On Tuesday I shared lots of photos of the Stock the Kitchen wedding shower that I hosted for my soon to be sister in law {really, really soon to be - the wedding is tomorrow}! I had so much fun planning this shower, and finding ways to tie the kitchen theme through every element of the party!
From the invitations {with enclosed recipe cards for family members to fill out}, to the decorations {flowers in small kitchen appliances}, to the favors {mini wire whisks}, to the games..
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All three of the games that we played at the shower were kitchen themed, easy to prepare, and fun for guests of all ages!
GAME #1: NAME THAT SPICE
The first game we played, and definitely the crowd favorite, was the "Name that Spice" challenge!
I recently organized all of my spices and moved them all to matching jars in my pantry {details on that project will be on the blog soon}, and that left my old counter top, test tube spice rack empty. I had the old spice rack in the donate pile, then decided to hang on to it because I was sure I could come up with a way to use it...and sure enough I did! It was perfect for the Name that Spice game that we played at Allie's shower.
I cut a strips of scrapbook paper {the same cute paper that I used to create the recipe box dividers for the same shower}, and wrapped them around the plastic test tubes, affixing them with double-sided Scotch tape. I then used a Sharpie to label the test tube wrappers 1 through 12.
I then filled the bottom quarter of each test tube with spices from my pantry. For this game you can choose any spices you want, but I did stick to a couple of guidelines in deciding which spices to use. Some spices are visually recognizable by their distinct colors, so to make the game challenging, I made sure to use at least two spices of each color. For example, paprika is a vivid red color and I didn't want the color alone to be a give away to its identity, so I filled another test tube with ground cayenne pepper, which is a very similar color.
But while I wanted the game to be challenging, I didn't want it to be too hard, so I made sure not to use any really obscure spices, and I didn't use any combinations of spices.
Once the test tubes were filled, I printed up a cute little game card for the guests to fill out. As noted at the top of the game card, the rules were simple. The could look and smell the spices, but they were not allowed to taste them.
Everyone had so much fun with this game, and people got pretty competitive about it! After all of the spice test tubes had been passed around the room, people were calling out numbers and requesting second and third chances to smell.
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| The bride-to-be! |
It was really fun hearing people talk about the spices as they tried to identify them. There were lots of comments like, "That smells just like the soup that mom always makes!" Conversations like that made this game a perfect compliment to the recipe box full of family recipes that we all gifted to Allie during the shower.
Of course, I realize that not everyone has a spice test tub spice rack lying around! If you want to replicate this game exactly as I've showed it, you can purchase lots of plastic test tubes online pretty inexpensively {just Google "plastic test tubes" and look at the Shopping tab}. However, you can certainly set this game up in any number of ways. You could just as easily present the spices in any kind of bottles or jars, or even in cute little bowls with little pieces of paper with numbers propped up in the bowls.
GAME #2: MIXED UP WORDS
The second game we played as a quick and easy one - your classic scrambled word game! I called it "Mixed Up Words" to tie in the with the cute mixer image that I used at the top of the game cards, but it would also be cute if you called it "Blended Words" and used a blender image, or "Scrambled Words" with a bowl and whisk! And of course, to stick to the kitchen theme of the wedding, each of the scrambled up words on the game card was an item you would find in the kitchen.
I created my own game cards by simply typing in the names of 15 different kitchen items, and then rearranging the letter of each word.
It only took me about 15 minutes to create this game card, but if you'd prefer not to make your own, there are numerous Etsy sellers from who you can purchase printable word scramble game cards {just search "kitchen word scramble"}.
GAME #3: TEST YOUR MEMORY
The final game we played at the kitchen themed shower actually began from the moment guest walked through the door. I filled a cute serving tray with 15 items that I pulled directly out of my kitchen drawers. I arranged them on the tray and sat it on the entry table.
As each guest arrived, I told them to take a few moments to look at the tray and to remember as many of the items as they could.
When we sat down to begin playing the Name that Spice game, I covered the tray with a dish towel so that there would be no peeking. After playing the other two games {which allowed about half an hour to pass}, I then handed out slips of paper with 15 lines, and challenged each guest to write down as many of the items from the tray as they could remember.
Everyone was determined to win, and I was impressed that two of the guests were able to remember every single item!
This game took almost no time to prepare because the tray and all the items on the tray were already in my kitchen. And you don't even need a specific game card for this one if you don't want...all you need is a piece of paper for each guest to write the items on {or even the back of the paper from another game}.
PRIZES
Of course, where you have shower games, you also have to have prizes for the winners! I find the purchasing of prizes to be one of the most challenging parts of planning a wedding or baby shower. It can be hard to find something that only costs a couple of dollars, but that someone will actually want. That is, it used to be hard before Target introduced the One Spot! OMG, I love the Target One Spot!
I originally thought about giving kitchen related prizes, but since I had already purchased mini-whisks as the shower favors for all of the guests, I decided to stray from the kitchen theme for the game prizes.
A while back I found some adorable note cards in the Target One Spot with matching pens, note pads, and gift boxes. In fact, I was so excited when I found all these cute items, that I even blogged about them here.
I was able to put each gift set together for just $4! Even as recently as a few weeks ago, the Target near me was still selling some of these items. {And no, Target didn't pay me to say that! I only wish Target knew of my little blog! :)}
Of course, these whisks would also make great shower game prizes! {Details about where to purchase the whisks are in the full kitchen wedding shower post.}
If you are looking for other inexpensive kitchen items to give as shower prizes, hit up the kitchen section of your local dollar store.
Are you looking for more entertaining ideas? You might be interested in these posts!
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Labels: entertaining, games, wedding shower
