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Archive for the ‘Bridal Showers’ Category

You may be wondering what the rules are for the hosting of a bridal shower. The answer is, there are no rules anymore. Anyone can host a shower these days, but here are some guidelines to think about.

Best Friends

If you are the bride’s best friend and/or maid of honor, you might feel like you should offer to throw her bridal shower. If this is within your means, it is certainly one of the expected jobs of the head bridesmaid. First, though, you’ll want to check with both the mother of the groom and the mother of the bride to see what they had in mind. Although tradition dictates it’s the maid of honor’s call and she should host (and pay for) the shower, moms may assume they are naturally involved in the planning and cost-sharing. However, with so many nontraditional families these days and family members living farther away from each other, there are no hard and fast rules. Just be sure to check what the others are doing before you plan anything. If you get the green light, have a ball! If your means will only allow you to have a small number of close friends, offer to throw a friends night out shower at a local restaurant. Alternately you can ask the other members of the bridal party to chip in on bridal shower favors or food so you can include everyone that you’d like to. And if you’re financially unable to shoulder the cost of the party, be honest with others. They may offer to step in and cover the whole cost.

Mother of the Bride

Traditionally the mother of the bride does not offer to throw a shower. The idea being that it would look as though she were asking for gifts for her daughter, and that would be in poor taste. But often, she will be the only one available, or her home is the only place available to host it and that’s okay too. But where possible, a friend or someone from the bridal party should step up and offer to at least co-host and thereby split the cost. The bridal shower invitations should come from someone other than the mom. Traditional wording might say, “You’re invited to Laura’s bridal shower compliments of Suzie, her maid of honor, and held at Brenda, her mom’s house.” The mother of the groom is also exempt from having to throw the shower, although chances are she’ll want a front row seat in the planning. Depending on if there are step-moms in the picture, be sure to check in with everyone so feelings aren’t hurt.

Co-Workers

Here’s where it gets a little tricky. Are co-workers of the bride expected to throw a separate shower? Yes and no. Co-workers are not required by any means to host an expensive off-site shower with the bride’s family and friends. That’s the job of the maid of honor. But, if you and a group of co-workers are very close to the bride, you might offer to throw a small bridal shower during lunch hour in the company break room. You can include everyone from your department (or those at work who are close to her). Simply purchase a sheet cake or make cookies or muffins and decorate with streamers and balloons. This will, of course, depend on the workplace atmosphere and protocol. Do as much or as little as you like. And if you feel your workplace is not the best atmosphere to host a small fete for the bride, offer to take her out for drinks or dinner with the people she’s close to at work and you can give her your gifts there. Sometimes, depending on how close you are to the bride, you will also be invited to the family’s shower. If so, you may want to keep it under your hat, as surely some folks from work will not be invited and you want to avoid hurt feelings.

In days past, it was only the ladies who gathered to shower a bride with gifts before her wedding. Traditionally, the bridal shower was for brides who intended on marrying an unsuitable man whom her parents refused to acknowledge. So, friends would offer to shower her with things she’d need in her new life as she had no dowry to offer. Times have changed, and now it’s an all out festival of congratulations for both the bride and groom. So, if you’re in charge of planning a Jack and Jill, (planning a couples shower) where do you start?

Know their Tastes

If you know the bride and groom well enough to be throwing them both a shower, you surely have some great ideas in your head already. How did they meet? Where do they like to spend their free time? What are their hobbies? You might have a bicycle themed party if they love to ride bikes or a tennis party if they hit the courts every weekend. Did they meet on a cruise? Have an ocean liner shower. Ask around. Family and friends who know them will have ideas to offer as well. Don’t forget to incorporate your theme into your wedding shower invitations, it will set the stage for the events to come!

Cake Topper Found at Wedding Favors Unlimited

The Sports Shower

This theme works well if both the bride and the groom are interested in sports. Do they both love Hockey, Basketball, Baseball? Put together a sports-themed shower! You can base your party around the game and have everyone come in hockey jerseys. Or if they love the Red Sox, have everyone come in team attire. Order up some sports-themed favors for a special touch. Again, this is a fantastic theme to keep the guys involved, but if it’s a sore point with the bride to be, don’t go this route.

Luau

Go Hawaiian! Everyone loves a luau. You can get the honeymoon mood started early by hosting a shower complete with grass skirts and drinks in coconuts. There are some fun decorations and props that will make having this theme a cinch.

Guys and Dolls

Go musical. Have everyone come in costume from West Side Story or Guys and Dolls or South Pacific. Choose a movie or musical that everyone will know. You can have costumes on hand for the bride and groom if it’s going to be a surprise. Carry your movie theme out with popcorn and DVDs playing in the background. Have fun snacks on hand like movie candy and paper cups with straws.

Karaoke Party

You can keep the fun going all night with a Karaoke shower theme. Serve the food on old records and offer props like giant cutouts of microphones and song lyrics. If you’re having it at a restaurant with a Karaoke system, make sure there are songs everyone will feel comfortable singing. If you’re bringing in your own machine, you’ll definitely want a selection of songs that span the ages. You can go wild with this theme. Have singing notes on paper plates and napkins. Add a disco ball and have someone come as Elvis to kick off the fun.

Little Rascals

If you’ve got a fun loving bride and groom to work with, this theme is a good idea. Base the shower around baby pictures of the couple. Ask the moms or other family members to dig out some cute or embarrassing baby and youth photos. Then go to town. Have an elementary school classroom set up. Set up a table to look like a teacher’s desk. Serve the food on chalkboards. Offer kid-friendly snacks like Oreos and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. If you can find old lunch trays, or borrow them from a school, that would make the day even more authentic. Get smaller milk cartons and provide open lunch boxes to hold chips. If you can, have the bride and groom’s baby pictures printed on napkins or labels or favors to tie the theme together. You might even want to use iron on transfer paper and make the bride and groom t-shirts with their baby pictures on them.

Would you consider having a couple’s wedding shower? Or maybe you’ve already had one. What are your thoughts?

In this economy, everyone is trying to save a buck anywhere that they can so in this post, I thought I’d share some of my favorite resources for bridal shower games.  If you are looking for fun, printable games that are totally free, check out these bridal shower games that you can just print and play.  They have 8 free games including Who Knows The Bride Best, the Purse Games, Bridal Shower Grid Game (like Scattergories), Bridal Shower Bingo and more.  You don’t have to purchase anything in their store and you can print the games and share them with friends as often as you’d like.

This cheap bridal shower games lens at Squidoo gives instructions for several bridal shower games including Don’t Say Wedding, Wear The Teddy and several more.  These games aren’t printable, but the instructions appear to be clear and easy to follow.  There are also detailed instructions for one of my favorite games – the Candy Bar Memory Game (kind of like wedding themed concentration).   Another site that gives instructions to tons of different games is Abbee.  The have four free game lists along with detailed instructions to each of the games on the lists.  They include sample trivia questions when necessary.

Finally if you are running short on time or want something quick and easy.  Consider buying some cheap printable games from Bridal Shower Games A to Z.   They have over 75 different bridal shower games that you can just print and play.  Games cost about $7 each or you can buy an unlimited number of game downloads (prints) for around $20.  Obviously if you are hosting several showers or you are planning to try 3 or 4 games, the unlimited games purchase is a much better value.