These days it can feel like there's always an upcoming hen (or sten) party to prepare for, which isn't exactly easy when you factor in finding the best hen party destinations and keeping everything within budget. Yep, if you're part of the bridal party – or simply close enough to be invited to this pre-wedding event – there's a lot to tick off to ensure the bride-to-be has the best send off.
That being said, we've taken the stress out of that with our pick of the best hen party games to play. Now you can worry less about planning hen party activities and simply enjoy yourself. Penis straw or not. So, without further ado (or should we say: 'I do'?), here's 30 of the best hen party games...
Don't Say...
How to play:
Whether you opt to make this a drinking game or create a different penalty for slipping up, Don't Say... is fun, simple and guaranteed to get the whole group giggling. It's as easy as the name suggests, at the start of the party select a word that'll be difficult to resist using – like 'wedding' or 'bridesmaid' or '[insert groom's name here]' – and ban it. Whenever someone actually says, err, said word, they have to down their drink, or do the forfeit that was decided on earlier.
What you'll need:
- No equipment needed for this, just some creative minds (and alcoholic bevs if you're playing as a drinking game)
Write her vows
How to play:
Using a sheet of paper, each member of the hen party writes one line of the bride-to-be's vows. Each person takes it in turn to write the next line, and all they have to go off is the final word of the sentence the person before wrote down. Once everyone has written their sentence, the bride stands up and reads her vows to the rest of the group. Oh, and make sure you encourage everyone to spice up their sentences – it makes the final reveal all the funnier.
What you'll need:
- Pens
- Paper
True or False
How to play:
Everybody in the bridal party writes down one true story about the bride, and one that's made up, and puts them all into a pot in the middle. A bit like Would I Lie To You?, the bride then pulls the stories out one at a time, and must convince the room that they're true – revealing hilarious stories about her, and whether she's any good at keeping a straight face – at the same time.
What you'll need:
- Pens
- Paper
Who am I?
How to play:
Each member of the bridal party writes down five facts about themselves (anything from 'I have a freckle on the bottom of my foot' to 'We once got trapped in a portaloo at Glasto together'), and puts them in a bowl. The bride must go through each one and figure out who it's about, meaning the bridal party can make this as hard or easy as they like. How well does the bride really knows her hen party?
What you'll need:
- Pens
- Paper
- A bowl
Fun drunk Jenga
How to play:
At the beginning of the game, divide the Jenga pieces amongst the party and ask everyone to write a rule on each piece of wood. This can be anything from 'Tell us a funny story about you and the bride' to 'If you use anybody's first name for the length of the game, you have to drink'. Build the Jenga tower and get going.
What you'll need:
- Jenga blocks
- Sharpie pen
Hen party Pictionary
How to play:
We all know about Pictionary, but make it hen party. That means getting hold of a pack of themed cards (or making your own!) that are as hilarious and hard (oi oi) as your mind can conjure up. Because what is there not to like about someone attempting to draw the quietest sex toy from Ann Summers?
What you'll need:
- Themed (or homemade!) Pictionary cards
Prosecco or gin pong
How to play:
We've all heard of beer pong, but why not take things one step further with Prosecco or gin pong? Split into teams at either end of a table, and organise eight Prosecco or gin filled glasses in a triangle position. Take it in turns to try and throw a ping pong ball into the other team's glass – if it goes in, they have to drink. Keep playing until one team erases all the other team's glasses.
What you'll need:
- Plastic cups
- Ping pong balls
- Prosecco or gin
Mystery word
How to play:
At the beginning of the party, put everyone's name into one bowl, and then ask each member of the party to choose a hen-related word to put in another bowl. This could be anything to do with the bride, or the typical hen stuff (winky wink). Each member of the party then takes out one name, and one random item, and must try to create a conversation about that item with the person they pulled out. This is great if people don't know each other – before you know it, Sally will be discussing her 'favourite anal beads' with 'Anna' (and trying not to get caught out).
What you'll need:
- Bowl x2
- Pens
- Paper
- A lot of imagination
How well do you know your S/O?
How to play:
Before you head on the hen do, send a bunch of questions to the bride's future S/O about them and the bride. This can be anything from 'What's your favourite crisp?' to 'Who said I love you first?' Then sit your bride down in the hot seat, and ask her the same questions, to see if their answers match up. Word of warning: questions that are too hard could end up with upset bride and an awkward situation on your hands.
What you'll need:
- Nada! Just some preparation ahead of the day
Challenge the S/O
How to play:
A bit like 'How well do you know your S/O', but with video challenges. When retrieving the answers from your bride's partner, challenge them to do various hilarious things (think downing a pint as quick as they can, thinking of as many swear words as possible in a minute or as many star jumps in 45 seconds). Get it all on video. During the hen do, reveal what the challenges were to the bride, who will then pick a member of the party to do the same challenge and try to beat her S/O's score, before playing the video on a big screen. Amazing.
What you'll need:
- Smartphone
- Big screen
- Supplies for the challenges you choose (eg. a pint of beer)
Most embarrassing memory
How to play:
Every member of the bridal party writes down an embarrassing story about the bride in less than six words, and puts it into a bowl. The bride must then read out each six word stories and try to work out who wrote what, while also explaining what actually happened.
What you'll need:
- Pens
- Paper
- A bowl
Hen do dares
How to play:
If you're heading out out on a hen do, compile a list of dares that everyone in the party must try and partake in. Either get your hands on pre-made dares from the internet, or compile a list unique to your weekend. If hens aren't willing to complete their dares, you can even come up with a list of forfeits that they have to do instead (and you can make them even worse).
What you'll need:
- No physical items needed, you can keep your dares on your phone or go old school with pen and paper
The After Eight challenge
How to play:
An oldie but a goodie. Each member of the bridal party has to put an After Eight chocolate mint on their forehead, and attempt to get it into their mouths using only their facial movements. Yep, no hands! The winner is the person who does it the quickest (or actually, anyone who doesn't smear chocolate all over their faces while dropping the After Eight, tbh.)
What you'll need:
- Enough After Eight chocolates for the whole group (yummy!)
Hen party Head's Up
How to play:
If you're after no fuss fun, the Head's Up app will definitely do the trick. But if you want to put a hen party spin on it, create your own options. Every person in the group puts 10-15 things relating to the bride and her S/O into a bowl. Each person in the group then has 45 seconds to pull as many pieces of paper out of the pot to put on their heads (without looking at it) while the rest of the group must act it out/explain it without saying what it actually is.
What you'll need:
- A smartphone (if you're playing with the app)
- The Head's Up app (if you're playing with the app)
- Paper (if you're not playing with the app)
- Pens (if you're not playing with the app)
- A bowl (if you're not playing with the app)
That's Not Me
How to play:
This is a simple one that also involves a bit of bride-related decor too. Essentially everyone brings an embarrassing picture of the bride, and then you all lay them out either on a table or up on the wall (depending on the venue's blu tac policy...). Then the bride has to go through the pictures and guess who brought each one. This game is pretty much guaranteed to lead to some hilarious anecdotes.
What you'll need:
- Old photos of the bride (the more embarrassing, the better)
- Blu tac or tape to stick the photos up
Famous Last Words
How to play:
Similar to 'How well do you know your S/O' but with a different slant, this game also involves the bride's partner-to-be. All you need to do is ask them ahead of time to finish a bunch of sentences. For example, "her worst habit is...", "the thing she thinks I don't know about her is...".
Split the hen party into teams and have everyone write down what they think the groom will say for the end of each sentence. The winner gets a prize of your choice.
What you'll need:
- Pens
- Paper
- A prize for the winner
Wedding film charades
How to play:
We all know the classic game of charades, but what about a wedding film special edition? Create a list of wedding related films (Bridesmaids, My Best Friend's Wedding and Bride Wars are a few of our favourites) before heading to the venue. Once there, split the party into two teams and have each team take it in turns to guess the wedding film charades.
What you'll need:
- Pens
- Paper
- Bowl
- An in-depth knowledge of wedding related movies
Hen party scavenger hunt
How to play:
Ok, so this one is going to require some planning before you head out on the hen, but we reckon it's worth it. Compile a list of either objects you want the teams to find or a list of things you want the teams to take selfies with. It could be taking a picture with someone with the same name as the bride's S/O or finding a coin from the year the bride was born.
Once you have compiled your list of items or selfies they need to take, divide the party into teams. You'll need to give them their lists, a bag to collect the items in (if that's the route you're going down), a location within which to find them in and an end meeting point and time.
If you've picked the selfie route, ask the hens to send the adjudicator selfies once they've got them. Happy hunting!
What you'll need:
- Time to prepare
- Pens
- Paper
- Bags for collecting the items
A hen party piñata
How to play:
Give a bridal themed spin on the classic piñata by asking the hens to add in slips of paper that contain marriage advice, wedding messages or dares, alongside sweets and chocolates.
What you'll need:
- An empty piñata
- Pens and paper for the advice/messages/dares
- Sweets and chocolates
- Anything else you want to put inside (wink, wink)
Bridal bingo
How to play:
As the name suggests this is the hen party version of bingo, except for scoring your card when a number is called, it's a wedding related item or thing.
It's similar to a scavenger hunt, but without having to race around or meeting a time pressure. Instead it's ideal if you're heading out to a bar or restaurant but want to incorporate a game that won't take up too much space or precious Prosecco drinking time.
Just remember to call BINGO!! when you win.
What you'll need:
- Blank bingo cards (to add your own challenges)
- Or pre-made hen party bingo cards (if you're short on preparation time)
- Bingo pens or stickers to mark the cards
Where were they?
How to play:
Want to know which of the hens is the most clued up on the bride and her S/O? This is a fun and relatively straightforward game to play.
Ahead of the hen do, stalk your bride's Instagram or Facebook for plenty of pictures of her and her S/O from various locations – holidays, birthdays, nights out – that kind of thing. Print them out onto A4 size paper.
During the hen you can then have the rest of the party guess where the couple are in each photograph. The winner is the person with the most correct scores and now holds the bragging rights to knowing the couple the most.
What you'll need:
- Time to stalk the soon-to-be newlyweds on social media
- Photo printer (or a nearby photo printing store)
- Scorecards and pens
Life drawing
How to play:
Do not be put off by the word "drawing", this game requires as little or as much artistic skill as you like. Before going to the event, get all the guests a canvas and a set of paints and paint brushes, or you could opt for some art card and crayons if you prefer. You'll also need to print out a picture of the hen's S/O.
When at the hen, challenge all the guests to recreate the image of the S/O on their canvas. Set a time and get ready for some (questionable) masterpieces to be created. Top tip: a glass of prosecco will usually get the guests' creative juices flowing.
What you'll need:
- Blank canvases or paper
- Paints and paintbrushes
- Or pens, pencils, crayons etc
- Art aprons
- Optional alcoholic bevvies
Mr and Mrs
How to play:
Mr and Mrs is a classic hen party go to for a reason, as it's easy to do and often results in some hilarious answers. With the game you can either ask the bride a selection of questions about her significant other or if you've got both parties together, you can ask them who of the couple is most likely to do something. See all our Mr and Mrs question ideas here.
What you'll need:
- Zilch, just a list of questions!
Pop the partner
How to play:
This a hilarious break the ice game, all you need is some balloons and pictures of celebrities, as well as ONE of the bride's spouse-to-be. Blow up the balloons and put a small picture in each one. Next, get the bridal party to race to pop all the balloons (however they see fit) and the winner of the game is the person who finds the picture of the partner. You could either do this in teams or as individuals, depending on how competitive you are.
What you'll need:
- Balloons
- Photos of celebrities
- A photo of the partner-to-be
Cocktail making competition
How to play:
Upgrade a classic cocktail/mocktail making session by making it competitive. You could challenge all members of the bridal party to make a cocktail that best represents the bride. You just need to provide the mixers and spirits. Shakers at the ready!
What you'll need:
- Mixers
- Spirits
- Garnishes
- Ice
- Cocktail shakers
- Serving glasses
Pass the parcel
How to play:
Why should this fun game just be left to kids? You can either buy a pre-made bridal pass the parcel package, or make it yourself and customise it with little gifts that represent the bride and her significant other. You can also add in fun dares or challenges in between each layer to elevate this from a kids party game.
What you'll need:
- A selection of little gifts
- Wrapping paper
- Tape
- Scissors
- Music to play during the game
Guess the dress
How to play:
The bride sits this game out and the rest of the group must quickly draw what they think the bride's dress or wedding outfit looks like. The bride can then pick her winner as to who is most accurate, or they can keep things interesting and pick their top three but not reveal which is the most similar to their dress, saving the anticipation for the big day.
What you'll need:
- Paper
- Pens
Horrible Hens
How to play:
The rules of this card game are easy. Take it in turns to draw a card from the 55 in the box, read and do whatever it says on the card. It could be a dare, it could be a truth, and it could involve revealing some gossip about someone else in the party (e.g. which of the hens is most likely to end up with a sugar daddy?)
What you'll need:
- A pack of Horrible Hens cards
Groom or groomsmen? / Partner or pals?
How to play:
Behind the bride's back, ask their partner and their partner's friends to send you close-up pictures of their body parts. It could be an ear, an eye, their *ahem*. Then, group the photos together, and ask your bride and her hens to guess who is who. Can she tell her groom's big toe from his best friend's? Only time will tell.
What you'll need:
- Photos
Dumb Questions To Ask Your Friends
How to play:
OK, so this game isn't exactly hen party specific, but it's a great way to get to know the people you're with and your hen a little bit better. The premise is simple: there are 400 questions in a pack. One person chooses the category (whether food, players, numbers etc), and then the other players answer a question in that category, without revealing the question. So the first player can hear their answers, but not what they're answering.
The player then has to rank five question cards from most likely to least likely to be the dumb question their friends just answered!
What you'll need:
- A pack of Dumb Questions To Ask Your Friends cards
More organised fun this way!
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So, there you have it: 30 of the best hen party games to play with the lucky bride-to-be. Still got some things to sort? Check out our pick of the best hen party houses in the UK or, if your budget allows, we've tried-and-tested destination hen party venues and spas, too. All in the name of good journalism, of course.
Happy henning!
