By: Michael Galbus
Hosting a bridal shower is a great honor and can be great fun too! Usually a close friend of the bride or the maid of honor will host a bridal shower for the happy couple. Showers thrown by family members are thought to be in bad taste unless the maid of honor is the bride’s sister, then it is seen as acceptable. Now that you are hosting this bridal shower how do you start?
First get with the bride and see what days she has available to attend the shower. Try to plan the shower one to two months before the wedding as the last month may be too hectic. Ask the bride-to-be to make a list of people she would like for you to invite, along with their addresses. Now you have some dates to choose from and a possible guest list so you will next need to choose where you want to have the bridal shower. You can have a bridal shower at a restaurant, a church fellowship hall, a home, or anywhere else. You need to contact your first choice for the bridal shower to see if they have an opening for one of your available dates.
Once you choose the place and date then you can continue your bridal shower planning. You will need to choose a theme for the shower. Are you having a co-ed shower where the groom and other men are invited? Are you having a women’s only brunch or luncheon? Or are you having a normal women’s only wedding shower? Is your theme Hawaiian, elegant, food, or just love? These decisions will dictate the kind of invitations that you will need to purchase or create.
The invitations will need to be addressed and/or filled out and sent to the guest list that the bride provided you. The invitations need to be mailed to out-of-town guests 4-6 weeks prior to the shower and 2-4 weeks prior for local guests.
Once the invitations have been mailed out, you will need to decide what food to serve at the shower and what games to play if you are going to have games. Baby shower foods are usually finger foods but for a theme shower the food can definitely be anything that goes with the theme.
Games are great to ensure that the guests have a fun and interesting time but choose games that everyone can get involved in. A few ideas are Wedding Gift Bingo where guests fill out a bingo card with gifts that they think the bride will receive and mark off as gifts are opened or Toilet Paper Wedding Dress where teams are chosen to try to create prettiest dress out of toilet paper.
A bridal shower will last approximately two hours so be sure that you fill up this time with fun! A sample bridal shower schedule is below.
1. Greet the guests as they arrive.
2. Have the guests go person by person and introduce themselves and their relationship to the bride-to-be.
3. Play two or more games
4. Open the food up to guests.
5. Bride opens gifts while guests are eating.
6. Guests chat and leave one by one.
Be open to changing your schedule during the bridal shower. You do not want to be so rigid that they guests do not have fun at the shower. Bridal shower favors are a great way to show guests how much you appreciate their time and effort in coming to your event. Some ideas are potpourri sachets, bud vases with flowers, bath salts, or candy wrapped in tulle and ribbon. Use your imagination in planning the shower and remember that they most important thing is that your bride-to-be feels honored and loved!