Many bridal couples are opting to have a Jack and Jill party instead of traditional bridal showers or bachelorette and bachelor parties. These co-ed showers may go the traditional shower gift route, or they may raise cash to help the couple with wedding expenses. Because guests include both male and female friends of the bride and groom, great game ideas for a Jack & Jill party provide fun, entertainment and lots of cash for the prospective wedding couple.

Write "bride and groom" on one card of a 52-card deck. Lay out cards on the floor; sell cards for $2 to $3 each to guests. After selling all of the cards, split the cash with the person who bought the Jack of Spades or a specific card.

Have wedding guests draw cards from the deck. The card they draw determines the amount of money they must pay into the jar. For example, a two of clubs garners two bucks.

Play "All's Fair in Love and War." This card game is played like War, the card game children like to play. Deal the entire deck to small groups of two to six players who pay a specified amount to buy into the game. Each player places down one card. The player with the highest card wins all the cards. If a hand has anyone tie, the players whose cards tied continue to lay down cards until one wins. The winning player splits the cash kitty with the bridal couple.

For this Jack and Jilly party game, use either wooden clothespins or giant safety pins. As each guest arrives, attach a pin to his clothing and tell him he has to surrender his pin to whoever hears him utter the name of the bride or groom throughout the evening. The object is to catch people in the act of saying the names, collect their pins and end up winning by having the most pins.

Another Jack & Jill game requires that someone draw life-size silhouettes of the bride and groom ahead of time and tape them to the wall. Blindfolded guests take turn pinning giant lips on the bride or groom, with the winner being the one with best aim.

Again, players pay to play, much as they would at a carnival midway.

Guests must take off their shoes and put them into a pile. Girls' shoes go in one pile. Guys' shoes go in another. Guests line up in male-female relay teams to see what team can finish first. Team members must pay the fine to retrieve their shoes, locate both shoes, put them on and return to the finish line.

This game, depending upon the maturity level of those in attendance, may substitute various items of clothing instead of shoes.