How to Play "Bridal Shower Bingo"—Plus, a Bingo Card You Can Print for Your Event

Since the purpose of a bridal shower is to shower the bride with gifts, these pre-wedding parties typically include a gift-opening component—often the climax of the event. While everyone loves receiving presents, unwrapping them in front of an audience can be an unnatural, uncomfortable experience for some brides-to-be—especially those who don’t like being the center of attention. 

This portion of the festivities can also be somewhat of a passive one for guests: Instead of being involved in the action, the group usually watches the guest of honor open each gift from the sidelines, only speaking when their present is on deck. Not to mention, quietly gathering around the bride is a probable way to make the upbeat atmosphere come to a halt. If you have any of these concerns, why not turn opening gifts into an interactive game that everyone can enjoy?

Enter: “bridal shower bingo.” A bridal-inspired take on a classic, bridal shower bingo is a fun way to keep the momentum going, divert some of the attention away from the bride, and help the group bond ahead of the wedding through a bit of friendly competition. “If the bride is planning on opening gifts during the shower anyway, it keeps it more exciting than just watching someone open gifts,” says Amanda Hudes, owner of Smiling Through Chaos. Not to mention, the game is cost-effective, DIY-friendly, and stress-free—it doesn’t require a lot of prep time or materials, and the instructions are straightforward and easy to follow. 

Like the traditional game, bridal shower bingo uses a bingo card, but each box is left blank, rather than a numeral occupying it, so guests can add their gift predictions to each empty slot. As the bride opens her gifts, if the item she receives is on an attendee’s bingo card, they’ll cross it off, repeating the process until there’s a winner.

Want to learn more about this game? We asked Hudes to break down the instructions. Keep scrolling to find out how to play bridal shower bingo.

A Brief Overview of Bridal Shower Bingo

Reminiscent of traditional bingo, bridal shower bingo is a fun activity to incorporate into your event—but with a twist: Players will fill out their own cards. At the bridal shower, attendees will receive a blank card with a five-by-five grid. They’ll fill in each empty slot with a gift that they think the bride will receive, from Champagne flutes and cheese boards to bath towels and decorative pillows. So, no two cards will be alike. As the bride opens each gift, if the item she unboxes matches a guest’s prediction, they’ll cross it off or mark it. The first person to get five squares in a row—either in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line—wins.

How to Set Up Bridal Shower Bingo

Before you can actually play bridal shower bingo, you’ll need to properly prepare. Read on to discover what steps to take before the event.

Create the Cards

We’ve made this first step easy for you: Keep scrolling to print out copies of a custom-made bridal shower bingo card that you can use for this pre-wedding party. If you’d rather make your own—either by hand or using a design application—start by crafting the title, “Bridal Shower Bingo,” surrounded by on-theme illustrations (i.e., colors or motifs that coordinate with the aesthetic of your affair). You can even add a quick synopsis of the game beneath the heading if there’s room. Then, sketch a five-by-five grid right below it.

Accumulate the Supplies

One of the perks of bridal shower bingo is that the game doesn’t require many materials in order to play. All you’ll need is a handful of pens or pencils, so guests can write their gift predictions. They can either use these writing utensils to cross out the items that they guessed correctly or markers, like pennies or small candies. Small prizes for the winners are other optional purchases, a surefire way to heighten the competition and boost the enthusiasm.

Set Up the Spread

Before the bridal shower, you’ll need to set up your space for the game. For example, if you’re celebrating the bride at your home, designate your living room, your backyard, or another spacious spot as the gift-opening area. If there aren’t enough seats for everyone, you might want to rent chairs, so the group can sit comfortably. Then, put all of your materials—the bridal shower bingo cards, writing utensils, and markers—on display in an accessible area, so you can quickly grab them when the time comes to play.

How to Play Bridal Shower Bingo

There are a few different variations of bridal shower bingo, but the most common iteration is one in which each guest creates their own board, so their guesses guide the game. Here’s how to play.

Distribute the Cards

To kick off this activity at the bridal shower, once everyone has taken their seats, pass out blank bridal shower bingo cards (either the one that we created for you or another version that you designed), pens, and markers to each guest.

Explain the Instructions

Give your guests a brief synopsis of the game. Introduce the activity by announcing that you’ll be playing bridal shower bingo while the bride opens gifts, which is similar to bingo, but each person will be filling out their own cards with a gift they think the bride will receive.

Ask Guests to Guess the Gifts

Then, ask your guests to fill out each box in the five-by-five grid with a gift prediction. Tell them that they can simply write the word in the blank slot—so, for instance, if they have a feeling that the bride will receive a toaster, they can jot down the word, “toaster,” in one of the slots. They’ll continue doing this until they’ve completed the entire board with their guesses.

Give the Bride the Green Light to Start Opening

When everyone is finished filling out their cards, tell the bride that she can start opening her gifts. To make this easier, have all of the presents in a pile near the bride—either on the floor or a table—and have a designated attendee hand the guest of honor a package, one by one.

Have the Group Mark Their Cards

As the bride opens her gifts, each player will mark off the corresponding word (if applicable) on their card. For example, let’s say the bride first opens a blender. Only those whose cards contain the word “blender” will mark that box. The group will continue doing this until there’s a winner—achieved by marking five boxes in a row.

Announce the Winner

The first person to shout out “Bingo!” wins. To verify their triumph, check to see if the marked items on their card match the gifts that the bride has opened so far. If everything looks accurate, hand them a prize or have them select their preferred memento from a prize table. 

Continue Playing

Someone will probably win before the bride unwraps all of her presents, so you can continue playing multiple rounds of the game until there aren’t any more gifts left in the pile. Of course, the number of rounds you play will also depend on the number of prizes you have. If you don’t have any tangible rewards, you won’t need to worry about setting a limit.

Different Iterations of Bridal Shower Bingo

While the above version of bridal shower bingo is the most common, you can also introduce an additional element of excitement with different variations of the game. Each alternative in the list below still entails having each participant fill out their own card, but each has a special twist.

Musical Chairs Bridal Shower Bingo

In this version, instead of keeping their own card throughout the game, players will constantly switch it up. To play, each guest will sit in a chair arranged in a circle. After the bride unwraps her gift, each individual will stand up and place their card on their chair. Then, music will play for a brief amount of time (up to the host’s discretion) while the guests walk around the perimeter of the circle. When the music stops, the bridal shower bingo card that each person is in front of will be theirs for that round. If the gift that the bride has opened matches one of the items on that card, the person will mark it off. When the bride unwraps the second gift, the process starts over again. This game continues until someone gets bingo.

Speed Bridal Shower Bingo

Take the essence of bridal shower bingo but speed it up to make sure everyone is alert: For this version of the game, have the bride open each gift in secret. Once she unwraps it, she’ll hold it up for a few seconds for everyone to see. Then, players will quickly mark off their cards.