Wedding Reception Bingo Cards

A different kind of bingo

Reception bingo has no caller and no call sheet. The cards go out with the place cards, and over the course of the evening guests mark squares as the moments on them happen: the first dance, someone crying during the toasts, the DJ playing a group dance song, a shoe lost on the dance floor. The game runs itself for four hours and gives cousins who have never met a reason to lean over and say "did you get 'cake smash'?"

Because the calls are events rather than words from a list, every card is a slightly different prediction of the night. A table full of guests comparing cards after the speeches is the point; the bingo itself is almost secondary.

Setting it up

Edit the list first. Remove anything that won't happen at this wedding (no garter toss? delete it; dry reception? drop the champagne squares) and add three or four squares that only this couple's guests would get. Keep at least 30 squares, and ideally 48 or more so the cards stay properly varied (the generator says so below that). Then print one card per guest with a few spares, title them with the couple's names and the date, and put one at each place setting or inside the ceremony program.

Put the rules on a small sign at each table or a slip tucked behind each card: what the winning pattern is, when the game ends, and who to bring a winning card to. Guests should not have to find the host to ask.

Patterns that work over a long evening

A single line can be completed during the speeches alone, which is too early. Better options:

• Most squares by the cake cutting. Everyone stays in all night, nobody needs a line, and a late table isn't out of it. Ties go to whoever hands their card in first.
• Frame (the outer 16 squares): hard enough to last until the dancing.
• Two lines as a race, with the winner announced by the DJ. Loud, quick, and good for a younger crowd.

Prizes guests will actually want

Skip the bottle; with children and non-drinkers in the room it is the wrong prize. Better: a framed print of the couple's engagement photo, the centrepiece from the head table, a box of the wedding favour in a bigger size, a dance with the bride or groom, or the right to request the next song. If the couple are up for it, the winner gets to make a thirty-second toast.

Printing and paper

• 1 per page on a thick card stock in the wedding colours looks like stationery and survives a wet table. 2 per page is a good compromise for a large guest list.
• Leave the card numbers on. They make it easy to tell whose card is whose when they are collected at the end, and a tidy way to pick a runner-up at random by card number.
• Put a pen at every seat. Golf pencils are cheap, don't leak and match nothing, which is fine.
• Print ten percent extra. Cards get used as coasters, folded into programs and taken home by children.

The 48 squares in this list

Cards are 5 x 5 with a free centre square. Edit the list, add your own squares or change the card size above; the cards update as you type.

• First dance
• Cake cutting
• Bouquet toss
• Garter toss
• Best man toast
• Maid of honor toast
• Someone cries
• Father-daughter dance
• Mother-son dance
• Champagne toast
• Glasses clinked for a kiss
• Slow song
• Conga line
• Group dance song
• Someone loses a shoe
• Flower girl dancing
• Ring bearer asleep
• Someone loosens a tie
• Someone changes into flats
• Photo booth props
• Big group photo
• Sparkler send-off
• Someone dances with grandma
• Late-night snack
• Uncle owns the dance floor
• Couple kisses
• Guest book signed
• Dress gets bustled
• Speech runs long
• Grand entrance
• Dance floor packed
• Kids sliding on the floor
• Song request
• Cake smash
• Couple sneaks off for photos
• Last dance
• Centerpiece complimented
• Someone changes tables
• Air guitar
• Dad jokes in a speech
• Photographer lies on the floor
• Someone sings along loudly
• Couple lifted on chairs
• Wedding hashtag mentioned
• Selfie with the couple
• Toast gets a big laugh
• Someone asks for the Wi-Fi
• Bridesmaid fixes the dress