Bachelorette Bingo: How to Play, Square Ideas from Mild to Spicy, and Winning Rules

Bachelorette bingo is ordinary bingo with party moments in the squares instead of numbers. Each guest gets a card, marks a square when that moment happens over the night (or when it is true of her, in the called version below), and the first person to complete a line shouts "Bingo!" Below: the rules, three ways to play, square ideas sorted from mild to spicy, and how to make cards that all differ.

How to play, in short

1. Make one card per guest, the bride included: a grid of five rows of five squares, with the middle square free.
2. Fill the other squares with party moments: things that might happen, things a guest might have done, or small dares.
3. Hand out cards and pens at the start of the night, or at the first stop.
4. When a moment happens, the guest who saw it (or did it) marks it. Whoever completes a full row, column or diagonal first calls "Bingo!" and shows her card to the judge, usually the maid of honor.
5. Keep playing for a second prize: the first person to fill the whole card. Classic bingo works the same way, where the winner is the first to cover five numbers in any row or diagonal, or sometimes all numbers on the card.

In the scenario style, you mark squares off as the scenarios occur, and five in a row wins. That is the version the first list below is written for.

Pick your version

Spot-it bingo (all night). Squares are things that could happen while you are out or at the rental. Guests carry their cards and mark them as the night goes. This suits a bar crawl, a winery day, a beach weekend or a party bus, and it asks nothing of anyone except paying attention.

Called bingo (one round, seated). Squares describe guests: "has met the bride's partner's parents," "packed more than one outfit for tonight." One person reads a square aloud; everyone it describes marks it. The Modern MOH version plays this way, calling squares in turn around the circle, with a sip for each mark. It works well as a warm-up when half the group are meeting for the first time.

Dare bingo (for teams). Each square is a small task, and you mark it when your team has done it and shown proof. This is really a scavenger hunt on a grid, so use it when the group wants to move around and earn points.

Square ideas, sorted mild to spicy

Mix squares from all three lists below, or keep to the mild ones for a group with mothers, aunts or coworkers. The spicy list is optional; leave it off any card where it would make a guest uncomfortable.

Mild: about the night

• The bride gets a free drink or dessert
• A stranger says "congratulations"
• Someone asks if we are a bachelorette party
• The bride tells the proposal story
• The group takes a photo with all of us in it
• Someone gets the bride's partner's name wrong
• A song plays that the bride claims is "our song"
• The group sings along to a song nobody requested
• Someone loses an earring, shoe or sunglasses (and finds it)
• We see another bachelorette party
• A bartender or server asks the bride a question about the wedding
• The bride video-calls or texts her partner
• Someone orders the wrong thing on purpose to try something new
• A group selfie gets retaken because somebody blinked
• Someone says "this is my favorite night ever"
• The bride cries happy tears
• Someone gives an unplanned toast
• The group gets lost on the way somewhere
• Somebody's phone dies
• A guest shows a photo of the bride from childhood

Mild: about the bride

• The bride says her new last name out loud (or says she is keeping hers)
• The bride mentions the seating chart
• The bride shows someone her ring
• The bride does her signature dance move
• The bride orders her usual
• The bride says "I can't believe I'm getting married"
• Someone asks the bride how they met
• The bride names her wedding song
• The bride checks the weather for the wedding day

Medium: a little bolder

• A stranger gives the bride marriage advice
• The bride gets a dance with someone from another party
• Someone sends a voice memo to the group chat they will regret tomorrow
• The group starts a conga line
• A guest tells a funny story the bride has agreed to share
• Someone does karaoke
• A guest gets a stranger's recommendation for the next stop
• The bride wears the veil or sash somewhere public
• Someone falls asleep before midnight
• Someone tries to bargain for a free round

Spicy (optional)

• The bride is asked for her number, and says she is taken
• Someone shares the story of their most awkward date
• The bride tells the group where the first kiss happened
• A guest flirts with someone on a dare (with their consent, and only if both are single)
• The bride rates the partner's dance moves out of ten in front of everyone
• Someone reads aloud the last text they sent their partner (their choice which one)

For called bingo, turn any of these into a "has" line: "has been asked for her number tonight," "has done karaoke this year," "has cried at a wedding." For dare bingo, turn them into tasks: "get a stranger's next-stop recommendation," "start a conga line."

How to make the cards

• Write a pool larger than one card. Write about twice as many ideas as one card holds, and give each card its own random draw, so that no two guests hold the same card.
• Put the bride in the middle. Use the free space for her name or "Bride to be." Everyone starts with that square marked.
• Make squares you can see. "The bride gets a free drink" is easy to judge. "Someone has fun" is not. Each square needs a moment that a second guest could confirm.
• Mix easy and rare. Put a few near-certain squares on every card ("the bride tells the proposal story") so nobody sits with an empty card, and a few rare ones so the game keeps going.
• Add your city. A local square or two (a landmark, a food, a street performer, the party street everyone ends up on) makes the card feel written for this weekend.
• Mark the heat. Put spicy squares in one row or give them a small symbol, so a guest can see which ones are optional.
• Print and bring pens. Light card stock holds up better than plain paper in a handbag. A clipboard or a hardback book helps at a bar.

For a small group, you can use a smaller grid of four rows of four; a win still needs a full line.

Winning rules that save arguments

• One judge. The maid of honor (or the bride) checks each bingo. A marked square needs a witness or a photo.
• First line, then full card. The first row, column or diagonal wins the first prize. The game keeps going for a full card, which is a natural prize for the end of the night.
• Ties. If two guests call at once, the bride picks a tie-break: who can tell the proposal story better, or rock-paper-scissors.
• A clear end. Agree before you start when cards close: the last stop, the ride home, or brunch the next day.
• Prizes. Keep them small: first pick of the beds, the aux cord for the next drive, immunity from one dare, or a mini bottle of bubbles or a fancy mocktail.
• Drinking is optional. A sip per marked square is a common add-on. Water or a mocktail counts the same, and nobody has to sip at all to win.
• Ask first. Any square that involves a stranger, staff or a partner on the phone happens only if that person is happy to join in. Stay together as a group, and keep an eye on your drinks.

If you want a ready-made game instead

Dare bingo and a team scavenger hunt are close cousins, and we make the second one. The Bachelorette Weekend Scavenger Hunt is a team photo and video scavenger hunt for the bachelorette weekend, about the bride, usable in any city; the host judges the proof and names a winner. It is a print-at-home set with a full team sheet with 24 tasks in 4 point tiers, 16 MILD and 8 SPICY (optional), 3 local write-in rows, a mild-only team sheet, a pocket hunt, a write-your-own team sheet, a host sheet, and a tally sheet for up to 6 teams with a tie-break table. The bride's first name and up to three local tasks go in once, in personalise.html, an offline page. One thing to know: no play time was measured, so the host sets the time limit.

If the bingo is one part of a bigger plan, our bachelorette party activities list has ideas for the rest of the day, the bachelorette weekend itinerary guide helps you place the game in the schedule, and how to plan a bachelorette party covers the steps before that.

A worked card (illustrative)

This is an invented example to show the method. A group of eight is going out in Nashville. The maid of honor writes a pool of fifty squares: twenty-six mild, fifteen medium, five spicy and four Nashville squares (a live band covers a song the bride knows, someone buys a souvenir boot, a pedal tavern rolls past, someone orders hot chicken). Each card gets the bride's name in the middle and a random draw from the pool, with every spicy square in the bottom row. Cards close at the last bar. The first line wins first pick of beds that night; at brunch the next morning the maid of honor checks the closed cards, and the guest with the most marked squares wins the aux cord for the drive home.

This guide is a set of starting ideas, so adjust the squares to the bride you know: what makes one bride laugh can embarrass another.