Happy As Ever — The Wedding Budget Card Game

Build your wedding. Outplay the table.

Happy As Ever is a competitive wedding-budget card game for 2–5 players. Build a seven-card wedding and bring its total inside your secret spending range.

A Ring reaches you in the middle of a passing chain. Keep it and pass a Cake instead—or send it on. Your choice could help a rival finish.

2–5 players · 82 cards · One complete game

From The Art of Games, whose earlier The Art of Bidn campaign is listed by Kickstarter as fulfilled.

A bargain can cost you the win.

Your secret Budget Card sets a minimum and a maximum. With the £50,000 card, a valid seven-card wedding must total £48,000–£50,000.

£49,000 fits. A Hall swap drops it to £46,000; start again and upgrade the Car, and it reaches £51,000. The best card is the one that fits your plan.

What makes a winning wedding

Build a wedding with exactly seven Wedding Cards:

• All five essentials: Wedding Hall, Food & Drinks, Wedding Dress, Decoration and Wedding Ring.
• Two different extras: choose from Car, Cake, DJ, MC and Make Up.
• A total inside your secret budget: both its minimum and maximum count.

Action Cards do not count towards the seven. A wedding can be too cheap as well as too expensive.

What you do on your turn

Start with one hidden Budget Card and three main-deck cards.

1. Draw until you have drawn two Wedding Cards. Keep any Actions drawn along the way; they do not count towards those two.
2. Pass one card clockwise. Intermediate players may keep it and pass a replacement, or send it on. The last player keeps the final card and ends the chain.
3. Play up to one Action to change your plans or another player’s.
4. At seven or more Wedding Cards, check for a winning seven-card wedding. If you cannot win, discard one card.

This is an illustrated overview. The complete rules will be shared here before pledges open.

Keep a choice. Pass a problem.

Read the clues in what other players keep. This is a competitive game with direct interference: another player can disrupt your carefully built plan.

Vendor Invoice gives a budget clue. Change of Plans changes another player’s budget. Seating Plan Mix-Up swaps three chosen cards with another player, simultaneously.

Once per game, attempt a Budget Attack: guess a rival’s exact hidden budget correctly to force a change. A wrong guess uses up your attempt.

82 cards. One complete game.

• 60 unique Wedding Cards — illustrations, names and game values.
• 12 Action Cards — hints, budget changes, exchanges and passing.
• 10 Budget Cards — your secret minimum and maximum.
• One eight-page rulebook and one compact matte tuckbox.

82 poker-size game cards, with yellow backs.

For players who enjoy collecting sets, reading opponents’ choices and changing each other’s plans. Each player builds their own wedding: you do not need to be engaged, play as a couple or know wedding trivia. Choose it for your own game night or someone who enjoys that kind of competition.

Choose your first edition.

Your backing helps fund final proofs, sample checks, printing and packing. Choose a complete game for your table, or a pair with one to give.

• £13 · Early invitation — one complete game; 20 rewards at this price.
• £15 · First edition — one complete game.
• £27 · One to play, one to give — two complete games.

Each game contains 60 Wedding Cards, 12 Action Cards, 10 Budget Cards, an eight-page rulebook and a compact matte tuckbox. These rewards contain the illustrated edition; personalised wedding-photo cards are not included.

Worldwide shipping and applicable taxes are additional, collected after the campaign through Kickstarter Pledge Manager. Destination estimates will be published before pledges open, including details of any charges outside that collection.

Dispatch is planned to begin in March 2027. Arrival varies by destination and is not guaranteed before a particular wedding or occasion.

Where the first edition stands

• In place: the 82-card catalogue and current card designs. We have playtested the game.
• Before manufacturing: finish the rulebook, confirm supplier costs and print templates, and approve a physical sample. The sample will confirm card stock, finish and box fit. Production, quality checks and packing follow approval.

In our two-player playtest, a game took 15 minutes and players added their card values without a calculator. Playing times for 3–5 players and a recommended minimum age are still to be confirmed.

Images show current designs and product concepts. Sample revisions, manufacturing or freight may affect timing; we will keep backers informed of material changes.

We are targeting 1 November 2026 for a 42-day campaign.

It started with our own wedding.

After our wedding two years ago, we wanted another way to return to the day beyond photographs and video: a gift our guests could play together.

That became Happy As Ever. The venue, dress, food and finishing touches became cards. Hidden budgets gave everyone a different plan; passing brought those plans together.

Our The Art of Bidn campaign received £4,272 from 122 backers and ended in April 2025 at 122% funded. Kickstarter lists it as fulfilled. Now we are preparing Happy As Ever’s illustrated first edition.

Whose wedding will come together first?

Seven cards. A secret target. A table full of competing plans.

Follow Happy As Ever for the launch notification, then choose your first-edition reward when pledges open.