Bridal showers are one of the most fun parts of planning a wedding. Planning a bridal shower can also be fun and can be done on a limited budget if you are resourceful. While the trend seems to be hosting the shower at a venue such as a restaurant, why not consider a bridal shower at home. It is less expensive, more intimate and gives you more options as to your menu.
While it is supposedly a faux pas to have the mother of the bride plan the bridal shower, my daughter's bridesmaids enlisted my help. I offered to host it in our home and they were thrilled. We all talked and decided on a rather unconventional approach. We would do a co-ed, or as more commonly known, a "Jack and Jill" shower. Since they wanted to do it in May, I suggested a Kentucky Derby theme and we did it on Derby Saturday. I have always found that using a theme makes planning a celebration so much easier. It gives you a road map for your plans. So a Derby theme it was and off to work we went. We created cute Derby themed invitations on line. Next we decorated straw hats to serve as favors. So easy and inexpensive. We found the hats online and used ribbons, tulle, buttons, boas, and artificial flowers to create amazing Derby hats for all the ladies. We made a special white and tulle bridal themed hat for our bride.
For our menu, we kept it simple - we made assorted sandwiches, salads, fruits, and pastas - as if you were on the racetrack sidelines picnicking. We had lemonade, iced tea, beer, wine, and fresh fruit sangria in a punchbowl. For desserts we made dozens of mini-cupcakes and displayed them on cupcake stands.
I always love to include a game at our own family celebrations so I came up with a Derby Dollars guessing game. We set up a booth with buckets labeled for all the racehorse contenders and let the guests put in their guess for the winner. We drew a grand prize winner out of the winning horse's bucket! Everyone gathered to watch the race, so fun!
The final gathering was to watch both the bride and groom open their lovely gifts. It was a beautiful celebration filled with all the people they both love so much. Best of all, this whole shower cost pennies in comparison to hosting it out of the house. Many of these ideas would be perfect for a more traditional bridal shower with a garden or tea party theme, so let your creative juices flow and you can plan a beautiful bridal shower on a limited budget.
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For my sister's bridal shower, we used clear glass cylinder vases with white costume (parade) beaded necklaces inside, at the bottom. The beads looked like pearls! It was gave a decorative touch that was simple yet well-complimented.
My niece is a lawyer and I gave her a "swear by" shower. On the card we told the guests to bring things they "swear by" so that we could save the bride a lot of time and energy.
At my daughter's shower, I wanted homemade desserts. So when people asked how they could help, I asked them bring 12 homemade cookies.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I am hosting a bridal shower for a friend of mine, but I am on a really tight budget. I am having it late in the evening so we are only having desserts, but I need ideas on desserts, games, and anything else. Please help me.
By Overwelmed from Noblesville, IN
A family recipe book is a wonderful sentimental idea for a wedding shower. ask each member of the wedding party, bride and groom to ask their family members to contribute a favorite recipe in order to hand down these recipes to the next generation of the family and to keep the recipes alive in the family. Handwritten recipes are Priceless, and copies of these recipes can be made and inserted into the family recipe book, you can have someone to design the cover or have a photograph made of the family to be the cover page, a dedication page can be made by one of the family members to the bride and groom and it will be a treasured item in the kitchen of the newlyweds
Some friends and I (baby boomer age) are hosting a wedding shower for a friend. Any tips for showers for more mature brides? We dearly love this woman (who has been married before, but is a widow) and want it to be fun but not R-rated!
A group of friends pooled our money and kidnapped the bride to be, took her to the mall shopping with the money we had collected and then treated her to dinner at a favorite restaurant. That was such a success that when another friend was to get married, we repeated the fun. They both had grown children and had their households well established.
When having a shower I always hated the games using paper and pencil. This game you ask the guest questions, etc. 1. who has the most buttons, 2.
Is it a shower or a bachelorette party? I've never heard of an r-rated bridal shower. Just do the normal thing-- send invitations that tell where she is registered, play goofy shower games, eat food, etc. They may not need lots of household stuff but they could register for gifts anyway.
I had a bridal shower for a wonderful friend of mine and we all had such a great time. My friends aunts and great aunts even had a good time.
One of the games I planned was:
I wish you the best of luck and a wonderful time!
A couple of ideas. My future daughter - in - laws party was at a friends. First thing was when someone got there, they were handed a clothes pin, springy kind, and told to attach it somewhere on there clothing. Whenever someone said the future brides name, they lost their clothes pin to the one that noticed they said her name. The one with the most pins at the end of the party got a prize.
We had a shower a month ago for my grandma's sister (Widowed many years ago) and our future Uncle the same. We did a combined shower and played "BRIDAL BINGO". Everyone is handed a blank bingo page and you add names of guests on your sheet, each guest must put thier name on a small square sheet of paper and place in a bowl. It was nice to meet his family and know their names before the wedding.
At the wedding, it was nice to know their names and talk about how the bingo game made it easy to break the ice.
Hope this helps,
Chillydeedee
My daughter lives in Australia, she is getting married here in the states. What kind of shower can I give her, she obviously cannot transport toasters, irons, and coffeepots back to Australia. Help!
By kt from MI
Larger items can be shipped, but more than likely she doesn't need those items anyway. I would suggest a linen shower, with suggestions of what colors she would like in those items.
I threw a baby shower for my friend who was visiting from out of town. Everyone who came to the shower chipped in for a gift card to a store where she was registered. Everyone just emailed me how much they were contributing, I bought the gift card, and then they gave me the money at the party. In this kind of situation, I don't think gift cards are tacky, they are practical. If people want to give her something more "personal" they could bring a love poem or a piece of marriage advice and you could put them all in a scrapbook for her.
These days you can buy gift cards online. Why not find out what stores she is registered in and ask people to contribute to a gift card, they can give you the money and you could send for the gift card. This way she gets something useful. Each guest could also bring a great recipe and a helpful hint to add to a book. Don't forget to take photos to put next to each recipe and hint. The photo/recipe book will be a great hit. One added thought is that each person decides on the gift from the registration and that pic goes into the book also. Good luck.
My daughter lives in Australia. It is a nightmare to mail anything. Believe it or not, best value to mail is priority. Large box ain't so large. 12 x 12 x4 1/2 is $64. One ounce envelope is 94 cents. Good luck. Wait till you hear the phone rates. Internet email is possible but not reliable. Apparently lines there are anything but up to date.
You could do a money tree, with a short explanation on the invitations why there should be no bought gifts. Gift certificates might NOT be a good idea - stores in the States may not be in Australia. Or maybe you could suggest gift certificates to mail order houses, but then shipping costs would deduct from the gift amount. I'd go with the money tree.
Make sure you have activities planned as there will be no gift opening during the shower (which usually takes up a good amount of time). Tape numbers under chairs and draw numbers for prizes, that's one idea. I'm sure there are quite a few games to play at showers.
I agree with the concept of the money tree and gift cards, but you could add a virtual twist to it. I once attended a baby shower where they streamed live video to the mother who was on bed rest in another state, or if you are not that techy, simply record the the event and send it to your daughter. Either via mail or digitally. This way she can really feel apart of the event.
Make sure to send her (a party care package) either ahead of time or after. Don't forget to include shots of the room, food, you playing any games, and messages to the bride.
Hope that helps. Good luck and congratulations.
Has anyone ever done a time-of-day bridal shower? Apparently, each guest chooses a specific time of day out of a 24 hour day and brings a gift specific for that time period. My friend and I are hosting a bridal shower and would like to use this format, but I would like some gift suggestions/ideas for the guests for different time periods (e.g., 3 a.m.). Thanks for your help.
By Julie
The way I've seen this done is that the time of day is assigned by the hostess and included in the party invitation -- so you don't have to assign 3 a.m. if you don't want to! Suggestions for overnight hours might include bed linens, nighties/robes, bedside table lamp, decorative night light -- you get the idea!
Becki
What else is there to do at 3 am. Take old B movies and popcorn. So they can cuddle up on the couch in each others arms. :0)
Amanda
1. You could omit that time.
2. Late night escapade -- or my husband and I got matching underwear, lingerie, body oils, candles or something on that order.
3. If they are going to school-- Movies, popcorn, popper, pizza stuff or coffee stuff - assuming they will be up studying.
4.For the people that would be sleeping at that time -- They could be dreaming so basically you could get them anything and attribute it to a dream; sheets, pillowcases, nature sounds music.
Hope this helps. You just have to stop and think. My shower was like this and we had a ball!!!
Mary
Please tell me more about your time-of-the-day shower because I want to do one for my best friend. How many people did you invite? Did you have more than one person per hour? How did you tell them which hour to buy presents for? Did you provide examples? I'd love to hear the details!
My sister is marrying for the 1st time at age 53. She has been living on her own for years, as has her fiance who was married previously. How do you plan a shower for this and what do I suggest for gift giving. She doesn't know either.
By Lyn P. from Hamilton, NJ
Your sister probably has all of the household stuff she needs. A friend of mine had a cute shower theme: guests were supposed to bring something you needed "to survive a marriage." It was fun and funny. I've heard of other people having showers with a stipulation that you bring something that couldn't be bought in a store. Otherwise, have a not-too-cutesy shower (luncheon, cocktail party) and celebrate the bride-to-be! :)
I need ideas for a bridal shower for a co-worker. Any ideas for decorations and games? We was also thinking of playing the newly wed game, does anyone have any good questions?
If the couple have already chosen their color scheme, use those colors for any dishes, napkins, decorations and so on. For the "newlywed game," here are one or two questions...
1. Where did you meet and when?
2. What's his (her) favorite color? Favorite food or drink?
Congrats to the happy couple!
My son is getting married and we are having a couples wedding shower for them. We live on a lake and I'd like a theme to go along with this and ideas for food, games, etc.
Where can I find a affordable location for a bridal shower in the Baltimore, Maryland metro area?
By Shawn
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My daughter is getting married this year. I would like to give her a shower. She doesn't like a lot of fuss and prefers gatherings to be simple and fun.
We are planning an autumn bridal shower for a young friend, and looking for some decorating, food and fun ideas from the ThriftyFun community. Thanks for your help with this.
I will be co-hosting a bridal shower in April. It has been a while since I attended a bridal shower. I am looking for ideas for food, decorations, and non-embarrassing games or activities.