Bridal Shower Games--With a Twist

(Ellen & Kate on a paddleboat on the Mississippi c. 1984)

I remember standing outside elementary school with my box-of-crayons backpack on my back early one first-grade morning before the doors had even been unlocked, waiting. I had gotten there so soon because I had a new baby cousin and I was so excited I couldn't wait to tell everyone.

Now my cousin Kate is getting married in May. Her aunts and cousins wanted to throw her a bridal shower. We're spread all over the country though, and not likely to reunite until the actual event. So we're throwing her a shower by mail. My sister and aunt are assembling boxes to go out, containing an invitation put together by my mom, party favors and decorations by my sister, and games--you guessed it--courtesy of me.

I found this to be the most challenging aspect of our gathering to put together. Has to be mailable, meaning written, able to be judged by the bride, so that prizes can be given out. What I came up with was one custom created word search or puzzle with answers specific to the couple and event, and a separate game with general "bride" or "wedding" words.

For the second game, after a lot of searching, here are the best sites I found with printable or downloadable games:

PartySuppliesHut.com had a couple very simple but easily readable and instantly printable puzzles. It was a bit confusing figuring out how to print without all the ads and extranneous stuff on the web page, but only took about ten minutes to find a solution.

ClueSearchPuzzles.com had a more challenging puzzle, which made it more fun, and it still was easily solvable. They also offered the puzzle as a downloadable pdf, which was really convenient.

Another idea we used for a different shower was to include an index card in each invitation, with instructions to write down a favorite recipe for the bride. At the shower, the first gift she opened was a recipe box for all the cards. The family recipes that came out of this will be treasured.

Do you have any tips for a great bridal shower? Let me know in a comment.