Free Bridal Shower Game Ideas

The Cinderella Bride

This is best played at a co-ed shower or “couples only” shower where the women will be with their husbands or boyfriends. Have all the couples get together or pair all the people at the bridal shower so you have a team of a man and a woman.

Have all the men leave the room, but don’t tell them anything about the shoes yet or they will instantly look to see what is on their partner’s feet ruining the game. While the men are gone have all the women take off their shoes. Each woman will be putting one of their shoes in the center of the room and the other shoe to the side in a pile (we are only using one shoe here). When this is done and the pile is nice and mixed up have the men return. Explain to them that just like Cinderella, their women need their shoes found, and it is up to them to find it.

When the whistle blows, the men need to pick up the shoe that they think fits their partner and put it on her foot. If it doesn’t fit, or is not hers, they need to put the shoe back in the center and get another.

Most men don’t know which shoe is their wife’s and that creates for plenty of confusion and ruffled feathers! Even guys who do know their wife’s shoe find it difficult to pick the right one from amongst so many, and the guys who pick shoes randomly will cause problems for the rest of the men.

This is a really fun (and funny) game that most women will get a kick out of (pun intended).

Wedding Taboo Game

This is the popular game Taboo, but with a bridal twist. Create game cards using 3×5 cards cut in half, or print them off, 12 to a sheet, on your computer. Each game card should have a main word at the top, this is the word the team has to guess, and 5-6 “taboo” words at the bottom, these are the words the player can NOT say while giving clues to their team. Example: Main Word is “Bride”, taboo words can be female, dress, bouquet, veil, and white. Main word is “Cherish”, taboo words can be vows, treasure, care for, bride, groom, and song. You want to make enough for each team to do at least a few rounds each.

There is a paid to print version of this game available, so if you are not up to making taboo cards by hand, or you have more than a few guests, you many want to try that instead (check out the fee based, Wedding Taboo Card Game).

Divide your guests into teams of 2-4 people. Taking turns, each team gets a chance to earn points. On the team’s turn the hostess gives one team member a taboo card. The top word on the card is the word their team needs to guess in 60 seconds or less. The words listed below are words you CAN’T say when trying to get your team to guess the top word. The rest of the team members shout out their answers trying to guess the word until they correctly guess it or time runs out. Correct guesses in 60 seconds or less earns the team a point.

Depending on the number of teams, and the time you want to spend playing, you can play for a set number of rounds (highest score at end wins), or until one team hits a set score. This is a very entertaining game that gets your guest involved (and laughing out loud!). Great game for co-ed showers, too.

For a themed shower: Choose words that are related to your theme instead. If it’s a beach themed wedding you can use words like “ocean” or “shells”, for a garden party “watering can” or “flower bulbs”. You can adapt this to pretty much any theme with a little bit of creative thinking so that your bridal shower is a hit!

Give a Gift, Get a Gift!

You will want to get a few small favors or prizes for this game. While the bride opens her presents set a timer to go off at a random time (your cell phone or an egg timer is perfect for this). When the timer goes off, the person who gave the gift that the bride is currently opening wins a prize. You then reset the timer for another random amount of time and do it again. Do this over and over until all your prizes are given out.

To keep things fair and exciting don’t let the bride, or other guests, know what time length you have set each time, and make it different each time (4 minutes, 2 minutes, 8 minutes). The length of time set on the timer will also depend on how many presents the bride will be opening, if she only has 5 presents a timer set for 10 minutes might not work, but if she has 30 gifts a timer set for 1 or 2 minutes will make the game end very soon.

If you don’t have or want to use a timer you can also randomly select numbers or pull numbers out of a hat to see which present will be the winners. Make slips of paper with the numbers 1 – #PRESENTS on them and draw slips for how ever many prizes you have to give out. So if you pull 3, 6, 10, 18 then when the bride opens the 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 18th gift those guests win. You will want to keep the numbers a secret so the bride doesn’t know which gift will be a winner either.

This can be a fun and exciting game since the guests will not know when a “win” will happen, and it keeps things more fun during present opening. You’re guests will love it.

Games That Send You On Scavenger Hunts

Women’s purses are like Pandora’s box. Once opened you never know what will come out! So why not get them to dig around and see what all they can find for the bride. Here are some great games that involve scavenger hunts. Scavenger Hunt Bridal Shower Game #1: Loosen The Purse Strings Make a list…

Bridal Shower “Kitchen Raffle”

Inform guests on your invitations that there will be a raffle at the shower and each ticket will cost them a small kitchen supply item (You can change this to fit any theme – honeymoon items, beauty products, etc…). Guests can then buy as many raffle tickets as they want with products like bottle of spices, measuring cups, spoons and kitchen towels.

As your guests arrive “sell” them their tickets and give them one ticket for every item they bring, placing half in a jar or bucket and giving the guest the other half. Some guests will end up with 1 or 2 tickets, other guests may end up with 10 or more tickets, but the bride-to-be will walk away the winner with all her soon-to-be much needed kitchen supplies.

You can easily print your own raffle tickets on your computer or buy a full roll of “real” raffle tickets online or at a party store. There are also sites that you can use to print an unlimited number of cute raffle tickets for your guests, so if you looking for something quick and simple you many want to check them out. (check out the “pay-to-print” Bridal Shower Raffle Tickets Generator).

Once all the guests have arrived and “purchased” their tickets shake the ticket bucket up and get the bride to be to pull out the winning number (or numbers) and award a prize. You can easily draw a as many winners as you like to hand out door prizes or favors.

Classic Bridal Shower Bingo

Make a set of bingo cards with 25 empty spaces. Fill in the spaces with wedding related words instead of numbers (veil, gown, groom, diamond ring, flower girl, etc). You will need to make one bingo card for each guest playing, and make sure the gifts are randomly shuffled on each card. Make sure to hand out markers or pens to your guests to mark the cards.

Many places have software you can use that will randomly create an unlimited number of bingo cards for you, so if you are not up to doing each one by hand, or you have more than a few guests, you many want to try that instead (check out the fee based, online Bingo Card Generator).

Write the words on sheets of paper and put them in a bowl. The bride will be the bingo caller and remove the sheets from the bowl one by one and calls out the words. Guests can tick off the words on their bingo cards. The guest who ticks off all the words first, wins.

For a themed shower: Choose words that are related to your theme to put on the bingo cards instead. If it’s a beach themed wedding you can use words like “ocean” or “shells”, for a garden party “daisy” or “roses”. You can adapt this to pretty much any theme with a little bit of creative thinking so that your bridal shower is a hit!

Bride Trivia Bridal Shower Games

We have a free printable “Know the Bride” game available, as well as a free printable Naughty “Know the Bride” game in our printable bridal shower games section, too. It is but natural that the bride should be the center of attention at her bridal shower. To make the bride feel special and shower her…

“Guide The Groom’s Broom!”

Pair up the guys and gals at the bridal shower to form couples or have people select a partner. If it’s a large party you can have the bride and the groom play this one alone, though at that point it’s just hilarious for the guests and more like a comedy show.

You will want to get a roll of toilet paper and a broom with a long narrow handle that will fit inside the hole of the toilet paper roll. If you only have one broom each couple can take a turn, or if you have a few brooms to use all the teams can go at once.

Blindfold the “groom” and ask him to hold the broom between his knees. Let the “bride” hold the toilet paper roll between her knees. The groom then needs to guide the broom into the toilet paper roll – with only the verbal help of the bride of course – no touching allowed.

If you are playing one at a time just make sure to time each teams turn, quickest time wins, or if playing all at once the first “broom in” wins!

This is a perfect game for a co-ed shower since many people will come as a couple and you will have pre-made teams, but it also can be played at a women only party, just have the teams choose who will be the broom and who will be the roll.

The analogy of a wedding night in progress will have everyone in stitches! On a side note this game could embarrass a few brides (or guests) so make sure your group is up for the fun and the bride is ok with this type of game.

Bridal Shower Household Poem

The bride is seated in front of the party so everyone can see her. A good time for this is right before the presents are to be opened and everyone is seated around her. She is then told that they have a poem for her that will be read by the hostess. The poem is written with a nice selection of brand name household products in it and while the poem is read, the bride opens the “gifts” that corresponds to the poem, revealing the brand names that fill in the blanks.

Type up the poem, substituting a number for each product name. Wrap each household product “gift” individually and number them to correspond with the order they appear in the bridal shower household poem. Have the hostess read the poem and when she gets to a number have the bride open that numbered gift, filling in the blanks of the poem. You can also just have the household items unseen in a box to the side and while the hostess is reading the poem have her (or a helper) hand the bride the household products unwrapped, one by one, when she gets to it in the poem. Make sure the timing is right on this so that the household items aren’t brought out before it’s read.

We have two versions of the poem for you to use, but you can change it to add or take out any products or well wishes you want to make it more personal.

Bridal Shower Household Poem – Version 1

Dear (Bride's Name),
As you prepare for marriage, and are so filled with JOY, we wanted to let you in on a little SECRET. We know you think (Groom's Name) has a really CHARMIN personality, and in physique, might be BRAWNY, you may soon find out that he is no MR. CLEAN. There may be times when he makes you want to SHOUT, but don't send out the S.O.S. because he might VANISH. (Groom's name) will bring you CHEER and you will find him to be your white DOVE. He will always be there to SNUGGLE with, and be a best friend to fill your life with extra ZEST. When you are together you will find JOY, so remember your PLEDGE and give him your ALL. May your marriage be filled with a BOUNTY of love and stand HEAD & SHOULDERS above the rest.

To See Household Poem Version 2 CLICK HERE

Needle & Thread

Ask the bride to leave the room for a few minutes. Get one of the girls to hold up a needle. Ask the bride to come back into the room and try to thread the needle. The girl holding the needle needs to keep moving it around a bit so that the bride cannot thread it.

The fun part is when the bride leaves the room; tell all the guests that the conversation about to occur between the bride and the person holding the needle, actually is the conversation that will occur between the bride and the groom on their wedding night! Between all the “stay still”, “I can’t get it through the hole!” and “darn, missed again!” that goes on, the laughter will hit an all time high.

Of course, the poor bride won’t have any idea what the big joke is until you have all had a blast! Just make sure she is an easy going gal or she may get embarrassed.

Bridal Shower Gift Bingo

Another version of the classic bridal shower bingo game many people have played. The gift version is very popular since it is so random and it gives your guests something to do while the bride opens her presents.

Make a set of bingo cards with 25 empty spaces. Fill in the spaces with names of presents the bride may be getting instead of numbers (nightgown, blender, necklace, gift certificate, bubble bath, etc). You will need to make one bingo card for each guest playing, and make sure the gifts are randomly shuffled on each card.

Many places have software you can use that will randomly create an unlimited number of bingo cards for you, so if you are not up to doing each one by hand, or you have more than a few guests, you many want to try that instead (check out the fee based, online Bingo Card Generator).

Hand out markers or pens to your guests to mark the cards. As the bride opens her presents the guests can tick off the present on their bingo cards if they have it. The guest who gets a complete line filled in and has bingo first, wins.

More Bridal Shower Games That Involve Food

Here are 3 more fun (and funny!) games to play with food. Food Bridal Shower Game #4: Marshmallow Mania Make a list of names of some famous people. Let the list include some easy pronouncing names like Tom Hanks and some tongue twisters like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now get the girls to call out the names…

Who Am I?

Make a set of ID cards with the names of famous “wives”. They could be actors, politicians, singers or anyone in the news. If you are having a theme bridal shower, use names of famous wives related to the theme. The famous wives don’t always have to be “real” people. They could be famous fictional and cartoon characters as well.

As each guest arrives at the bridal shower, tape the ID on her back so she doesn’t know who she is. The game is that everyone has to guess their own identity by asking the other guests yes or no questions. They could be questions like “Am I fictional?”, “Am I living?”, “Am I an actress (author, singers, etc)?”. The others can only reply with a simple yes or a no. The first person to guess who they are wins! You stop at the first winner, or can keep the game going for a second and third prize, or until everyone guesses who they.

This is a great way to get your guests mingling and will help even the shyest of guests break the ice since they will need to find out “Who Am I?”

Free Printable Version Available

We have a free printable, “ready-to-play” version of the “Who Am I?” Famous Wives game available in our printable bridal games section, as well. If you don’t want to use name cards or make up your own names this printable makes the game super easy and quick to get going. Perfect for last minute.

Let ‘er Rip!

Take a roll of toilet paper and walk around the room offering it to each guest. Ask each guest to tear off as much paper as they normally use at one go. This will result in a riot of laughs as each guest is too shy to reveal such a personal thing and wonders what the others think about her. Be prepared for a rousing round of comments. Some guests may be offended by this, so if this seems a bit too personal for your group you can also just give each guest the same amount of sheets without asking this delicate question.

Once all the guests have their share of paper, ask them to create a “gift” for the bride using the toilet paper. You will be surprised what some women can come up with. The most creative gift, as chosen by the bride, gets a prize!

Lucky Penny

This game is the perfect door prize game, and usually a nice surprise for the winner. Take a penny and tape it under one of the chairs your guests will be using. Don’t let on about the penny until after all the guests have arrived and are seated. Then ask your guests to look under their seats. The guest who finds the lucky penny taped to their chair wins a prize!

For a more personal touch you could use a small photo of the bride, or of the couple, to tape under the chair. For a themed event, use an item to match the theme such as a flower for a garden party or shell for a beach themed shower. Just make sure that you can’t see the item taped under the chair until they are looking for it or some of your guests might catch on.

Pass the Bouquet

This game is played like “musical chairs”, but instead of the guests moving, you pass a bouquet of flowers. You can use either the bride’s favorite music for this game, or just use the wedding march song to really get the “wedding” feel.

Have all your guests sit in a circle and hand the first person the bouquet. Start the music and have your guests pass the bouquet until the music stops. When it stops whomever is holding the bouquet is “out.” This keeps going until there is no one left. The last person holding the bouquet wins a prize.

Note: The “bouquet” can be substituted for anything you like, such as a garter, a photo of the bride and groom, even a small wrapped present (which you can use as the prize at the end).

Spice Things Up

Get 8-10 assorted herbs and spices and small bowls to put them in. Make sure to use some easy spices everyone knows (cinnamon, basil), as well as some harder to guess spices. Number the small bowls so the guests know which one they are guessing. Then just line the bowls up on a table or tray and have each player smell and look at each spice to guess what it is. Give your guests paper and pens to write their answers on and have write down what they think it is. The player with the most correct wins.

To give the game more challenge you can have them guess by smell alone, just wrap aluminum foil over the tops of the bowls and poking some small holes in it so just the smell comes through. Without the visuals sometimes this game can stump the greatest of home cooks.

For a little fun with the bride, during her turn have the guests start making suggestions that lead the bride completely astray! Most brides really goof things up though they may know the contents perfectly well!

Naughty Bridal Bingo Charades

Another variation of the classic charades game combined with the popular bridal bingo. Make bingo cards with risque words like “oral”, “tongue”, “blow” – depending on how far you want to take things. Write the words on slips of paper and put them in a bowl. Give each guest a bingo card then ask the bride to pick a slip of paper from the bowl and enact the words instead of calling them out. Have the guests try to guess the words, once the correct word is called out have the players cross the word off their bingo card.

The first person to get a bingo wins, but of course, nobody needs to complete her bingo card or win; the idea is to get the bride to go through the entire list of words. Just make sure the bride is open to this type of fun, as it can be very embarassing for some.

Bridal Shower Games That Involve Food

Your mother may have told you to never play with your food, but surely a bridal shower can be the exception to the rule. No party is complete without great food and here are some games that will really have your guests talking about the delights they had! Food Bridal Shower Game #1: Bridal Hot…

The Chef’s Apron

Buy a nice apron and pin as many kitchen related utensils and things on it that you can. You can buy new kitchen items or use borrowed items, you will just want a nice selection of items like ladel, strainer, measuring spoons, dish towels, etc. When the bride arrives ask her to wear the apron and walk around the room for a couple of minutes, this is a nice time to have guests mingle and talk.

After a 10 minutes or so send the bride to another room to remove the apron (she can come back so as not to miss the fun!) and give your guests paper and pens. Ask the guests to write down as many things as they can remember seeing on the bride. The player who remembers the most number of things wins. You will be surprised how many people can’t remember what they saw on the apron even after talking to the bride for a while.

If you choose to buy a new apron and new utensils to pin on the apron, this makes a great bridal shower gift for for the bride, too.