Bridal Shower Games! or Tips? Or HELP!
 

Well.. one of my bestest friends who got engaged a couple of months ago, has decided she is going to get married in SIX WEEKS (no she's not pregnant :p). I'm the MOH, and this has officially drove me insane.

I need to throw together some majorly quick things for a bridal shower/bachelorette party.

I know there are some GC women who have probably done this, so any help you can offer would be awesome, as this is my very first MOH experience...

So... how did you plan your Bridal Shower? Did you have a venue? Did you decorate? Or play games?

The couple of other bridesmaids are out of state, so I am pretty much solo on this one. I'm so stressed out that this is coming so quickly because I travel a ton for work and did not anticipate this to come up out of no where like this :(

help!

We played a game at my friend's bridal shower that was fun and a good way for everyone to learn more about the bride and groom (for those that were traditionally close to the bride, but maybe has been removed from the relationship, like grandmothers or cousins). One of the bridesmaids emailed a bunch of questions to the groom a while before the shower, asking him to answer them to the best of his ability. The questions were all about her, him and their relationship. For example, "Where was your first date?" and "What was the name of her/his childhood pet." The questions were read at the shower, she would answer them, and the bridesmaid would read his answers. It was so funny to hear their different answers to things like, "Where and when did you have your first kiss as a couple?" You can also turn this into a group game by giving everyone a sheet of notebook paper and have them write down their answers, then reveal the real answers at the end. The person who knows the couple the best wins a prize.

In the bridal shower invitation include a recipe card. Have everyone write down their fav. recipe- then at the shower have a recipe box for the guests to put the recipe in-- the box then goes to the bride.

as for games, have the bride sit in the middle of the room and then ask her questions about the groom. For each question she gets wrong, have her put a stick of gum in her mouth. (have a set # of questions and you do have to interview the groom first).

it's also fun to display baby pictures of the bride & groom (as well as the engagement picture if they have one)

As for where to have it, I threw one for my best friend over the summer, and used the clubhouse of my apartment building. It had just been remodeled, so it looked more like an expensive hotel lobby, and I didn't need to decorate much - I just put votive candles everywhere.

For favors, I bought 0.99 clay flower pots from a craft store, and painted them in her wedding colors - a third in navy, a third in sage, and a third in ivory. I then put a pearl-ish top coat, and tied a ribbon in another one of the colors around it, and planted lavender flowers in them (her bouquet colors). Those doubled as decorations, since I had them scattered around the room.

And then for food, I just went to Costco and bought cheese platters, fruit, cookies and veggies, and made a punch and bought lots of wine.

As for games - we didn't really do them. It was more of a cocktail party for the ladies, and she opened gifts.

If you plan to cook or have the food catered and you have any friends or family members who live in a condo or apartment complex with a clubhouse, you can usually rent it for free or for a small charge. Otherwise, many restaurant have private rooms...the only drawback is you have to set menu or buffet which can sometimes be costly.

Go easy on the decorations. Get a couple of cheap vases and inexpensive flowers, and then set each guest's place with a shower favor (candles or soap/lotion gift sets are a great choice).

Game Suggestions:
1. Purse Raid - Make a checklist with about 15 items that women may have in their purse/bag. Give each item a point value (1-5 points for common things like license/cell phone/money/gum, 10-15 points for reasonable items like sunglasses/band-aids/grocery store discount card, and 20-25 points for uncommon items like picture of the bride or groom/movie ticket stub/calculator). The guest with the highest point tally gets a prize.
2. Couple Quiz - In advance, ask the bride and groom a series of questions (ie - where did you meet, where was your first date, who said "I love you" first, etc). Then make up a multiple choice quiz. The guest with the most correct answers gets a prize.
3. Bridal Bingo - Give guests a blank bingo card/sheet. Have guest fill in the boxes with items they believe the bride will get as gifts (ie - toaster, picture frame, dishes). As the bride opens gifts, the guest mark their items off and the first person to get a bingo wins a prize.

Here are 3 pages of games to look through

http://www.bridalshower.com/planning/shower_games.html

Hope this helps!

I played this one at a bridal shower before.

Get a basket or tray and put all sorts of household items that a new bride might need and/or use in her new house or her wedding night. Have the bride walk around with the tray and give each guest a bit of time to look at what's in the basket/tray. When everyone has been given sufficient time to look, have the bride hide in another part of the house. Then pass out a preprepared questionnaire asking things like what the bride was wearing, what color were her shoes, was she wearing earrings, etc. The guest who answers the most correctly wins. Having them look over the basket/tray is just a ruse to see if any of them actually paid attention to her instead of the prizes. LOL!

To quote Nancy Reagan, "Just say NO" to bridal shower games.

Why not just have wine and women can chat and hang-out?

We did this at my friend's bridal shower.

Instead of the toilet paper game, we had an item of the wrapping (wrapping paper, bow, etc) that was removed from each gift she unwrapped and that got decorated onto two plates that were strong together to make a bra and she had to put it on after she was done opening them.

We also did the Bingo card game that has been mentioned.

I'm lucky my sister just had a bachelorete party and that was it. (She decided 2 weeks before the engagement party it was going to be a wedding instead). Even still planning one in under 7 days when you have people who only eat Kosher and can't go out Fri night or Sat night till super late because of Shabbos...it was hell. Do the best you can. No matter what she should understand.

thanks sooooo much to all the replies so far.

after talking to the bride, it looks like this is going to be a much smaller event than i thought it was... so hopefully it will all work out.

i think we are going to go the route of wine/chatting/opening presents and head out to dinner / bachelorette party later that night.

i'm not quite as stressed as I was before, but it was a real shocker when I thought I had at least several months to have to think about that stuff since they just got engaged. I travel a TON for work, so the news put me in panic mode.. hopefully this all works out.

Agreed. I hate shower games!

One thing that we are doing for one of the weddings that I am in is combining the lingerie shower with the bachelorette party. All of the girls coming to the bachelorette party are bring lingerie and we will open them during the coctails at the hotel.

Also, I just co-hosted an "Around the Clock" shower for another friend. You give all the guests a different time (8 am, 9 am , 10 am, etc) and they buy a present off the registry according to that time. I had 4 pm and got two of the bride's china tea cups and saucers with some different kinds of tea.

The bridesmaids are also hosting a couple's "Stock the Bar" party, although it is going to have an SC theme and we are calling it a "Stock the Tailgate Party". The bride and groom are huge SC football fans. So all the guest will bring their favorite beer, bottle of alcohol, or barware from the couple's registry.

We pretty much stayed away from games at all of the showers and focused more on the socializing, eating, and opening presents.

This is what I perfer. I hate games. For my Big's shower, there will be no games.

Gotta say - I don't like most games. But - some people really do. Check with the bride to be.