The best hen party games are the ones that get everybody laughing in the first ten minutes, including the bride's work friends who have never met her school friends. You want games that need almost no kit, work in a rented cottage or a restaurant's private room, and make the bride the centre of attention without making her want to hide.
Here are 15 hen party games that do exactly that, from the classic Mr and Mrs quiz to singing games that turn a quiet table into a karaoke night. Pick four or five, mix a seated one with a louder one, and you have the whole evening planned.
Before you start: a few hen do rules
Ask the bride what she is comfortable with, and plan around her rather than around the loudest guest. Keep the guest list in mind too: if mums, aunts or future in-laws are coming, choose games everyone can join. Prepare anything that needs answers in advance, especially the Mr and Mrs quiz, and put one organised person in charge of the scores and the timing.
1. Mr and Mrs quiz
The hen do classic. Before the party, secretly ask the groom 15 to 20 questions about the couple: where they had their first date, who said "I love you" first, what he would cook for her, which of her habits he secretly loves. At the party, ask the bride the same questions. For every answer that does not match, she has to do a forfeit you have agreed in advance. Filming the groom's answers on a phone makes it far funnier.
2. Who knows the bride best?
Write 20 questions about the bride, from her middle name to her favourite film to her first concert. Every guest answers on paper and the highest score wins a prize. It is the perfect opener because it mixes friend groups straight away: her old school friends know the childhood answers, her colleagues know the current ones.
3. Song association
Someone reads out a word, and the next guest has ten seconds to sing a real song containing it. "Love", "wedding", "forever", "dance" and "white" all work brilliantly at a hen do. If she freezes, she is out of the round. It needs nothing but voices, and it is the fastest way to get a shy group singing. Our list of song association words gives you hundreds of prompts, sorted from easy to hard.
4. Grab the phone karaoke
Put a phone flat in the middle of the table. A word lights up, and whoever grabs the phone first has 15 seconds to sing any song with that word in it, while everyone else votes thumbs up or down. That is exactly how Grab The Phone Karaoke works: it is a free party game for 2 to 8 players, needs no account, and keeps the score on a leaderboard so you can crown a hen party karaoke queen at the end.
5. Finish the lyrics
Play a big singalong track through a speaker, pause it in the middle of a line, and let the room shout the next words. Love songs, wedding first dances and the bride's teenage favourites make the best playlist. Our guide to the finish the lyrics game has scoring rules and round ideas.
6. Name the first dance
A music quiz with a wedding twist. Play the first few seconds of famous wedding first-dance songs and teams write down the title and artist. Finish by playing the song the couple have picked for their own first dance, if the bride is happy to share it.
7. Toilet paper wedding dress
Split into teams, give each a few rolls of toilet paper and some sticky tape, and give them ten minutes to dress one teammate as a bride. The bride judges. It is silly, it photographs brilliantly and it costs about a fiver.
8. Hen do bingo
Make bingo cards with things likely to happen during the night: the bride cries, someone sings in the street, a stranger says congratulations, someone mentions the groom's ex, the playlist plays ABBA. Guests tick them off as they happen and the first full line wins.
9. Pass the parcel with dares
Wrap a small prize in layers of paper, with a gentle dare between each layer. When the music stops, whoever is holding the parcel unwraps one layer and does the dare. Keep the dares friendly so everyone in the group joins in.
10. Two truths and a lie: bride edition
The bride tells three stories about her love life, two true and one invented. Everyone votes on the lie. Then turn it round: each guest tells two truths and a lie about themselves. Great for groups where half the people have only just met.
11. Guess the baby photo
Ask every guest to send a baby or childhood photo before the party. Print them, number them and pin them up. Everyone guesses who is who, and the bride's photo goes last.
12. Lip sync battle
Pairs pick a song, get five minutes to plan, then perform with full drama but no actual singing. Hairbrushes count as microphones. The bride judges, or the room votes by cheering.
13. Draw the dress
Everyone gets paper and a pen and has two minutes to draw what they think the wedding dress looks like. The bride picks the closest (without giving anything away) and the funniest. Keep the drawings for the wedding scrapbook.
14. Hen party scavenger hunt
For a night out, make a list of small challenges to complete as a team: a photo with someone called Dave, a stranger's best marriage advice, a selfie with a bouncer, a group photo in a phone box. Each challenge is worth points, and the list keeps the evening moving between venues.
15. Advice for the bride
Not really a game, but a lovely way to finish. Every guest writes one piece of marriage advice, funny or serious, on a card. The bride reads them out at the end of the night (or keeps them for the morning after).
How to plan the evening
Start with a seated game while people arrive and introduce themselves; "Who knows the bride best?" is ideal. Move to the Mr and Mrs quiz once everyone is there, because it is the moment the bride will remember. Then switch to something loud, a singing game or the toilet paper dresses, to lift the energy before dinner or before heading out. Save bingo or the scavenger hunt for a night out, and the advice cards for the very end.
Hen party games for a quieter group
If the group is small or not into big performances, stick to the games that happen round a table: the Mr and Mrs quiz, Who knows the bride best?, two truths and a lie and the baby photos. Singing games work too, as long as turns are short and nobody has to sing a whole song alone. Fifteen seconds is about right, which is why a phone game with a timer works well with a nervous group: the turn is over before anyone has time to be embarrassed.
