Cads About Matrimony: a game for the snark-loving bachelorette party

We already know that Tribesmaids are great sources for kick-ass wedding games and Tribesmaid Ailea is no exception. Here's her tutorial for an awesome twist on Cards Against Humanity. She also successfully funded a Kickstarter for the pro version! You can buy it here!

Last year, I was put in charge of games for my dear friend Nicky's bachelorette party. I had no experience planning wedding party games, so I went online to look for ideas, and found plenty of them that were extremely lame. I felt like Nicky deserved better.

I was playing a lot of Cards Against Humanity at the time, so I was inspired to create a card game that honors the glorious institution that is matrimony, while also preparing my friend for the all frightening realities and ceremonial absurdity of our civilization's most fraught life-long commitment.

The game I made for Nicky on my laptop and home printer was a hilarious, absurd parody of our bizarre wedding culture and common marriage hang-ups, and was a big hit on her bachelorette night. It took me a couple of days and a bit of creativity to do it, but I'm convinced anyone can make one. It was awesome to have a more personalized, far funnier, and somewhat less-humiliating alternative to the game ideas I found on the internet. And hey, there's no reason you can't incorporate panties into it if you're into that sort of thing. Here's how it works:

If you're a fan of Cards Against Humanity, you're already overqualified to make this game. I called it “Cards Against Matrimony” when I made it for Nicky. It's simple to play. One player reads a question or fill-in-the-blank card. The other players turn in an answer card. The best answer wins. CAH is available under a Creative Commons license, so you can use their material in your game if you want, but I found that not much of it is particularly wedding/marriage relevant. So here's what I did.

1. Come up with about 40-50 question or fill-in-the-blank cards and at least 150 answer cards. With about seven of us playing, this size deck got us about an hour of play time, which is plenty if you have other things lined up for the evening. You can make more or less depending on how prominently the game is going to feature in your night. Just keep them in a list in a text document until you're ready to print them up.

2. Try to make the questions and answers as personal and interesting to the bride and the group as you can. Inside jokes from high school, silly secrets from your friendship, and personal quirks are all fair game. Jokes about marriage myths and realities, wedding culture, and love and relationships in general also work well.

3. Depending on the group, you can gauge how raunchy or adult you want the game to be — it can work, and be funny, to use language and references anywhere from PG to X-rated. But it all just depends on the vibe, and the sense of humor, of the group.

4. Print out a prototype version and try playing it a few times with a couple volunteers. I made about 15 pages of 5×3 tables, making cards about 2″ by 2″ each. The idea is to make sure that pretty much any answer card would work with any question card. It may take some tweaks, so make notes of any changes you want to make.

5. When you're ready to unveil it for the big night, print out the game on some decent quality card stock. Maybe use different colors for the questions and the answers to keep them sortable. I printed a clip art diamond ring on the back of the cards with the couple's names and wedding date on them, so they were a nice (ridiculous) keepsake for the couple after we played. Cut them out carefully and you're off to the races.

6. You can incorporate prizes, undies, drinking, silly stunts, bride and groom trivia, or incorporate a million other gimmicks and goodies into game play, to make it funnier, happier, or sillier. Again, up to you and what the group has in mind. If you can all get together and help come up with the game content together as a surprise for the bride, it will probably come out even more amazing.

Got some ideas for great cards? Share them in the comments!

Love this idea but don't want to DIY it? Yup, there's a pro version! Ailea has created a Cads About Matrimony full game (professionally printed and laser cut, natch), and you can snag a deck (or a printable version) right here.

Now you can get the game without adding another DIY project to your list AND support a rad offbeat indie game designer at the same time. WIN.