Action Games

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).

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).

Co-ed “Find Your Groom”

Since this game requires ladies to be familiar with the man they are paired up with it’s best played at co-ed “couples” showers where the ladies will be coming with their husbands or boyfriends.

Get all the guys at the party to roll up their pant legs till their knees are showing. Have the men sit in chairs in a row and blindfold the bride. The bride’s job is to feel the knees of each of the men and then guess which is her groom! After the bride takes a turn you can allow all the ladies to have their own turns to find their significant other, too (just make sure to have the men switch places around between turns).

This game is funny enough in it’s own right that a winner is not needed, but if you want to choose a winner you can play it round robin style with the ladies taking turns until they miss and the last one standing is the winner, or you can play it timed with the fastest correct guess getting the prize.

Be sure to note that you need to be sure that the bridal couple is absolutely ok with this game. If necessary, run the game by the bride and groom and get their “ok” before you play it. Since there will be a lot of friendly contact you don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea, and you certainly don’t want to be the cause of any arguments occurring later! Might even give them an excuse to practice at home before the party!

“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.

Fish Out The Rice

Get a 5-10 pound bag of long grain rice and some small safety pins. Pour the rice into a large bowl or jar and mix in the safety pins. Now there are two ways to play this game; play it straight, or for fun, make it a gag game.

Play it straigh: Mix the safety pins well with the rice. Each guest needs to fish out as many safety pins as she can in a span of two minutes. It sounds easy but if you actually try it, digging through rice hunting for a safety pin is very difficult. To really make it challenging have the player wear a blindfold, too. The player who finds the most in two minutes wins.

The gag version: Tell the guests they need to find the safety pins BUT don’t put any pins in there at all! Just for demonstration sake, sneak a pin into the bag, act like you are fishing around and “find” the pin. Then let the guests take a turn each. When the first few guests can’t find a single pin, their reactions will be worth watching. Of course, after 2-3 guests, the rest will catch on. For being good sports you can give prizes to the ones who “played.”

Dress The “Bride”

You need at least 8-10 guests for this bridal shower game. The more the merrier. Divide the guests into teams of three or more and make as many teams as possible. Give each group 2 rolls of toilet paper. Instruct them to choose a “bride” from amongst their team and make her a bridal dress or wedding gown – using ONLY the toilet paper! Depending on the group you can make it a timed event (no more than 10 minutes), or just wait until each team is finished.

After the “brides” are dressed let them model their gowns to the Wedding March so that the real bride can choose a winner. You will be surprised how interactive even the shyest of guests will be when they are trying to help their team make a better “dress” to win.

“What Not To Wear!” Gift Pass

Play this game just like “musical chairs”, but with a funny twist, and instead of the guests moving, they are passing a gift box instead.

Before the party buy a pretty corsage and wrap it in a gift box. Tell your guests that whomever is left holding the box at the end of the game has to wear whatever in inside the box for the rest of the party. Naturally, everyone will assume it is something embarrassing and will do their best to pass the box quickly!

Have all your guests sit in a circle and hand the first person the “gift”. Start the music and have your guests it until the music stops. When it stops whomever is holding the gift is “out.” The last person holding the gift box is the “winner”.

Have the winner open the box, and then wait for the huge sigh of relief (and laughs from the other guests) when they realize it’s a lovely corsage!

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.