bridal shower ideas?

[smileybrat]

my sister is getting married next year and i am throwing her a bridal shower. i have never thrown a shower before so does anyone have any good ideas for things to do, games, decorations, etc? please help.

 

[Fire14]

go to theknot.com i'm pretty sure ther is a link there to shower ideas.

 

[Kermit]

I threw a shower for my sister about a year and a half ago. Everyone's favorite game was one where we divided into teams and created wedding dresses. I prepared kits for each time with identical materials in them. They each had lots of white tissue paper, white ribbon, tape, staples, scissors, and a few white floral stems from the wedding section at a craft store. Each team chose a model, then they created a dress for her. They had a lot of fun doing it and picking the winner. As the host, I was supposed to be the judge, but it was obvious which team had won when they were done. One of the dresses looked like something a bride would wear, and the other was just odd.

There are lots of places on the Internet with other games and menu ideas. There's no limit to the games you could play. We did one that most people enjoyed where I put different cooking ingredients in numbered plastic bags and had people guess what was in each one, but I should have made it easier. I think I prepared 8 or 10 baggies, and most people just got about 3 right.

 

[LuvTigger]

Where will the shower be held? In a home or restaurant, or other location? Is this a "traditional" type of person/shower, or the "bachelarette party" type???

Games:
* We always play one where everyone gets a name tag with something wedding related. Of course, the brides name tag says, "bride," and you would have other things like maybe "maid of honor" "bridesmaid" "bouquet" "ring" "garter" and so on. You can do this many ways, but what we do is tell everyone to bring lots of quarters, and we buy some sort of piggy bank, and everytime someone calls someone by their real name, they have to put a quarter into the bank. At the end of the party, the bride gets all the money in the bank. The other way to play it is if you call someone by thier real name, you have to give them your name tag, and at the end, whoever collects the most name tags wins a prize.

I need to think a bit for other "tame" games.

I have ideas for more "risque" games too, but I'll post them only if it's going to be that kind of party.

A kind of Hawaii tradition is to have the bride unwrap her presents gently, keeping the paper and ribbon in tact if possible. After they're unwrapped, everyone uses the wrapping to "wrap" the bride and make a gown out of the paper (and if possible, the veil too). With a paper plate, holes are punched in it, then the ribbon strung through to form a bouquet.

Decorations:
Does the bride have a "theme" or certain wedding colors? The main thing is favors. The easiest thing to do is to get some kind of wrapped candy (Hershey's kisses, or Dove has wrapped candies too). You could either wrap it in some nice netting and tie some fake flowers (the kind with the wire step) around it, or one shower we did we had some little plastic swans, put the candy in it, and wrapped the entire swan with netting. If it's a large party at a restaurant with tables, you could also make centerpieces. You should also be able to find ready-made signs and things if you're not inclined to make your own.

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

We played a game that was titled how well do you know the bride and groom. It was basicly a questionare and you got points for each question correct. Some samples were where did they meet, how long have they been dating, favorite colors, favorite foods, favorite past times, as children what did they want to be when they grew up...etc!

As an extra gift I got them a honeymoon survival kit. It was soooo much fun to do. I wrapped each item separately and put a note to each item. Almost all were travel size items. For example

"For those long train rides" a crossword book. (they traveled throughout Europe

"Just in case" Aloe vera sunburn ointment
"for emergencies" a first aid kit
"for memories" a notebook to write down notes/diary type stuff from honeymoon
"can't run out of this" film for camera
"to get you in the mood" passion scented candle
"Just for fun" erotic dice


It was a lot of fun, and you can tailor it to their destination.

Have fun!!!!

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

Oh, and this worked really well, I don't know how many bridesmaids there are, but this was fun. We took the old saying something old, something new.... and divided that between the bridesmaids, and each presented something to the bride. We did this at the rehersal dinner, but could be done at the shower as well.

 

[mtemm]

how big do you expect the shower to be? Many showers in the Boston area are huge...opening the presents seems to take forever! LOL! I went to one shower that saved on the boredom factor, though. They created bingo cards on a home computer...they were 8x10 sheets of paper, each with different items in different boxes...all from her registry. They handed out markers I think so you could check items off.

It was a lot of fun...there were small gifts that the first 10 people or so won if they were able to cross diagonally, vertically, or horizontally.

Probably would work with a small shower, too, but with smaller ones it doesn't take hours to open everything...doesn't drag.

I second checking out www.theknot.com

Good luck!

Morgan

 

[CamColt]

Keep in mind not everyone is outgoing and enjoys speaking in public in front of strangers. I try to avoid the games that everyone must do something like that(ie, when the bride opens your gift, you have to read a question).
One game I saw recently was... before the meal, during the wine & hours douvers(sp?) hour, the brides sister went around to everyone. She introduced herself, and told us to look at these items on a tray she was carrying. They were just odds & ends like playing cards, nail polish, a penny, etc.. Then before dinner, the hostess passed out paper and pens and gave us a quiz...not about the tray though! She asked, who was the girl that came around with the tray? , What color shoes was she wearing?, Did she have on sunglasses(we wre out on a patio at the time)? etc...Then they did ask to name as many of the tray items as you could. We then passed in the papers and the hostess and the brides 2 sisters checked them out for a winner. I thought that was cute, and I was relieved there was no "pressure" of participating.

My favorite kind of showers food wise, are Sunday brunch buffets. Thats what was given to me and I loved it.

 

[smileybrat]

just to add a few more details about the shower:

it will be held in a recreation center
there will be about 100 people
both male and female
some kids, so keep it tame
3 bridesmaids




thanks for all the ideas