Games are lame. If you must, set up a theme. But don't play any games-- let people wander, converse, sip tea or wine, enjoy some food, watch the bride open presents and chat together. Offer some kind of take home treat-- chocolate dipped strawberries or biscotti, perhaps-- wrapped in a chinese take-out style "to-go" boxes that you can dress up with some colored tissue paper. Classy, easy and you're not spinning your wheels coming up with creative games that no one is going to enjoy anyway.

I've thrown an Around the Clock shower before and had one thrown for me, but we all showed up at the same time and the bride opened up her gifts in the order of the times. One girl got confused and showed up at noon for a 1 PM shower because she had the noon time. :)

Personally, I like the games because they're an icebreaker for the people who don't know each other. I like the clothes pin one because it doesn't take up extra time at the shower, and I also like the Wedding (or Baby) Bingo game for the same reason. However, if you don't like games, you could always have a few small gifts wrapped up beforehand, have each guest put her name in a bowl when she arrives, and draw names randomly throughout the party as door prizes.

One other game I've done is a list of famous couples with the girls on one side and the guys on the other. Everyone had one minute to match as many as they could, and the person who got the most correct got a prize. (If you do this, it's fun to put the bride and groom's name on there, too.)

I was leafing through a booklet they gave me at Target about bridal games & the one I liked is for someone to randomly set a timer to go off every few minutes. When it dings, the person who's gift is being opened wins a prize. This way, the guests have a chance to win something w/out the bizarre games like the toilet tissue bride one.


I went to a baby shower where the lady throwing it was nicknamed Baby Shower Nazi by me. She had a list of not 2 or 3 games but 8! She would not let the gifts be opened or the cake cut until all her damn games were played. These were loooong games too. By the time I left during game #5, where there had previously been 18 women at the shower, there were only 9 left.

At the bridal shower I threw for my close friend/AGD sister a couple of years ago, we did indeed play some of these rather 'cheesy' games (complete with equally cheesy prizes), including the toilet paper bride, clothes pin, tacky trivia and head drawings, which seemed to be well received with everyone there (about 20 AGD sisters, aged 20 - 30), and made for some hilarious photos. In addition, we also asked each guest to write their personal advice and wishes to the bride and groom on cardstock sheets. Following the shower, each of the advice/wish sheets were bound into a book, together with the photos and even some of the cheesy head drawings, as a wedding present for the bride.

I guess what it comes down to bridal showers and deciding whether or not to play games is to consider who the guests will be, how well they know each other & the bride/her fiance, and their ages as well. In my case, everyone knew each other and the fiance quite well, which made playing the trivia and the other cheesy games fun.

Just my $.02.

I like the timer idea. That's cute! :)

I hate games. But I like prizes. So if I win a prize without having to work for it---I get it just cause I showed up----that's cool.

I mean, I'm there. I've already bought a present. Don't make me play a game.