Games or No Games for Bridal Shower?

Question

What happened for your shower? Did your MOH plan games or no games?

My MOH and Future Mother In law will be planning my bridal shower up here in the town I current live in.

My MOH wants to play games, my future mother in law doesn't care but her sister is helping to plan with food and what not (used to be a caterer).

She asked me "Do you really want games?? Do people REALLY still do that? ugh" I told her the last two I'd been to did games.

She asked "Did the guests that won the gifts give them back to the bride?" I answered "no why?"

Well it's just the way it's supposed to be, the gifts that the guests won go back to the bride because thats the way it is, it's something the bride can use...

is this true?

I mean i guess I could care less about games but I know my MOH wants them..but future aunt does not... lol

What are some ideas to do at bridal showers if there aren't games?

I know my MOH will ask me....

No i know the stuff is not for me that the guests win, i was just stating it's what my future aunt said but I'd never heard of that ridiculous 'tradition'

KYT You crack me up! :)
I'm not looking for anything formal..in fact i'd just be happy with veggie, cheese and meat trays from walmart! :) but i know it's up to the hostesses...

Answer 1

First, I'm an old lady and I've been to a lot (too many?) of baby and bridal showers. In my experience, the most usual and most fun is a casual afternoon or early evening gathering at someone's home for about 1.5 to 2.5 hours of "Hi, I'm KYT" name tags, door prizes, silly games with sillier prizes, posing for group photos, cookies and punch (or pretzels and beer!), and maybe a round of each guest offering piece of advice as the grand finale. Usually, little baggies are provided for guests to take home some leftover cookies.

In the past 15 or 20 years, I've noticed a tendency for bridal showers to become less and less like the brief informal gathering I described and more and more like a mini-wedding reception -- rented venue, catered dinner, and so on. IMO, this a fairly blatant attempt to "blackmail" or "guilt trip" the guests into coughing up for a more expensive gift. I've starting calling hostesses and asking if I can attend in my cut off jeans and Keds (remember, think Granny legs here). If I don't get a hearty "Sure, that would be fine!" then I know some snooty quasi-formal fund-raising gala is planned instead of the simple, friendly "Here's a little something to help you get started and thanks for the cake" gatherings that I love.

Of course it's up to the host to give what whatever sort of party he/she chooses to give. I just wanted to make the point that people feel that elevating the "elegance" of the party is pure greed. And if not silly games, then how DOES one pass the time at these gatherings? I think someone may be a tad piqued that musical chairs may upstage her fancy cooking. And I can't imagine HOW a host would ask a guest to "give back" the Dollar Store door prize.

Answer 2

Games at a bridal shower are no longer a necessarity, so it is best to ask the bride for her preference. Most bride's have a very strong opinion about whether or not they want games to be played at the shower. If your bride wants games, here are a few fun ones: Who Knows the Couple? Make a questionare with questions about the couple and their relationship (how long have they been together, when was their first date, etc). Everyone fills one out and the most right wins. Clothes Pin Game Everyone is given a clothes pin when they enter the shower. Select a predetermined wedding word (such a Bride or the Groom's Name) and whenever a guest says the taboo word, the quickest person to notice takes their clothes pin. The most clothes pins at the end wins. The Purse Game It's a classic. Make up a list with point values of items that could be in a purse (lip stick, atm card, pictures) and award points based on how many of each item is in everyones purse. The person with the most points or the most predetermined items wins. Recipe Cards It's not a game, but it's a great idea: With the invitations, send a recipe card. Ask each guest to bring their husband, brother, or sons favorite recipe. Put them all in a book to give the bride as a keepsake and a sure-fire recipe book. Hope these ideas help you -- remember to talk to your bride first!

Answer 3

I have heard of the guests giving the prizes back, but I havent actually seen it. I thought it was an urban legend, honestly!
We do games, but they are usually simple and take no effort other than filling out a piece of paper, my social circle would refuse if someone said "Toilet paper wedding dress time!", in fact, I think it would get down right ugly if someone had the nerve to suggest that type of activity.
We didnt have them at my shower and honestly, I think the ladies were a bit bored(I kind of was bored by the end, how many times can you ooh and ahh over dish towels?), the games do happen to pass the time alot easier. That Bridal Shower bingo is great for this instance because it gets everyone involved. But you could also suggest something as simple as setting a timer for 10 minutes and each time it goes off during the gift opening, whoever's gift you are opening gets a prize. Or you could have prizeless activities like giving each woman a page for a scrap book and having them decorate it with pictures and advice. There is a site called The Guest Book store that has pages that are individualized for a bridal shower that may be fun for everyone to fill out here is a link http://www.guestbookstore.com/cgibin/shopper.cgi
This is really up to your hostesses though, you can suggest, but they are ultimately going to have to work this out between themselves.

Good luck!

Answer 4

The last bridal shower I went to/ planned the Bride was ADAMENT about NO GAMES... but we still planned them anyway... we just kept them fun and not all bridally... for example, we had a Grease singalong - HER idea since we all grew up loving grease and all - so we had Grease Trivia. We also did that thing where someone writes down what is said when the Bride-To-Be is opening her presents and then reads them all out of context as "What Kara will say to Walter on her honeymoon" It was funny and we all laughed...

For prizes, we went to the dollar store and picked up nail files in the shape of purses and lip gloss and purse calenders - It was a Diva Theme- so the prizes went to the winners... not back to the Bride - to - be.

Play games and HAVE FUN!!! as you put it, what else are you going to do but eat and watch you open presents... it's the games that break the ice.

they don't have the be the tradtional games - i.e. toilet paper bride, etc....

as usual, here are some sites that offer game suggestions :)

http://www.imagebydesign.com/kathee/bridal/games.htm

http://weddings.about.com/od/theweddingparty/a/ShowerGames.htm

http://bridalshowergames.net/

OH AND P.S.

Two things I wished we had done and I wish it had been done for me -

(a) contact all of the attendees ahead of time and have them bring a list of family addresses - you'd be amazed how much of a scramble it can be around Christmas when I'm trying to address cards...

(b) Ask each guest to bring a favorite recipe (or more than one) on an index card and ask your MOH to decorate or find a cute "recipe" box... I know you aren't that comfortable in the kitchen but having handed down family recipes is priceless when you really want to try something new.

Just my 2 cents worth

Answer 5

They are really, really boring if there are no games (regardless of how dumb some of them seem). Otherwise it just food and you opening presents. Woo hoo.

As for the returning the gift to the bride, it all depends. If it is like a kitchen utensil or something along those lines, then yes you supposed to give it to her. But any more most people are using travel size products (from like Bath & Body Works or similar type items), which are not intended to be given back to the bride. I always thought that old tradition was kinda dumb. Why didn't the hostess just include those in her gift and get even candy for game prizes? Bizarre to me at least. And very confusing to explain to a younger child if they have come with (happened to me a couple times when I was like 10).

And your future aunt can choose not to prticipate or she can throw you her own shower where there are no games is she has that much of a sitck up her backside about it.

Answer 6

I personally love games at showers, and my maids are planning on doing games for me. I've never heard of the guests giving their prizes back to the bride. In my experience, the prizes for playing the games are small items like candles, dishtowels, etc. that anybody can use. It's EXPECTED that people take the gifts they win. Outside of games at a shower, there's really only eating and opening gifts. A more tame game I'd suggest is bridal bingo (if you expect your guests won't really be into playing more involved games). In this game, your maids pass out "bingo" papers which are basically a 5x5 grid. Before you open gifts, your guests think of what gifts they think you're going to receive and write one gift in each box. Then as you open gifts, they cross them off their bingo board. Whoever gets bingo wins! (Usually this game just continues until all prizes get passed out. i.e. it doesn't stop after the first bingo.) I especially like this game because it keeps your guests paying attention to you opening your gifts and not chit-chatting at their table.

Answer 7

If you don't want to do games, but give out prizes and little gifts you can have categories with everyones name on a card inside a bag. Pick the winner of the category. Categories could be Funniest relative, funniest friend, wackiest relative, wackiest friend etc. If you want a game, we did....Design a bride...use rolls and rolls of toilet paper. Pick 3 brides and then 3 people to design the wedding dress with toilet paper. The designers can only use visible things in the room. ( A hairclip from a guests hair). The bride chooses the best design. It's really hysterical.

Answer 8

Games? Sounds kind of lame. Just let everyone mingle with lots of finger foods and drinks. Then they will sit around while you do the presents. The only thing I have seen recently is where you put something under a chair at each table and that person gets the centerpiece. Honestly though, no one except your Mom wants to take anything home from a bridal shower with your name on it. Favors should be something people can eat or use. And if you do play games, whatever prize the person wins should be for them, not for you. Otherwise, why bother? Just give the stuff to the bride and call it quits.

Answer 9

My Suggestion would be to give everyone 10 tickets. Have them put there name on the back, and do a Chinese auction. Make up 10 baskets. Lotion, Lottery, Wine, make-up and what ever else... Have your guests put there tickets in the basket they like and then do a drawing before the opening of the presents. (And another thing you might want to do is limit 1 gift per person) This way you will be able to make it quick instead of playing all those games, plus people will still get prizes.

Good Luck!!!

Answer 10

Personally, I think games are dumb, most people I know don't like playing games, and usually no one wants the prizes that are given. I think it's a waste.

I had two showers. The first was a wine themed shower, everyone brought a bottle of wine. We had drinks and appetizers. It was in the evening, and everyone just visited with each other. Then I opened gifts and everyone visited more. It was great.

The second shower was at a townhouse that was on a river/lake. We had champagne/mimosas and a lunch type menu. Again, everyone just visited, I opened gifts, and everyone visited. Again, it turned out great.

These are normally the type of showers that my friends throw. And it's very casual and comfortable. I've been to lots of showers (bridal and baby) and it's so uncomfortable to play these dumb games with people you don't know.

Just my opinion, good luck with the planning.