils.

How to Play: Follow traditional bingo rules: When it’s game time, set a timer for two minutes and have guests draw their best designs. The bride can decide to give hints beforehand. Guests who know what the dress looks like should not participate. After the two minutes, the guest with the design closest to the dress wins.

Personalized Pop Quiz

What It Is About: Guests answer a multiple-choice quiz about the couple. The guest with the highest score wins.

Materials: Sometimes trivia at showers can be isolating. Before the day of the shower, gather
information about the couple to create a quiz of about 20
questions. If you are expecting more than 20 guests, more questions are required. Print the quizzes on personalized stationery with the couple’s monogram, to get guests in the zone.

How to Play: Give each person a print-out of the quiz. Of course, the crazier the answers, the funnier the game will be. You can also put your guests to the test by throwing in some bonus questions about wedding trivia.

Bridal Shower Cootie Catcher

What It Is About: This game is a play on an old schoolyard favorite: the cootie catcher; a.k.a. the paper fortune teller. The cootie catcher game is ideal for smaller parties. t

Materials: A cootie catcher and your guests. On each outer flap write the options Bride, Your Choice, Everyone or Bride’s Choice to determine who will be doing the action dictated by the catcher. On the hidden parts of the flaps, write various tasks that the guest(s) or brides must complete, such as: Make toast, give a relationship tip, tell your love story, serenade someone (groups picks the song and the muse), snap a funny photo, pick an iconic couple and give clues till the group guesses, share a fun fact about the bride or groom.

How to Play: Choose a guest based on the options on the outer flaps and spell his or her name (or the word “everyone”) as you move the flaps in and out and side to side to each letter of the name. Then the chosen guest picks a number and the cootie catcher is shuffled once again. Finally, the guest picks one of the numbered flaps to reveal one of the tasks.

Mystery Lingerie

What It Is About: This game is best for lingerie showers, but the more guests involved the better.

Materials: In the invitations for the shower, instruct guests to bring a new pair of panties that best represents their own personalities, but which fit the bride. At the party, the bride is sent into a private room, while guests quickly hang the panties around the room.

How to Play: Once the bride re-enters the room, she will go around the room considering each item of underwear. She must guess which gift is from which guest. At the end of the game, the bride gets to go home with a bunch of new panties.

Gift BINGO

What It Is About: Watching the bride open each and every gift can sometimes slow the party down. Keep guests entertained with Gift BINGO!

Materials: Make blank BINGO play cards. Have guests fill them out with gifts they think the bride will get. The free space is filled with their own gift. Provide guests with either stickers or pens to mark their cards.

How to Play: As the bride opens her gifts, guests can mark off which ones correspond to their play card. The first guest with five in a row wins.

Ring Hunt

What It Is About: This game is non-invasive and perfect for those wall-flower guests.

Materials: Before guests arrive, place fake diamond rings all around the house or venue of the party.

How to Play: Tell guests to collect them throughout the party and wear them on their fingers. At the end of the party, the guest with the most rings wins. The most “bling”ed out will lead to cute pictures.

The Ball and Chain

What It Is About: This game is non-invasive and perfect for those wall-flower guests.

Materials: You will need several buckets or plastic tubs. The balls can be made by spray painting foam balls. Then, attach paper chains to the ends.

How to Play: Place pairs of buckets far away from each other, on either side of an open space. One side is filled with the balls and chains. Teams must transport one ball at a time from one bucket to the other, while walking on their knees. You can get creative by adding another or changing the obstacle with hands tied behind or hopping on one foot.

The Newlywed Game

What It Is About: This famous game show had couples answer questions about each other and see how their answers matched up. You can also bring this age-old classic into the 21st century by pre-recording the groom’s answers and playing them after the bride answers the same questions at the party.

Materials: Before the day of the bridal shower, ask the groom questions about the bride and their relationship, such as, “Who takes longer to get ready?” or “Who’s more likely to get a speeding ticket?” For the social media friendly couple, include questions like, “Who’s more likely to get more “likes” on Facebook?” or “Who takes a better selfie?”

How to Play: During the shower, ask the bride the same questions. After each of her answers, play and watch the groom’s recorded answers. If at a couple’s shower, play the game live for everyone to enjoy.

Taste the Cake

What It Is About: Guests are challenged to guess the flavors of cake.

Materials: Before the party, set up a table with bite-sized pieces of cake in various flavors. The pieces of cake can even be cupcakes or cake pops. After writing each flavor on an index card, place them in an envelope and set them behind the corresponding cakes.

How to Play: Players are blindfolded and guided, one at a time, by the host down the cake table, noting each of the guests’ guesses. Players can sip champagne in between bites to cleanse the palate. The guest with the highest number of correct guesses wins.

What’s on Your Cell Phone?

What It Is About: This game is a modern take on the Purse Raid. Instead of having guests rummage through their purses for random items, they can quickly search their phone for random photos or social media posts. Your guests will get the chance to peer into each other’s personal devices, which could lead to some pretty hilarious stories.

Materials & How to Play: The game can be played in two ways. Guests can complete a sheet that you have created, with a list of things they must have on their phone with corresponding points. After a few minutes, guests can tally up their points on the same sheet. Or, the host challenges guests to pull up different things on their phone each round, such as a photo at the beach from their Facebook account or an email from their favorite department store offering a deal or sale.

Guess the Year

What It Is About: This game is great for showers with guests of a variety of ages. Not only is it a chance for guests to walk down memory lane, but Guess the Year also showcases wedding trends in fashion over the years.

Materials: This game is great for showers with guests of a variety of ages. Not only is it a chance for guests to walk down memory lane, but Guess the Year also showcases wedding trends in fashion over the years.

How to Play: Once the photos are on display, give guests a chance to examine them carefully. They will write down which year they think the photo is from. The guest with the highest number of correct answers wins.

The Couple’s Roast

What It Is About: Perfect for couple’s showers, the Couple’s Roast gives close friends and family of the bride an opportunity to reenact t
he couple’s dynamic by copying their mannerisms and quirks. This game will be sure to have everyone roaring with laughter.

Materials: Just like charades, write different scenarios couples find themselves in on small strips of paper. For example, “Gary and Sue get lost on a road trip.” Then, create two sets of scorecards numbering from 1 to 10.

How to Play: Guests are divided into two teams. Each draws a slip of paper and elect two members to act out the scene. Each team will get five minutes to perform. After, the couple will use the cards to score each team based on acting ability and accuracy. The winning pair receives a prize.

COMBINE ALL THESE GAMES AND PLAY…

The Bridal Shower Tournament

For male guests, showers are not always the most entertaining of parties. However, with this tournament, bridal showers can be just as enjoyable for the boys as it is for the girls. Though that’s not to say the women can’t play, either.

What to Prep: To have a point of attraction and something guests can refer to the entire shower, create a poster-sized scoreboard. Have all competing guests write their names or get creative and use nicknames or monikers. In lieu of smaller prizes, tokens with the couple’s initials can be awarded to each winner of the shower games. These can be anything from DIY initialed coasters or personalized bookmarks.

How to Play: The tournament is a party-long competition made up of several shower games, where tokens are awarded instead of small prizes. The guest with the most tokens wins an ultimate prize. Smaller prizes can be awarded for 2nd and 3rd place.

These updated bridal shower games will bring any party into the 21st century, while still continuing the time-honored tradition of celebrating the bride. Whatever the makeup of your party, whether it’s a couple’s shower or a small get together with the girls, any of these games is sure to be a hit. Each game can be modified to suit the guest list, because the objective is for everyone to have fun and shower the bride with gifts.

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