When you’re the maid of honor or a close friend of the bride-to-be, planning a bridal shower is one of your jobs. (This also applies to a situation where a groom wants a shower, too!)
You might thrive on party decorations, Pinterest ideas, and all things shower-related. You might, on the other hand, have no idea where to begin. Whether you can’t wait to get started or have no idea what you’re doing, these tips will point you in the right direction.
When you begin the shower, the first order of business should be to talk to the bride. Leave time at the beginning of the shower for everyone to say hello, how are you, and catch up. They’ll all be dying to hear the engagement story, how the fiancé looked for engagement rings in Brisbane and surprised her (or him!) on the beach. Don’t rush into the activities. Leave time for mingling, chatting, and sharing stories. Kick off a-rockin’ party by putting on matching bachelorette party tees with the entire entourage. The best thing about it is you can party all night without worrying about drinks or food spilling all over your favorite party dress! Make sure to get everyone’s sizes ahead of time, especially the bride’s! Then, find a good supplier that can print out a quirky personalized statement on each shirt.
While everyone is mingling and chatting, food is in order. Have plenty of snack food. If it’s a themed bridal shower, go nuts with themed cupcakes and snack ideas — as long as you’re into that sort of thing. (If you hate the idea of decorating 100 cupcakes, that’s what bakeries are for.) Wedding cupcakes and bride-and-groom-shaped gummy bears are probably overkill, so stay away from themed food if it’s going to be stress and not fun. At the end of the day, just make sure there’s plenty of food for guests to enjoy. Have some easy options for people with common allergens like peanuts and gluten. If you have time, try to get that information from the bride ahead of time.
If you want to, you can also consider embarrassing the bride a little. This is your right as a friend, and if it’s a friends-only shower, there’s room for some pranks. A common prank is to present the bride with a box of women’s sex toys. As long as no grandmothers are present, it can be fun to pull a prank like that. Should it go without saying this is rarely a good idea at a mixed-ages or family shower?
After the mingling and eating, you can get everyone into good spirits with a few shower games. The level of involvement can be up to you: it’s easy to print a few sheets of paper with guessing games on them and have the guests team up to answer. You can also get more involved and make displays or balloon dart boards. If you’re not into the whole shower game scene, don’t feel pressured to go overboard. Simple is just as good. If you want to go crazy, though, a shower is a great time to show off your mad crafting skills.
Last, but not least, it will be time for the gifts, and your job is basically done. The bride gets to sit down and open gifts and everyone else watches. You have one more job, though, and that’s to write down everything she receives and who it was from. That will save her life when it’s time to write thank-you cards. You can also have guests write their address on thank-you envelopes to save the bride time and hassle afterward. (She’ll love you for it.)
Planning a shower isn’t as hard as it sounds, especially if you don’t try to compete with Pinterest ideas. As long as the food is tasty, no pranks are present in the presence of Grandma, and everyone has a good time, you’ll have pulled it off with total success.
