Engagement Party Games

Engagement party games are generally the last thing on your mind when you decide to break the news to your family and friends, but these great pre-wedding activities can help everyone lighten up and enjoy the union of two people. Learn the different ways to break the ice to bring the families together so everyone can share the love.

The engagement party is a time when the families of the couple get together to get to know one another and in some cases, might be the very first time the families meet. Or maybe you want a party for your group of friends to meet their group of friends. Either way, most engagement parties are ice breakers and welcome events.

No matter who plans the engagement party (it will most likely be the bride's family, but it can be organized as a couple or someone else can throw the party for you), you should plan a few fun games and activities that are designed to help everyone at the party to get to know each other.


One popular icebreaker activity you can add to your engagement party games is commonly used at corporate functions or company parties but will work very well at engagement parties as well. When people enter the party, tape a blank index card to their back and encourage him or her to walk around and mingle with as many people as they can. This is great way for people to get to know someone they've never met before. Also hand that person a pen or pencil as they enter and tell them that when they get done talking to someone, they must jot down a quick comment about the person they talked to on the card on the other person's back.

Common comments are usually impressions your get when you meet the person, such as "he knows a lot about the weather" or "she has a beautiful smile". The mingling session usually lasts about twenty to thirty minutes at the beginning of the party. At the end of this period, the people get to take their cards off their backs and read them. This is the best of all engagement party games for people to get to know each other and also find out a little bit about themselves that they don't get to see from other people's perspective. Also tell people to be honest but keep hurtful or derogatory comments to themselves.


Another one of the engagement party games that comes to mind is a "Trivial Pursuit" type game that you put together with inquisitive questions about the bride and groom's lives. You can include questions that are just facts and events relating to both the bride and groom (such as how long until she said "yes", where did he propose to her, where did the couple meet, and so on), or you can ask questions that pertain to each of their separate lives before the two met. This is not only a fun game, but it can also be a quite entertaining way for people to get to know one another as well as the engaged couple.

For an activity that doesn't quite put people on the spot quite as much, consider letting the already married people help out the couple to be married. You place two poster-boards on the wall and title them "wedding planning advice from women" and "wedding planning advice from men". This provides great wedding planning ideas to the couple. Advice from the older people at the party can be a lot different from the younger men and women in the group, giving a wide range of ideas for the upcoming wedding.

Here are some more engagement party games to gather ideas from!

Pre-Wedding Activities

Pre-wedding activities is something a little extra you can do for that special day that isn't required, but can certainly add fun and excitement for all of your guests. There are some very creative activities the bride and groom can add in before their wedding that will be sure to liven the day.

In order to plan pre-wedding events and activities, you should always keep in mind the distance some guests have to travel to attend your wedding and always keep activities relevant to the level of fatigue they may be experiencing. As you go about planning exciting activities for the wedding, you must keep in mind other factors as well.

For instance, will many guests have children with them? Will childcare be provided for your guests or will you allow children to participate in the pre-wedding activities? If you have several older guests, maybe you should have activities tailored so they can participate as well.

Some more popular pre-wedding activities include things that can relate directly to your wedding like a group manicure. Every women in the wedding party or those who are close to the bride (but this is not all inclusive to women as some men like manicures or just want to hang with the ladies) can head on over to a nail salon and have their nails done. This can also help relax the women and provide a welcome respite from all of the stress involved during the wedding period.

Another great activity for the women is to get their hair done as a group. This can not only be fun, but can be very beneficial to everyone as well. It can help all of the wedding party women match hair styles and can significantly reduce the amount of money needed to get everyone's hair done.

And don't forget that all of the women and all of the men can go as groups to find their dresses and tuxedos. This is also recommended so everyone matches perfectly and a consensus can be reached on dress and tux styles. Be sure to ask the store owners if they offer discounts for group purchases.

The men of the wedding party may choose pre-wedding activities a little more like men such as choosing to play golf as a group or play other games such as tennis or basket ball. These activities help give the men something to do while the women pretty themselves up.

Here is a fun pre-wedding activity that can be done a week or so before the wedding. Have someone, preferably the best man or maid of honor, begin a creative gift basket. A theme of the basket could be "Advice for the Couple".

The basket would be taken to someone's home, perhaps an aunt or cousin, and leave it on the doorstep with directions. That person will add an advice item such as a book on how to end spousal arguments or a CD containing romantic music. Once they add a gift, they take the basket to another relative or friend's house (preferably one who will be attending the wedding). Let everyone know in advance that the gift box is circulating around so it won't get lost or not passed around.

Keep in mind that the gift basket idea is only good if most of the guests who plan on attending are local. An alternative method of delivery is to have someone volunteer to take it around from house to house to keep good track of it.

Once the gift box is fully circulated, the person in charge of it can put the basket items together and wrap them all up as a gift for the rehearsal dinner or as a wedding gift in itself.

There are many traditional pre-wedding activities to consider as well such as a bachelor and bachelorette party, wedding rehearsal dinner. But on top of that, you can have a separate game night for anyone that wants to attend, a luau, a lake or ocean cruise on a party boat, karaoke, or even night of dancing.

Many brides and grooms choose to have structured activities for their guests a few days prior to their wedding. But be sure to include everyone so no one feels left out. Think about what everyone likes to do and center your pre-wedding activities on things that everyone can participate in. Be sure that you limit the drinking and partying as this might not sit well with some family members, unless of course your entire family loves to party.

You can check out some more pre-wedding activities that can help make your special day even more memorial by visiting one of my blog pages (this is a post) called Wedding Activities using the navigation bar on top of this page.