Bridal shower games, baby shower games and party plans

This side of Katy & June is for the person throwing the party: the maid of honor who has never planned a shower, the sister who got volunteered, the friend who said yes to hosting an engagement party and then opened a blank document. Every guide here ends with something you can use on the day, whether that is a game with rules you can read out loud, a timeline, a budget split or a printable.

Start with the plan, then the games. A shower that runs well usually has two or three games, not eight, and they fit the crowd in the room. A group of college friends and a room with the groom’s grandmother want different games, and each games guide says which is which. Our printable sets are built for black-and-white home printers, so you can run off copies the night before without hunting for colored ink.

We read the planning threads where people talk honestly about showers: the games guests loved, the ones they sat through, the money questions nobody wants to ask out loud. Those threads are linked in every guide, paraphrased in our words. If a guide states an etiquette norm, it cites where it came from.

Baby showers get the same treatment: gift bingo that keeps a long present opening moving, games that work when partners and friends of every kind are there, and a printable set to go with them.