I apologize
for not getting the blog done for last week. I was kinda busy and this is
why...Last Saturday I threw Nicole a bridal shower. Since I am the
maid-of-honor, I took the lead with the planning and of course had a helpful
bridesmaid and mother to help me along the way. I didn’t realize how much stuff there is
to do when planning a bridal shower. It’s like a mini-wedding planning this
event. So I’ve put together a
Samantha guide to planning a bridal shower and now I will share it with you.
First things
first, you have to come up with a guest list which keeps on getting bigger and
of course the venue stays the same size. Then you have to invite everyone. If
it was a smaller shower, I would say make invitations and send them out, which
was what I was planning to do, but when the numbers start rising, it is way
easier to email those who have email addresses and phone those who don’t. You
can even make a special bridal shower folder in your email to keep things
organized. You can still make an email invite look pretty with the help of
fancy fonts and cute clip art, plus you’ll save on postage and will most likely
get a quick response. Here is a cute shower invite that we created in the past
for inspiration if you’re planning on making invites though.
Secondly, I
came up with a venue. The smaller the shower, the better because you will be
able to find a more interesting venue, but if you do have a large guest list,
like I do with 30 ladies coming, you will have to pick somewhere that is a bit
more spacious. I picked my grandma’s house because her house has more open
space, but my numbers kept rising so I was worried about people being squished,
but we all fit in perfectly and people were moving throughout the kitchen and
dining area as well.
Next, I came
up with a theme. Some people will go all out and get really into the theme, but
I kept it simple and had a mini-theme. Nicole loves tea, so we are did a tea
party with lots of treats and tea of course, but I have seen all sorts of
themes in my planning process.
Décor can be
as elaborate or simple as you want. Again, I kept mine simple so that it is
easy to put up and to take down and easy to make. We made purple heart chain
garlands (which we did a tutorial for Valentine’s Day), purple heart confetti, cute
flower holders, we bought purple and white garland and decorated with that and I
also bought a bridal banner and balloons! I put together the center pieces
using some glass vases that my grandma had and then I arranged flowers in it
that I bought from the store the day before. Oh, and I also made a menu that I printed on cardstock and decorated with hearts and I made name cards for the tea and fruit too.
Most
importantly when planning a bridal shower or any party, is the food! We served
desserts with tea. I had been baking for weeks. Many things were able to be
frozen so I did that carefully. I made cookies, loafs, and squares in advance.
I made chocolate mousse and lemon squares closer to the event. Plus I put together
a fruit platter and dip for the day of as well; we needed something healthy,
haha. I also made homemade fudge as a favor to give to all of the ladies. We
made little purple thank you cards to go along with that. I decided on three
types of tea to serve in fancy tea pots, Earl Grey (Nicole’s favourite), Green
Tea for those who like herbal teas, and Orange Pekoe. I also had coffee for the
coffee drinkers, juice for any kids that show up (there were two), and a couple
of different teas that people could make on their own if they really don’t like
the choices that I had for them.
Lastly, are
the bridal shower games. I looked online and found some interesting and fun
looking games. The toilet paper wedding dress thing never really amused me much
and I don’t like the idea of wasting all that toilet paper so we axed that one,
but you can do whatever floats your boat. I came up with a version of bridal
shower bingo. We punched a bunch of purple hearts out to use as markers and
then came up with a list of words to put into the squares. We had a a
discovery game, a couple of purse games (memory and things you have in your
purse), memory lane, words of wisdom, what is the bride thinking, who would do
the task, wedding-libs, and of course the clothespin game. For the clothespin
game we decorated plain clothespins to make them look a little prettier and
purpler. The afternoon progressed quite quickly. I didn’t really think about
how long opening presents would be so that cut into our game time. We didn’t
get to all of the games, but now Nicole has some to use for my future shower,
haha.
So that is
my journey and guide to planning a wedding shower for my best friend Nicole. I
hope she liked it and that everybody had a good time!
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