If you’ve ever been to a bridal shower, you’ll know that the proceedings usually consist of eating, drinking, more eating, more drinking, opening gifts – that’s the actual showering of the bride with presents – and, of course, party games. For a group of women who don’t know each other very well, bridal shower games are an excellent way to break the ice, keep your guests entertained, and celebrate the occasion.
Of course, it’s not essential to have games at a bridal shower, and it does depend on the bride’s own personality and preferences. However, with most bridal showers lasting an average of three hours, it’s good to have an activity to keep things interesting and to get everyone involved. If you’re about to host a bridal shower for your friend or family member and want a couple of game recommendations to kick off the festivities, then you’ve come to the right place; we’ll even give you the lowdown on three different ways to get the quiz cards and scoreboards you need.
What are the most popular bridal shower games, then? Our survey says…
1. Over and Under
Over and Under is a classic bridal shower game that simply requires a quick reconnaissance session with the bride, groom, or the bride’s parents. Following your intel session, on each answer sheet, write around 15-20 statements that relate to a number from the bride and groom’s past, present, or future – for example, what age they were when they met, or how many days they will spend on honeymoon – and leave a gap for each attendee to say whether the actual number is higher or lower than the figure quoted.
There’s no need to have hundreds of questions – keep the list short to prevent the game getting stale. Once every guest has filled out their Over and Under cards, the bride or a member of the wedding party can reveal the answers. Prepare to be surprised by some of the results!
2. Do You Know the Bride?
This game has many different names, but the principle always remains the same: pitting the bride’s nearest and dearest against each other in an effort to find out who knows her best! Much like Over and Under, you’ll need to gather information from the guest of honor, and form the questions based on your findings. If you’re having trouble coming up with questions, though, our range of How Well Do You Know the Bride? cards has plenty of suggestions as part of each template, meaning that you can focus on recording the juiciest answers.
The Spruce also proposes another variant of this game that’s even easier to organize and play: Would She Rather? Before the bridal shower, ask the bride-to-be for her opinion on some age-old dichotomies: dogs or cats, the city or the countryside, tea or coffee. Then players can circle their guesses on the answer card. Again, prepare to be surprised when some of the bride’s secret passions are unveiled!
3. Bridal Bingo /Find the Guest
Everyone knows how to play bingo, but when the MC is a maid of honor, it’s Bridal Bingo that you’ll be playing. In the Find the Guest version of this game, each square in the grid contains a description of a person (e.g. ‘someone who wears contact lenses,’ ‘someone who speaks French’). Each attendee must speak to the other people present at the party, scratching off a panel when they find someone that meets that criterion.
Compared to the previous games we’ve mentioned, Find the Guest is an example of what Modern MOH calls “interactive” or “multiplayer” games: “[they] require guests to mingle with each other in order to play.” This means that the emphasis is on communication and social interaction rather than on knowledge of the bride, and that makes it an excellent way to get everyone acquainted from the start of the shower.
4. Where Were We?
Provided the copious amounts of sparkling wine and cake consumed by your friends and family doesn’t have them asking ‘Where am I?’, then Where Were We? is a fun, couple-centric game to add to your bridal shower itinerary. For this game, you’ll need to acquire some colorful photos from the couple’s history together – vacation photos are ideal, though local haunts will also work – and instruct each player to guess where they think each photo was taken.
This is a sweet way for the bride to relive some treasured memories, and it’s more visually stimulating than the other quizzes. Photos can either be presented on a slideshow or issued as printed snapshots, depending on your preference.
5. Guess Who?
This version of Guess Who? isn’t the same as the two-player tabletop game we all remember from childhood, but the objective is similar: to identify the person being described! In this game, each answer sheet should have a list of questions, as well as a way for shower guests to indicate which of the partners they think the question best relates to. For example: ‘Who is the most romantic?,’ followed by a checkbox to select either party.
If you’re having an inclusive couple’s shower instead of an all-female bridal shower, then this game will have something for both sides of the family. The key when constructing this game is to make the questions slightly general, too, and open to interpretation, because obscure or specific questions are very likely to have only one answer.
6. Date Night Ideas
This isn’t as much a game as it is a fact-finding mission! Much like the Words of Wisdom advice cards that are dispensed at a baby shower, at a bridal shower you can ask participants to nominate something for the couple to do on their post-nuptial Friday nights. Once everyone’s filled out their suggestions, they can be read aloud to the room – and then, as Brides.com points out – the ideas could be collected in a souvenir box for the bride and her soon-to-be spouse to mull over later.
If you’d like this activity to have more of a competitive edge, you could encourage attendees to put forward their most inventive and unique ideas, with the bride-to-be voting on which she finds the most original. You could even hand out prizes to the winner!
7. Bridal Mad Libs
Mad Libs, a game where you substitute blank spaces in a story with your own words, has been around since the 1950s. In the context of a modern-day bridal shower, however, the text could be an alleged set of wedding vows or a supposed best man’s speech, which players can then reinterpret with their own outrageous nouns, verbs, and adjectives. You could also offer guests a rendition of the couple’s love story, which they can happily populate with silly locations and dates.
While we do feature some Mad Libs templates on Zazzle – head on over to our Wed Libs page for more – there are other ways to get the cards and accessories you need for that upcoming bridal shower. Read on to find more!
Where Can I Get These Bridal Shower Games?
As we mentioned at the start of this article, there are three easy, cost-effective ways to get the cards and stationery you need to play these games:
- Physical Games – Zazzle: Using the links we’ve scattered throughout this article – along with this catch-all link to our bridal shower games as a whole – you can find a template you like, click on ‘Personalize’ in the top-right corner, and add the sheet to your cart once you’ve edited the questions, names, and dates to your liking. If you can’t find the exact game you want to play, then you can navigate to our blank paper sheets, and basically design your own game. That might be a more exciting prospect than the wedding itself!
- Instant Downloads – Zazzle: This is similar to the above method, as you’ll still be using our website. However, this time you’re going to take advantage of our newly launched Instant Downloads. On the bridal shower games page, click on the ‘New! Downloadable Games’ thumbnail at the top of the screen. From here, every product you see can, instead of being printed and delivered to your door, be immediately downloaded to your desktop or phone. This is especially useful if the bridal shower date is creeping up on you!
- Free and Printable – Various: While you will have less control over the look and layout of your game with this route, there are numerous sites, such as Modern MOH and PA Unveiled, that will allow you to generate PDFs of the games listed above. You may need to register your email address with the website before being granted access. Another option is using Instant Downloads on Zazzle to choose your desired bridal shower game, download straight to your phone or computer, and create your own printable game at your local printing shop.
There’s so much choice when it comes to bridal shower games (and how to access them) that it may well be one of the easiest parts of the day to orchestrate! If you want to make sure you haven’t missed anything, take a look at our deep dive into bridal shower etiquette with our “What to Expect When Planning or Attending a Bridal Shower” article, and let us know what activities you decided upon in the comments below!
Eoin is a Content Specialist at Zazzle in Cork. He’s recently bought a house with his fiancée, and thus most of his time these days is spent trying to keep the walls from caving in and the wolves from the door. Still, he’s always open to book, game, and movie recommendations, so if you have some, let him know: he’ll add them to a very, very long list.
