15 Fun Games and Activities for Your Bridal Shower or Hen Party
Planning the perfect bridal shower or hen party is a fantastic way to honour the bride-to-be, and – let’s face it – it’s a great excuse to throw a party.
While it can be easy to get caught up in all the intricate details and planning, it’s important to remember that the goal of a great bridal shower or hen party is for the bride to spend time with family and friends, and to create lasting memories.
Whether you’re sticking with just the bride’s friends, or incorporating a mix of ages and generations, games and activities can be a great way to break the ice and help encourage everyone to get to know each other.
Without further ado, here are 15 of our favourite games and activities suitable for any bridal shower or hen party!
1. Put a Ring on It!
Starting off with a classic, this game not only gets your guests talking to each other, but can add an element of competitiveness right from the start of the shower.
The rules for this game are very simple. As your guests arrive, each one gets given a plastic engagement ring to keep on their person the whole time. However, throughout the duration of the party if you get caught saying the words ‘bride’, ‘wedding’ or any other words or phrases agreed upon beforehand, then the person who caught you gets to take your ring!
Similarly, if you catch someone saying the forbidden words, you get to take not only their ring, but whatever other rings they may have won. The person with the most rings in their possession at the end of the shower or hen party wins a prize.
2. Fantasy Date
With this game, you give each guest a card and get them to write down their fantasy celebrity date on one side. Mix all of the cards up, and everyone then has to match the celebrity to the guest.
To mix things up, ask your guests to put the least likely celebrity that they would date on the other side – with bonus points for guessing which one is the fantasy, and which one is the nightmare! The guest who accrues the most points could win a prize, or just bask in the knowledge that they know their friends the best.
3. What’s In Your Bag?
Before guests arrive to your hen do or bridal shower, make a list of items that you might expect to find in someone's handbag. Start with the most common and easily guessable items, such as a purse or a lipstick. As you move down the list, add some more obscure things, such as a pair of spare underwear or a £50 note. Rank items depending on rarity with the more common items worth the least amount of points, and the rarer items being awarded more points.
When your guests arrive, they each get a copy of the list and have to count up how many points they’ve earned, based on what items they’ve got in their handbag. The guest with the most points earns a prize! (Maybe a bigger bag?)
4. Date Ideas (Words of Wisdom)
Prepare a bowl and some small strips of paper before the guests arrive, and have them write down their favourite date locations and activities (for example, go bowling together, or see a musical). This is a sweet gift idea that the bride-to-be can either read out during the event, or take home to read to their partner for some fun ideas for dating during the first year of married life.
Another format you could also use is general words of advice from everyone who attends, whether it’s played as a joke or completely serious. You could even have the bride-to-be read them and guess who wrote what.
5. Who Am I?
Another activity that can be done at the guest’s own pace during the event, this one relies on the memory of the bride-to-be!
For this game, you will need to prepare a memory box, some pens, and some game cards or blank sheets of paper. Throughout the event, each guest can anonymously write down a personal favourite memory that they have with the bride-to-be. The bride-to-be can read them out later on, and guess who wrote down each memory. You could raise the stakes by giving her a limited amount of guesses, and if she fails to guess correctly, then the guest wins! Alternatively, each guest could bring along an item that means something special to them and the bride-to-be.
6. Make Your Own Wedding Dress
Another classic bridal shower game! For this one you will need to buy a lot of toilet roll in advance. Divide the group up into teams of at least 3 people. Pick one person from each group to model, with the rest of the team dressing up their model in their toilet paper wedding dress.
If you wanted to spice things up a bit, as well as toilet paper, you could include some extra artistic supplies (such as stickers, ribbons and paint). When all the teams have finished, the bride-to-be can pick her favourite!
7. Scavenger Hunt
This activity could work well for those hosting their event outside their home, such as in a bar or a function room.
Divide the party into 3 groups, and give them all a list of items to find and physically bring back, as well as photos to take. These could range from finding a penny with the birth year of the bride-to-be on it, or taking a photo of someone with the same first name as the groom-to-be. Make it high-stakes by getting the losing team to buy a round of drinks for the first team to make it back with all the items!
8. Bridal Bingo
Another activity that’s sure to get your guests interacting with each other is bridal bingo! Hand out a blank bingo card to guests as they arrive, and get them to fill out the empty spaces with the gifts that they think the bride-to-be will receive during the shower.
As the bride-to-be begins to open the gifts, guests can mark off the correct ones until someone gets a full line (horizontal, diagonal or vertical.) If you wish, you can continue on for second or third place with smaller prizes.
9. Cocktail Making
For those who are partial to a drink or two, this may be the perfect activity for you! Provide your guests with a variety of cocktail ingredients – such as liqueurs, spirits, mixers, syrups and garnishes - and see who can come up with the best drink. The bride-to-be will conduct a taste test and pick the winner!
You could spice it up and make it even funnier by getting the guests to pick one fruit, spirit, and mixer from a set of bowls without knowing what’s inside.
10. That’s Pants!
You’re not opposed to slightly more risqué activities, are you? Good – then you’ll love the pants game! Ask each of your bridal shower or hen do guests to bring along a pair of their underwear (clean, of course!) which they’ll pop into a designated basket when they arrive.
The bride-to-be then has to pick out each pair of knickers and try and match them to the correct guest! Try and see if you can surprise the bride with your choice of underwear!
11. What’s My Drink?
This game is perfect for those who are staying at home, but also those who are spending their time at a bar. It’s the grown-up version of the shopping game, enjoyed by children on long car trips. The bride-to-be can start the game off by saying “I’m going to the bar and I’m going to get a glass of wine”. The next person repeats this and then adds on their own drink. For example: “I’m going to the bar, and I’m going to get a glass of wine and a pina colada”.
This continues on around the group until someone messes up, or forgets what drink someone said. They then have to take a shot of alcohol, and then they are the first to begin the next round!
12. Would She Rather?
This game is a great twist on “would you rather”, the game that involves choosing between two hypothetical situations – for example, “would you rather sleep in late or stay up late?” But instead of everyone answering based on their opinion, they are instead answering based on what they think the bride-to-be would choose. It’s an excellent way to see who knows the most about the bride-to-be.
You could write some prepared questions ahead of time, or ask the bride-to-be to think of some beforehand so they are more personalised. You could even ask the bride-to-be questions about her own fiancé(e), to see how well she knows them (obtaining their answers beforehand, of course)!
13. Higher or Lower
Before the shower, ask the happy couple to think of some statements involving a number, such as “the bride and groom met 5 years ago”, “the groom is 34 years old”, or “there will be 94 guests at the wedding”. But here’s the twist – the numbers are all wrong! They’re either too high, or too low.
The bride-to-be then reads out the statements, and each guest has to guess whether the real number is higher or lower than the number provided. Bonus points are awarded for guests that know the correct number!
14. Garter Hot Potato!
Why not inject a bit of stealth and sneakiness into the bridal shower? Much like the ring game, this one can continue on through the entire party if you so desire.
At the beginning, let guests know that you will be handing one of them a garter to keep on their person. They then have to try and pass on the garter to another person without them noticing – such as slipping it into their pocket or handbag! If they notice, they have to try and sneak it onto another person.
The person with the garter in their possession at the end of the night must do a forfeit or dare of the bride-to-be’s choosing.
15. Marriage Survival Kit
Before the bridal shower, ask all the guests to bring along an item that they believe should be in a marriage survival kit. They can bring anything they like, as long as they can explain why they think it should go into the kit. For example, they could choose a practical gift, such as earplugs (to block out the husband’s snoring) or a silly gift – such as a pack of gum, to help the couple “stick” together!
They should also bring a note explaining who it’s from, so the bride knows who brought what. Bring a bag to put everything in, and present it to the bride-to-be during the party as a special gift from her best girls.
Get Your Bridal Shower and Hen Do Accessories at Bride and Groom Direct!
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We hope you enjoyed our list of fun games and activities for your bridal shower or hen do. If you’re currently planning a party, head over to Bride and Groom Direct to check out our range of hen party and bridal shower accessories, such as these Team Bride gift bags, or these elegant white and gold hen party sashes. While you’re there, don’t forget to pick up some thank you cards too.