We did this easy party game at our daughter's Kentucky Derby themed
bridal party. However, it could be adapted to many party themes that
involve popular contests, like the Oscars, the MLB Homerun Derby, the
NCAA basketball tournament Final 4, the Masters or other PGA golf
championships, NSCAR or the Indianapolis 500 or even to guess the MVP of
the SuperBowl or World Series. Any event that has numerous potential
winners would be a perfect fit for this fun and easy party game. It is family friendly and so fun for a party to watch any of the Triple Crown horse races!
We set up a Derby Dollars betting stand at our Kentucky Derby themed
bridal shower. Yes, it was a rather unconventional bridal shower as we
included both guys and girls, held it on the afternoon of the Kentucky
Derby and centered it all around the Derby, but it was fabulous! Each
guest received 3 Derby Dollars on which they wrote their names on the
back. Our Derby Dollars betting booth was a table of buckets, each labeled with a
horse that was running in the Derby. Our niece was the event bookie,
handing out the Derby Dollars and the fun sheets where we listed
information and odds about each contender. Our guests then put their
Derby Dollars in the bucket representing any horse, or horses that they
guessed would Win, Place or Show. Everyone gathered to watch the Derby
at post time.
Here was our Derby Dollars betting booth! |
From the oldest to the youngest... everyone gathered in our family room to watch the Kentucky Derby... quite an intense and exciting finish that year!
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After the race results finalized, we took the 3 buckets labeled for the
horses that came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd and let our bride to be pull 2
derby Dollars from each one. So we had 6 winners! We had prizes for the
winners whose name was on the back the Dollar she pulled. It was
awesome. It got everyone together to watch the race and even had the
non-sports fans involved in routing for the horses they chose. While the
winners were based on the luck of the draw, everyone had so much fun
with the whole concept! I had budgeted for cash prizes as we planned the
shower, but the prizes could be anything. Instant lottery tickets, a
bottle of wine or spirits, gift cards or small gifts. Such a simple
game, but it generated so much enthusiasm and had everyone mingling and
talking about which horses they were picking!
Here we are sorting through the buckets to pull the ones representing the top 3 finishers.. and here's our bride to be pulling out the winning Derby Dollar!
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Look at these cute prizes.. slipped the money in an envelope, added a small painted wooden horse and made a cute label! You can Print the Derby Dollar Prize Labels here! And here's one of our lucky winners!
See how we decorated plain and inexpensive straw hats so that all the ladies would have their own Kentucky Derby hat.. you can't celebrate Derby Day without fancy over the top decorated hats!
See how we celebrated our daughter's bridal shower with a COUPLES Kentucky Derby themed shower! Most fun EVER.. guys and girls alike all loved this bridal shower!