40 games
Checked October 2026

Engagement Party Games

Games for engagement party guests who have not met yet: one partner's side gets talking to the other's.

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Two-Sided Portrait1. Fold a large sheet of paper down the middle and stand it like a tent on a table.2. One partner's guests draw that partner on their half, passing the marker after each line. The other side does the same on the other half, and nobody looks over the fold.3. Stop after five minutes.4. Open the sheet flat to show the two together. Everyone signs their side, and the couple takes it home.Players: 6 to 30. You need: a large sheet of paper and two markers.
The Proposal Day in the Wrong Order1. The couple writes the day of the proposal as eight moments, one to a card, from breakfast to the phone calls afterward.2. Make a shuffled set for every team.3. Teams lay the eight cards in the order they think the day went.4. The couple tells the story in order, and teams score a point for every card in the right place.Players: 6 to 40. You need: a set of eight cards for each team.
Table Totals: Pets, Languages and Miles1. The host calls out a thing to add up, such as pets at home, languages spoken or miles traveled to the party.2. Each table adds up its own total out loud, so everyone has to answer.3. Tables call their totals, and the highest wins that round.4. Play five rounds. End with one the couple chose, such as years the table has known them.Players: 8 to 80. You need: nothing.

Next step Games for the reception

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Mixers for two families and two sets of friends 8

Both-Sides Quiz in Teams of Four 1. Make teams of four with two guests from each side. 2. The couple has written ten questions in two halves, such as "Name the street one of us grew up on, and the first pet the other one had". 3. A team scores only when both halves are right, so each pair has to tell the other what it knows. 4. The couple reads the answers. The highest score wins. Players: 8 to 48. You need: ten two-part questions from the couple, paper and pens.
Half a Photo Each 1. Print photos of the couple and cut each one in half down the middle. 2. Hand left halves to one partner's guests and right halves to the other's, one at the door for each guest. 3. Guests walk around until they find the person holding the other half. 4. Each pair works out where the photo was taken and writes a guess on the back. 5. The couple gives the real answers, and every right pair scores. Players: 8 to 50. You need: printed photos cut in half, pens.
Introduce Someone in Ten Words 1. Each guest finds one person from the other side and gets three facts from them in two minutes. 2. Back in a circle, guests take turns introducing the person they met, using exactly ten words. 3. The room counts the words on their fingers. Nine or eleven means try again. 4. The couple picks the introduction that taught them something they did not know. Players: 8 to 30. You need: nothing.

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Mixers for two families and two sets of friends, continued

Signature Bingo, Other Side Only 1. Give every guest a card of nine squares, such as "has known one of them since school", "was there when they met" and "has shared a kitchen with one of them". 2. A square can only be signed by a guest from the other side of the couple. 3. Nobody signs the same card twice. 4. The first full card wins, and its owner reads out who signed what. Players: 10 to 60. You need: a card of nine squares for each guest, pens.
Story Halves 1. Before the party, the couple writes six short true stories about themselves and cuts each in two: the start on one slip, the ending on another. 2. Starts go to one side of the room and endings to the other. Guests without a slip team up with someone who has one. 3. Everyone reads slips to each other until each start has found its ending. 4. The couple hears all six read out and says which pairs got it right. Players: 8 to 40. You need: six stories written by the couple, cut in two.
Two Lines, One Question a Minute 1. Stand one partner's guests in a line facing the other partner's guests, a step apart. 2. The host reads a question, such as "What was your first impression of the one you know best?" 3. Each facing pair talks for one minute. 4. On the bell, one line takes a step to the left, the end person walks around to the start, and the host reads the next question. 5. Stop after six questions. Players: 10 to 40. You need: a list of six questions and a bell or a spoon on a glass.
Two-Color Name Tags, Find Your Match on the Other Side 1. Give one partner's guests blue name tags and the other partner's guests green ones. Under each name, the guest writes the month they were born. 2. On go, everyone looks for a guest in the other color with the same month, or the month next to it. 3. Matched pairs tell each other how they know the couple, then report to the host together. 4. The first five pairs to report win. Keep going until every guest has talked to someone in the other color. Players: 10 to 60. You need: name tags in two colors and pens.
The Web of How We Know Them 1. Tape a long sheet of paper to a wall and write the couple's two names in the middle. 2. As guests arrive, each writes their own name and draws a line to the person who links them to the couple: a partner, a parent, a roommate, a teammate. 3. On the line, they write two words about the link, such as "college lab" or "next door". 4. Later, the host reads out the longest chain from the edge of the paper to the middle. Players: 10 to 80. You need: a long sheet of paper, tape and markers.

Games about the couple 8

Fill the Gaps in How They Met 1. The couple writes the story of how they met in about ten sentences and blanks out eight words: a place, a food, a weather, a first line. 2. Teams get a copy and fill every gap with their best guess. 3. Teams read their versions aloud. 4. The couple reads the real one. A point for each right gap, and the couple names the wrong guess they liked best. Players: 6 to 40. You need: a copy of the story with gaps for each team, pens.
In-Law Quiz: Answer About the Other Family 1. Before the party, each family writes five questions about itself, such as "What is the dog called?" and "Which town do the grandparents live in?" 2. Each partner sits in front of the room and answers the questions written by the other partner's family. 3. The family that wrote the question judges the answer with a thumb up or down. 4. The partner with more thumbs up wins, and the families fill in what was missed. Players: 8 to 60. You need: five questions written by each family.
The Proposal Day in the Wrong Order 1. The couple writes the day of the proposal as eight moments, one to a card, from breakfast to the phone calls afterward. 2. Make a shuffled set for every team. 3. Teams lay the eight cards in the order they think the day went. 4. The couple tells the story in order, and teams score a point for every card in the right place. Players: 6 to 40. You need: a set of eight cards for each team.
Stand Up If You Knew 1. The couple writes twelve facts about themselves, from well known to nearly secret. 2. Everyone starts seated. The host reads a fact, and each guest who already knew it stands. 3. The couple looks around the room, then everyone sits again. 4. Guests count how many times they stood. The highest count wins, and the couple tells the story of the fact nobody stood for. Players: 6 to 80. You need: twelve facts written by the couple.
Twenty Questions to the Proposal Spot 1. Only the couple knows exactly where the question was asked: which bench, which room, which bend in the trail. 2. The room has twenty yes-or-no questions between them to find it. The host keeps the count on a sheet of paper. 3. Guests from both sides take turns asking. 4. Anyone may name the spot at any time, but a wrong guess costs two questions. Players: 6 to 40. You need: paper and a pen for the count.
Which One of Them? Two-Sided Paddles 1. Give every guest a paper paddle with one partner's name on each side. 2. The host reads questions the couple answered in advance, such as "Who said hello first?" and "Who chose the first trip?" 3. Guests hold up the name they think is right. 4. The couple, sitting where everyone can see them, hold up their own paddles at the same moment. 5. Guests keep their own count of matches. Players: 6 to 80. You need: a two-sided paddle for each guest and for the couple, a list of questions.
Whose Childhood Was This? 1. Each partner gives the host five facts from before they were twelve, such as "kept a snail farm" or "broke an arm falling off a bunk bed". 2. The host reads the ten facts in a mixed order. 3. Guests write which partner each one belongs to. 4. The couple reveals the answers with the story behind each. Each side of the room knows half, so mixed tables do best. Players: 6 to 60. You need: ten facts from the couple, paper and pens.
Whose Was It First? 1. The couple brings ten things from their home that one of them owned before they met: a lamp, a cookbook, a blanket, a mug. 2. The host holds up each one. 3. Guests point left for one partner and right for the other. 4. The owner claims it and says where it came from. Guests keep their own score out of ten. Players: 6 to 50. You need: ten household things from the couple's home.

Advice, forecast and toast games to keep 8

A Toast One Line at a Time, Sides Taking Turns 1. Guests stand in a circle with the two sides alternating, like a zipper. 2. The first guest starts a toast with one sentence. The next adds one sentence that follows on from it, and so on around the circle. 3. A helper writes every line down as it is said. 4. The last guest ends it, and everyone raises a glass. 5. The couple keeps the written toast and can have it read again at the wedding. Players: 8 to 30. You need: paper and a pen for the helper.
Advice Cards: Which Side Wrote It? 1. Every guest writes one line of advice for living together on a plain card and does not sign it. 2. The host collects the cards and reads them aloud one at a time. 3. After each, the couple guesses which side of the room it came from, and the writer raises a hand. 4. Writers sign their cards afterward. The cards go into a box the couple takes home. Players: 8 to 60. You need: plain cards, pens and a box.
Forecast Bingo the Couple Marks Later 1. Draw a grid of five by five on a poster. 2. Each guest fills one square with a small, kind forecast for the year before the wedding, such as "You will repaint a room twice" or "One of you will learn to make bread". 3. Guests sign their squares, and the room votes for the forecast most likely to come true first. 4. The couple hangs the poster at home and marks each square as it happens. Players: 10 to 25. You need: a poster with a grid of five by five, markers.
House Rules, Voted by the Couple 1. Each guest proposes one house rule for the new household on a slip, such as "Whoever cooks never washes up" or "No big decisions before breakfast". 2. The host reads each slip aloud. 3. The couple votes at the same moment, thumbs up or down, without looking at each other. 4. Only rules with two thumbs up pass. Passed rules are copied onto a poster, and everyone who wrote one signs under it. Players: 8 to 50. You need: slips, pens, a poster sheet and a marker.
One Envelope a Week Until the Wedding 1. Count the weeks from the party to the wedding and put out that many envelopes, each numbered. 2. Guests write a short note, a joke or a memory and seal it in any envelope. Several guests can share one. 3. Before the stack is tied up, each guest guesses which envelope will make the couple laugh most. 4. The couple opens one envelope a week and reports back at the wedding. Players: 8 to 60. You need: numbered envelopes, note paper, pens and a ribbon.
One Word Each, the Thank-You Uses Them All 1. Early on, every guest writes one word that describes the couple together on a card and drops it in a bowl. 2. Near the end, the couple draws the cards and has two minutes to plan. 3. They give a thank-you speech that uses every word, taking turns sentence by sentence. 4. Guests call out when they hear their own word. The cards are glued around a photo of the couple afterward. Players: 8 to 40. You need: cards, pens and a bowl.
Song Request Slips for the Wedding Playlist 1. Every guest writes on a slip the one song that always gets them dancing, and signs the back. 2. The host reads the song titles one by one. 3. The couple guesses which guest asked for each. A right guess scores for the couple, a wrong one for the room. 4. All the slips go in an envelope for whoever plays the music at the wedding. Players: 8 to 60. You need: slips, pens and an envelope.
Two-Sided Portrait 1. Fold a large sheet of paper down the middle and stand it like a tent on a table. 2. One partner's guests draw that partner on their half, passing the marker after each line. The other side does the same on the other half, and nobody looks over the fold. 3. Stop after five minutes. 4. Open the sheet flat to show the two together. Everyone signs their side, and the couple takes it home. Players: 6 to 30. You need: a large sheet of paper and two markers.

Table games for an engagement dinner 8

Each Side Sets a Question 1. Every guest writes one question about their own side of the couple that the other side could just about guess, such as "What does his grandmother call him?" 2. Slips go into two bowls, one for each side. 3. The host draws from each bowl in turn, and only the other side may answer. 4. The writer says whether the answer is right. Count the right answers for each side. Players: 8 to 50. You need: slips, pens and two bowls.
Honeymoon Pitch by Table 1. Each table draws a slip with a kind of trip, such as a cabin by a lake, a slow train, a big city or a tent on a beach. 2. Tables get three minutes to plan a pitch: what the couple would do there on day one. 3. One guest from each table makes the pitch in thirty seconds. 4. The couple picks the trip they would take. No real prices or bookings come into it. Players: 8 to 60. You need: slips with kinds of trips.
One Question From Every Table 1. While the starters are served, each table agrees on one question to ask the couple. Nothing about past partners or money. 2. The couple walks from table to table between courses. 3. Each table asks its question, and both partners answer it. 4. After the last table, the couple names the question that was hardest to answer. Players: 8 to 80. You need: nothing.
Pass-Along Dream House on a Placemat 1. Each table gets one paper placemat and a pen. The first guest draws the outline of a house. 2. The placemat goes around the table. Each guest adds one thing the couple's home should have, such as a reading corner, a slide from the bedroom or a pizza oven. 3. The last guest gives the house a name. 4. Tables hold up their houses, and the couple picks the one they would move into. Players: 8 to 60. You need: a paper placemat and a pen for each table.
Same Age, Side by Side 1. Put four pairs of photos on each table. Each pair shows the two partners at the same age, years before they met. 2. Tables guess the age for each pair and write it down. 3. The couple gives the ages. A table scores a point for every guess within one year. 4. For a tie, tables guess which partner was taller at age ten. Players: 8 to 60. You need: four pairs of printed photos for each table, paper and pens.
Table Totals: Pets, Languages and Miles 1. The host calls out a thing to add up, such as pets at home, languages spoken or miles traveled to the party. 2. Each table adds up its own total out loud, so everyone has to answer. 3. Tables call their totals, and the highest wins that round. 4. Play five rounds. End with one the couple chose, such as years the table has known them. Players: 8 to 80. You need: nothing.
Which Partner Chose This Dish? 1. The couple splits the menu between them: each dish, sauce or dessert was chosen by one partner. 2. Before each course, every table holds up one finger for one partner or two for the other. 3. The partner who chose it stands and says why. 4. Tables keep score on a napkin. The table with the most right gets served dessert first. Players: 8 to 80. You need: a menu the couple split between them.
Wrong Answers Only About the Couple 1. The host asks questions about the couple, such as "Where did they meet?" and "Who taught whom to drive?" 2. Each table agrees on an answer that is wrong but kind, and one guest says it with a straight face. 3. The couple picks the wrong answer they like best in each round. 4. After five rounds, the couple gives the five true answers. Players: 8 to 60. You need: a list of five questions.

Yard games for a backyard party 8

Chalk Path of Wishes 1. Chalk a row of squares along the path or the patio, one for each guest. 2. Each guest fills a square with a drawing or a few words of good wishes for the couple and signs it. 3. When the path is full, the couple walks it from one end to the other, guessing who drew each square before reading the name. 4. Take a photo of the whole path from above. Players: 8 to 50. You need: sidewalk chalk and a paved path.
Heel-to-Toe: How Many Steps Between Them? 1. The couple stands at opposite ends of the lawn. 2. Each guest writes down how many heel-to-toe steps it will take one partner to reach the other, and hands the slip to someone from the other side to hold. 3. One partner walks it, heel against toe, while everyone counts aloud. 4. The closest guess wins. For a second round, the other partner walks back, and guests guess again now that they have seen the first walk. Players: 6 to 60. You need: slips and pens.
Poster Jigsaw Hunt 1. Print a photo of the couple at poster size, glue it to card and cut it into twenty-four pieces. Hide the pieces around the yard at eye level. 2. All the guests hunt together. 3. Each finder brings a piece to a table, where the two families fit them together. 4. The game ends when the picture is whole. The last piece is in the couple's pocket. Players: 8 to 50. You need: a poster photo cut into twenty-four pieces, a table.
Seat the Wedding Table, a Lawn Puzzle 1. Set eight chairs in a row on the lawn. Eight volunteers each wear a sign for a made-up wedding guest, such as the aunt who sings, the best friend or the neighbor with the dog. 2. The couple has written six seating rules that can all be true at once, such as "The aunt sits at one end" and "The neighbor is never beside the best friend". 3. The rest of the guests direct the volunteers from chair to chair. 4. The couple checks the rules one by one. Time it, then let the other half of the party try to beat it. Players: 12 to 40. You need: eight chairs, eight signs and six seating rules from the couple.
Spell Their Names With People 1. Split the guests into two groups with both sides in each. One group gets one partner's first name, the other group gets the other's. 2. Each group has five minutes to spell its name on the lawn, standing or sitting so their bodies make the letters. 3. A photographer takes the picture from an upstairs window or a balcony. 4. The couple judges which name reads best in the photo. Players: 12 to 60. You need: a camera and a window or balcony above the lawn.
Three-Legged Walk, One From Each Side 1. Pair each guest with someone from the other side of the couple. Tie the pair's inside ankles together with a soft scarf. 2. Pairs walk to a chair at the far end of the lawn. Walking only, no running. 3. At the chair, the couple asks the pair one question about each other, such as "What is your partner's name and home town?" 4. A right answer sends the pair back. The first pair home wins. Players: 8 to 30. You need: a soft scarf for each pair and a chair.
Tie the Knot, Untie the Knot 1. Make two teams, each with guests from both sides. Give each team a rope as long as the team's line. 2. On go, the rope passes down the line and each guest ties one plain knot in it. 3. Teams swap ropes. Now each guest unties one knot as the rope comes back. 4. The first team to hold up a rope with no knots wins. Players: 8 to 30. You need: two long ropes.
Two Hoops Around the Circle 1. Everyone joins hands in a circle with the two sides alternating. 2. Hang a plastic hoop over two joined hands. Hang a second hoop of another color on the far side of the circle. 3. One hoop goes clockwise and one the other way. Guests step through without letting go of hands. 4. Count how many laps the circle manages before the hoops meet on the same pair of arms. Players: 10 to 40. You need: two plastic hoops in two colors.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions, written for this site for a party where two families and two sets of friends meet, often for the first time. The wording is ours and the player counts are our estimates. Every game is alcohol-free, and none asks about past partners, money or the ring. The list states no rule or history of a traditional game, so no outside source was needed. Licence: own work

How it works

At an engagement party, half the room has never met the other half. These engagement party games build on that: most mixers pair a guest with someone from the other side, and nothing involves alcohol, past partners or the ring.

Read the full guide

Start with a mixer, then the couple

Run one of the Mixers for two families and two sets of friends while people arrive: Half a Photo Each needs only printed photos, scissors and pens. Once the room is talking, move to Games about the couple. Most need answers from the couple, so ask them a week ahead.

Fun engagement party games for a dinner or a yard

At a seated dinner, Table games for an engagement dinner run between courses and nobody leaves a chair. For a backyard party, most of the yard games mix the two sides in a pair, a team or a circle.

Mark the two sides with name tag colors as guests arrive. Half the games use them.
Let the couple skip any question. They have a wedding to get through with these people.

Questions and answers

What games do you play at an engagement party?

Mixers that send each guest to the other side, such as Two Lines, One Question a Minute; games about the couple, such as Which One of Them? Two-Sided Paddles; and keepsakes. Advice Cards: Which Side Wrote It? gives them a box to take home.

How do you get two families talking at an engagement party?

Make each guest need someone from the other side. In Signature Bingo, Other Side Only, a square counts only when a guest from the other family signs it. In Both-Sides Quiz in Teams of Four, both halves of an answer must be right.

Do you need games at an engagement party?

No, but one mixer helps when the two sides are strangers. If the couple would rather not be the center of a quiz, The Web of How We Know Them runs on a wall by itself while people arrive.

What are good engagement party games for a small group?

Whose Was It First?, Twenty Questions to the Proposal Spot and Whose Childhood Was This? work with six guests at one table. Under More filters, choose 6 players to see every game that fits.