Charades

Give each guest three slips of paper to write down three things that are characteristic of the bride-to-be or couple, like "Sailing," "Tandoori chicken," or "Fuzzy car dice," and let the good times roll by taking turns acting them out (the guesser is the next one up). If all the guests know the honoree/s well, get sophisticated by alluding to specific episodes in the soon-to-be-weds' story, like "First date vomit at the drive-in." If you want to make things extra hard, let the bride/couple write down one thing about each guest and throw those into the mix too.

Artsy

For a calmer, more laid-back atmosphere, nothing beats arts and crafts. Buy enough molding clay or paper and finger paint for all of your guests and have the materials set out when they arrive. Ask each person to create something that reminds her or him of the bride or couple. Not only will the guest/s of honor have wonderful keepsakes of their shower for years to come, but you'll have a fabulous icebreaker as everyone compares notes on their Picasso-like endeavors and their memories of the soon-to-be-wed/s.

Name That Tune

This variation on the classic game show will liven up your party *and* help the bride and/or groom start compiling their reception music must-play list. Ask each guest to bring along five or so favorite party CDs (if you're really gung-ho about this music theme, ask them to dress '70s or '80s so the evening can easily morph into a boogie-fest). The first tunemeister plays the opening seconds of a track, then presses pause, plays some more, etc. until someone guesses what they're spinning. Then it's that person's turn to play DJ. Tell guests to feel free to explore the danceability of the tunes when they are so inspired. Also use the opportunity to consult fellow revelers on the hipness and hotness of your newest moves before you hit the dance floor.

Wedding Scattegories

A perfect game for a fun, girly bridal shower. Make up game cards using about eight wedding-related categories, like Flower, Party Song, Site, and Honeymoon Destination. Put scraps of paper with all the letters of the alphabet on them into a hat; draw one letter each round; take one minute for everyone to fill in the categories with words that begin with that letter (an hourglass would be perfect here). For example, using the categories above and the letter "D", you could write Daisies; Disco Inferno (Burn, Baby, Burn); Dance Hall; and Disney World. A player gets one point for every category filled appropriately (no newlyweds in history have ever chosen Detroit as their honeymoon spot), and three for an answer so original that no one else wrote it down. The winner is the person with the most points when you get tired of playing; have a "Wedding Genius" certificate ready for her, or a small gift like a candle or chocolates.

"I never..."

Give each guest 10 jelly beans (if you have 15 or more guests, you may want to increase the number of beans per guest). The first person makes a true statement about themselves, but begins it with the phrase "I never", example - if she always goes out on Fridays nights, she would say "I never stay home on Friday nights". The statement must be true and must be phrased "I never ..." If the phrased statement is true for a guest ( they are home on Friday nights) then they must eat a jelly bean. Each person in the room takes 1 turn making a statement and the person with the most jellybeans left wins. The game becomes very fun when someone make a controversial statement (one guest stated "I never gossip) or when someone does not eat a bean when they should.

Hmmm...donuts

Hang large powdered donuts with a string on a clothesline. Have participants stand in front of the donut with their hands behind their back (may have to adjust the length of string according to height). The object of the game is to lick off as much powder off of the donut, without biting or breaking the donut, in 60 seconds.

Encore

Divide into teams. Put wedding significant words (one per slip, ex. wedding, chapel, love, kiss, bride, groom, music, flowers, etc.) on pieces of paper and put them in a bowl. Team A draws a slip of paper and has to sing at least 4 words of a song with that word in it then team B has to match them and back and forth until someone is stumped then the other team gets point. The Team with the most points wins.

The White Stuff

Fill ziplock bags with the following items: flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, powdered sugar, cornstarch, cream of tartar, powdered milk, unflavored gelatin, Bisquick. Number each bag and keep a list. Guests are allowed to feel and look at the bag, but not open it. They guess what is in each bag. The person with the most answers gets the prize.

Guessing Game

Fill a jar with candies (almonds, mints, etc.) and write down how many. Guests write down their guess and the winner get the jar.

Name the Bride

From a bridal magazine tear out 10 full length pictures of brides. Replace their faces with faces of famous people. Instead of solely sticking to pictures of famous women don't limit yourself; pictures of famous men on a woman's body can end up looking pretty funny (i.e. Mel Gibson's face on a bridal body is quite a sight!). Of the famous people you choose select both some easy to guess people and a few that might not be so easy (these will make the different when it comes down to a winner). Number the pictures and pass them among the guests. Each guest should number a piece of paper 1 to 10 and write down their guesses. The person with the most correct answers wins a prize - like a couple of movie gift certificates.

Cooking Practice

Set up a table with all the ingredients for baking a cake (flour, sugar, eggs, etc) plus a few "extra ingredients like spices, vinegar, baking soda, just about anything. Supply a mixing bowl, measuring cups/spoons and a pan. The bride is then told she must make a cake, from scratch, from memory. She must tell what her measurements are and how long to bake and at what temp. Do this at the beginning so the cake will be done baking when she is finished opening gifts. It is then taken out of the oven for her to taste test. Give all the ingredients to the bride to stock her kitchen with.

  The Rice Game

You get a large bowl and dump 2 pounds of uncooked white rice in it. Then you add about 15 to 20 paper clips and mix it well. Place the bowl on a table and blind fold the person that's going to play. The person who finds the most paper clips wins. It's a lot harder than you think it is, and it's also a lot of fun to watch how close people get to grabbing the clips.

What is in the box?

First get a matchbox, which held wooden matches. Fill it with everyday things such as a tic tac, paper clip, staple, thread, dental floss, tack, etc. Then at the shower as you hold the box up in front of the group, tell them how many things are in it. The object of the game is for everyone to write down what they think is in the box when given 5 minutes. The person with the most correct wins.

The Price is Right

Take 20-25 grocery items (or as many as you want) and make a list. Be very specific. List brand names and sizes and have your guests fill in prices next to each item. Then have them total their lists. The guest who's list is closest to the correct total wins!

How much do you know about the bride?

You make a list of Questions and the guest answers them. Here are some suggestions:

* What is the brides favorite color?

* Where is her and her husband to be's favorite place to eat?

* How long have they been together?

* Where did they meet?

* When is there wedding day?

Just things like that you think of questions about the couple that you think the guest should know and go from there its a lot of fun and everyone laugh's when you're done cause some of the questions and answers get pretty funny.

What's in the Bag?

This game is similar to the game Memory. Fill a bag with related items -- kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, etc. -- and pass the bag among the guests. Everyone gets 30 -60 sec. to look at the contents of the bag before they have to pass it to the next guest. Once everyone has had a look, ask the guests to make a list FROM MEMORY of what was in the bag. The person with the most correct answers, wins the game! (If you have more than 10 guests, make two identical bags and start them from opposite ends of the room.)

Bridal Bingo

This is great for keeping everyone attentive while the bride is opening gifts (which can get a little boring at times and people begin to talk and not pay attention to the bride). Make up different bingo cards (enough for everyone at the shower) with boxes like: china - crystal - lingerie - bath linens - kitchen/dining linens - bedroom linens - small appliances - flatware - everyday dishes - everyday glasses - pots and pans - miscellaneous (for those strange items) - etc. and any other categories which might apply to the bride's registry. Once someone gets Bingo they get a prize (small gifts $5-10 each). Keep playing and awarding prizes until the bride is done. You may want to appoint a bridesmaid to call the category (it can get confusing). I guarantee everyone will be greatly anticipating each gift.

Envelope Game

A great way to help the Bride to be out, is to have a stack of envelopes on a table when everyone comes in. You tell each person to self address the envelope and place it in the bowl. You tell the guests that at the end of the party an envelope will be drawn and the winner will receive a prize. This gets everyone to address and envelope, which the Bride will take home to send thank you cards out in. It helps the Bride to make sure she has the correct address to send the thank you notes to and it also saves her the trouble of having to address all those envelopes.

Story Telling

Ask the bride ahead of time to tell you about how she met her groom, and different things about their life together. Put a simple story together using store products. Ex: Many years ago, a handsome young man (groom's name) met his "Lucky Charm". You can either purchase all the products yourself and present them to the bride as you read the story, or write a product on each invitation and ask that person to bring it to the shower, unwrapped. I usually buy a laundry basket to set in front of the bride to put the products in as the story goes on. Be creative, there are so many things you can use. Here are just a few other ideas: Luv's Diapers, Trix, Cheer, All, Life cereal, Manwhich (she knew this was the manwhich she wanted to spend her life with), Pledge, Charmin (he was very charmin), bounce, secret, carrots (how many carrots in the ring) sparkle, snickers, and so on.

Date game

Starting with the person sitting to the left of the bride, go around the room until each guests has told their birthday or the date of their wedding anniversary. The person whose date is closes to the wedding wins a prize.

Hanger of Wisdom

Take one of those fancy padded hangers, add an appliqué, then attach several long ivory ribbons. At each end, tie little white cards (with a whole punched in the corner of each), so that the ribbons hang down about a 12-18 inches. The hanger should have a note saying that it is for the Bride to hang her dress after the wedding, but for the shower, it should be passed around, so that all the guests could write a special message or prayer for her and her fiancé.

Pin the Ring on the Groom

First name the game after the groom. Then get a picture of the groom and get it enlarged. Get as many rings you need and attach the rings with a string to a push pin You also need a bulletin board and a blind fold. Everyone get a turn. You spin them around and they then try to pin the ring on his ring finger who ever get it close to his finger or on his finger wins a prize.

Bridal Bingo #2

Make Bingo cards... but put BRIDE at the top instead of BINGO. Leave all of the squares blank. Each guest receives a card and has to fill in the squares with gifts they think the bride would receive. As she opened her gifts, the guests marked their bingo cards with M&M's. When someone gets bingo, give them a prize.

Do you know what year these things occurred??

Pick a year with the bride-to-be where allot things happened/things took place. Once you both pick a year, then you must present these things to the guests in the form of a question. (Kind of like Dateline). You must then give them 3 or more different years to chose from. The one who guesses correct is the winner. Here are some examples of questions: What did she first kiss a boy?, What year did she go on her first date...etc.. Another to add, is to pick a song or something that occurred in the media.

Memory

At a bridal shower I was at the other night, the bride-to-be came out of the kitchen, carrying one of those trays that had all of the kitchen utensils, etc on it (collective groan), and so we're studying it, thinking about how sick we all were of this game ;), and then the bride-to-be walked out, and the shower hostess said, "ok, now write down everything you can think of about how the bride-to-be looked, what she was wearing, how she had her hair, jewelry, shoes, etc. :) It took us all by surprise, and it was fun to see how little we had paid attention to that.

Contributed by: Mistie Dawn

Groom Questions

This game is designed to see how well the bride really knows the groom:

The hostess asked the groom ahead of time questions about himself - what was his very first job, how many keys are on his key chain, what was the first thing that caught his eye when he first met the bride, etc . . .

He also purchased two small gifts for the bride to help with the game (a bag of Hershey's kisses, and a bag of bubble gum). At the shower the bride was asked how her groom responded to the following questions. She was told that the groom was more than happy to help with the game, in fact he even purchased gifts for her for answering the question either right or wrong. For each right answer she is to be given a kiss (Hershey's kiss that is), and for every wrong answer she is to given a piece of bubble gum (to be opened and chewed right then!!!!!) It was so funny to see how many pieces of bubble gum the bride was able to chew and still answer the next questions!

- Tammy Amaimo Port Lavaca, Texas

Co-Ed Games

Not so Newlywed Game

When the guests enters, they each write a question on an index card and place it in a box. Prizes are promised for the best questions. In order to insure that the guests of honor win, secretly tell them the bonus question. Try to make the bonus question a particularly difficult one so that the other couples can't win. A panel of guest judges picked the 6 best questions. Secretly instruct the judges to be especially hard on the other couples during the game and very lenient on the couple of honor. Bag up some confetti with a note that reads "please shower the couple when the winners are announced". Three guests record the answers on lap cards (just like the real game). Everyone has a part!!! Have a nice prize for the third place couple. Second place a bottle of massage lotion? The winners of course receive all of the gifts (which were intended for them anyway).

Newlywed Game

They contact the fiancé and asked him 20 questions, such as : what is your bride's favorite drink, what was breed and name of her childhood pet, how old was she when she got her first kiss, what is the most she has ever paid for a pair of shoes, the list goes on and on.

Then, at the shower, all the guests plus the bride-to-be have to answer each of the questions on a piece of paper, and in the end, the guest with the most correct answers gets a small prize. The hostesses also report how the grooms answers compared with bride's answers.

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