If you’re looking for some good ideas for harmless pranks to play on newlyweds, I have a plethora of ideas to share from my own experience as a prank victim! My husband’s family got us pretty good when we returned from our honeymoon. Before I met my husband, he pranked his brother on his wedding day…so, of course, I married into the consequences of his actions. Knowing we probably couldn’t prevent what was coming to us, we still changed the locks on our front & back doors. We also bolted a 2×4 on the inside of the house in front of the front door so they wouldn’t be able to open it. They still got in. Four years later, we still have the piece of 2×4 on which our pranksters left a message in big black letters: “OWNED!“
The How and the When
The week of the newlyweds’ honeymoon is the best time to set up your big surprise for the couple. Unless they’re expecting “pay back” like we were, they will return home from their honeymoon utterly unaware and completely surprised! The best and safest way to gain entry to the newlyweds’ home is to make sure that at least one of the pranksters (usually someone in the wedding party) has a spare key to the home. Someone may already have it if they are a family member. Someone from the wedding party could obtain the key by offering to house sit while the couple is gone on the honeymoon. Or, as I experienced, someone in the wedding party temporarily steals the key during the bachelor or bachelorette party, gets a copy of it made, and returns it before the party is over.
Will the Newlyweds think the pranks are funny?
Though I wasn’t thrilled at the time, our pranksters did the job with style. The best kinds of pranks are the ones that both the victim and the recipient can laugh about later: pranking is not about destroying someone’s property or harming someone, but about the “surprise” factor in a prank. Non-destructive pranks only result in amusing annoyances or inconveniences for the victim. Another important tip to ensure that everyone will laugh about it all later is to purchase your own supplies to do the pranks. Never use supplies belonging to the prank victims.
So, if you’re looking for ideas for some relatively harmless pranks, read on! Most of the pranks mentioned below were the surprises we found upon returning from our honeymoon, but I added a few other ideas too.
Supplies
Here is a list of supplies that you may need if you plan on doing some or all of the pranks below. Plenty of toilet paper, aluminum foil, saran wrap, and balloons. Streamers. Moth balls. Gel food coloring. Paint-safe tape. Mirror-safe markers. Plastic baggies. Condoms. Toy handcuffs. Post-it Notes. Pens. Black sharpie. Artificial cobweb decorations. Video tape or CD. Confetti. String.
Generic – “Any Room” Pranks
Put messages on post-it notes and place them everywhere. Hide moth balls in closets, cabinets, and all throughout the house. We thought we had found them all when we kept smelling one somewhere and finally found one on top of the fridge! Tape toilet paper at the top of any staircase and run the paper down the length of the stairs and do this with multiple pieces all across the width of the stairs. Fill any closets with inflated balloons. While you’re at it, just put balloons everywhere, especially all over the floors and couches. You could even draw pictures on some of them with a sharpie! I remember wading through balloons to get into the living room and finding two balloons sitting side by side on our futon — one had a girl’s face on it (me) and one had a boy face on it (my husband). Reset all the clocks in the house to some random time. Take batteries out of some of the electronics and hide the batteries in a baggie somewhere. Unplug everything. Unscrew every light bulb just enough so that they don’t turn on with the switch. Hang regular streamers or toilet paper streamers from the ceiling.
Bathroom/Kitchen Pranks
Be sure the door or curtain to the shower is closed and fill the entire shower stall with inflated balloons. Place saran wrap under the toilet seat covering the expanse of the toilet bowl. Take off the screens from each of the faucets in the house and fill the screen with gel-like food coloring. Colored water! Our pranksters did a different color at each faucet. It was actually amusing when the water in my sink in our master bathroom came out purple (my favorite color) and the water in my husband’s sink came out green (his favorite color). Write messages on any mirrors with mirror-safe markers.
One pretty mean thing to do is to remove all of the labels off of the canned goods in the pantry and kitchen cabinets. To be a little nicer, you could number the back of the labels, write the same numbers on the corresponding unlabeled cans, and put all of the labels in a baggie somewhere. Decorate the kitchen (or any other room) with artificial cobwebs. Wrap other commonly-used items in the kitchen with saran wrap, such as kitchen chairs. Also, wrap things together so that the items have to be unwrapped in order to be usable — for example, the faucet handles at the sink, salt and pepper shakers, all of the silverware (or all of the forks, spoons, knives separately), the refrigerator and freezer handles, and so on.
Living room/Family room Pranks
Wrap every object (or as many as you can) in aluminum foil. If you’re feeling ambitious, foil all of the items in multiple rooms. This gives the rooms a cool, futuristic look! If any item has multiple parts, try to wrap each part of it. For example, I had a wooden cube puzzle made up of about 8 different pieces; one of our pranksters took it apart and foiled each piece and then put the puzzle back together. Take care not to break any items while foiling them. If couch cushions are removable, take them off and hide them somewhere else in the house, such as a shower stall or closet. Hide throw pillows too. Leave a funny message on a tape or CD, put a note on it that says “Play Me,” and place it on a couch or in front of the TV.
Bedroom Pranks
Switch the mattress and the box spring on the bed so that the box spring is on top. Be sure to remake the bed just like you found it — this makes for a great surprise when the couple goes to collapse in bed after they’ve cleaned up the rest of the mess you left for them. Hang some toy handcuffs from a light fixture or ceiling fan, or you could place them among other fun items on the bed. Stuff a drawer or jewelry box full of condoms, and mix up all the clothes in the drawers. Take all the shoes you can find and create a path with them leading from the main entrance of the home to the bed in the master bedroom. If there is an alarm clock in the room, set it to some obnoxiously early hour. If there is a ceiling fan in the master bedroom, put confetti on top of each of the fan blades so that when the fan is turned on, they will be showered with confetti! In fact, you could do this on any ceiling fan in the house.
Last-Minute Items
Inside the main entrance to the house (or in front of whichever door the newlyweds will likely be entering the house when they return), tape a piece of string to the ceiling and tie the spare key at the end of the string at about eye-level. Tie or tape a note to the spare key that contains a special message for the couple. Where possible and when you’re done with everything else, lock inner doors from the inside.
Don’t forget to lock the main door(s) behind you when you’re done and leave the house. Disclaimer: Pranking someone will most likely result in “pay back” to you. Keep it fun, non-destructive, and playful, and you and the newlyweds will be able to laugh about it for years to come!
