Bridal Showers - need help

[ga9497]

What was your favorite bridal shower gift?
What gifts have you given that were received really well?
What didn't you get that you wish you did?

Anyone have fun cute games to play during the Bridal Shower?

 

[ga9497]

Meant to add that I am helping my sister plan this for her daughter, my niece, it is the first time I have ever planned one and a long time since my sister planned mine

Does anyone have that poem that goes along with the household cleaners?
If you know what I am talking about

 

[mtemm]

What was your favorite bridal shower gift?

I loved everything I got off of my registry, but the most special to me wasn't on it...it was the rosary my very ill grandmother gave me. It was hers and had been blessed by the pope when she went to Italy back in the 1960s. She died about a year later. Its a treasure I will always keep.

What gifts have you given that were received really well?

Registry, registry, registry.

What didn't you get that you wish you did?

I pretty much got my whole registry for my shower, plus some nice, unique gifts as well. I really wanted for nothing by the end of it.

Anyone have fun cute games to play during the Bridal Shower?

I've only been to one shower that had a game, and it was bridal bingo. I've seen it done 2 different ways...the way I played it they gave out pre-printed bingo sheets that had registry gifts in all the squares. If you connected across/down/diagonally, you won (you checked off the gifts as the bride opened them). The other way I played it was actually at a baby shower (this was titled baby bingo, but essentially the same game). This time, however, you were given a blank bingo sheet and you filled in gifts you thought would be opened before the opening began. Then crossed them off as they were opened. Each person that got bingo got a small gift. It was a lot of fun...especially at a larger shower when there are tons of gifts to open. But it could be fun at a smaller shower, too.

 

[ceiligh1]

What was your favorite bridal shower gift?
I didnt have a shower but my favorite pre wedding gift was a gift card to the local spa. Work was very stressful at that point. I was training a lot of new staff and dealing with a computer program transfer while planning an out of state wedding. My coworkers gave me a card to go get a massage and relax a bit. I ended up using it for a makeup consult and to have a manicure as I didnt have the time for the massage. But I still loved it and I couldnt have done it without them.

What gifts have you given that were received really well?
Registry items are always recieved well. we have given something that they are interested in, or a donation (their request) to a charity they are working with. For example a print/photo of a place that means a lot to them as a couple. OR for a low $ idea that we thought of having done for us take the bride and the groom seperately to a pretty location ie a park and interview them on video about their relationship, how they met, the first date, first impresions ect. That way all of that is recorded for them. Usually memories of that become overshadowed by the wedding and sometimes it is nice to look back.

What didn't you get that you wish you did?
Towels- seriously both my dh and I had very old hand me down towels and that was one thing we really wanted. Nice soft fluffy towels. But we got them ourselves after the wedding with the discount we got at the store we registered at.

 

[princess pooh]

One of my favourite gifts was a Cuisinart mini-prep food processor. I didn't have it on my registry but my mom thought it would come in handy. I love it and use it almost every day.

My aunt also put together a recipe collection that I love

 

[ga9497]

My aunt also put together a recipe collection that I love

I would love to do this too, can you give me an idea of how it is put together and what was included?

 

[princess pooh]

Ga9497, everyone who came to the shower brought an index card with their favourite recipe. My aunt put them together in a recipe box that's now on my kitchen counter. My family isn't very crafty so I'm sure there are more creative ideas out there

 

[AprilShowers]

My favorite shower gift was a basket put together by a friend. It had some kitchen necessities that you might not think of at first:
Corkscrew, oven mit, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, measuring spoons, decorative kitchen towel, you get the idea. I know there were many more things, I just can't remember them all. It was 15 years ago after all.....

 

[Fire14]

Gotton:
Laundry basket filled with stuff for kitchen and bathroom( rugs, serving sets, can opener, laundry soap, dish soap etc).
Given:
Gift cards to fave places to eat, spa gc.

 

[nkjzmom]

The bingo game is especially nice for a shy bride/mother-to-be. It takes some of the pressure off of her as she opens her gifts because everyone is so involved with marking their cards.

I love all the ideas involving a basket full of goodies. When I was in college and money was tight for all of us my friend and I would put together a basket full of items for a nice homemade dinner...pasta, pasta sauce, sparkling grape juice, a boxed dessert, bread, candles, etc. It was always received very well.

 

[gradtchr]

Meant to add that I am helping my sister plan this for her daughter, my niece, it is the first time I have ever planned one and a long time since my sister planned mine

Does anyone have that poem that goes along with the household cleaners?
If you know what I am talking about

This one? I posted it a couple of weeks ago for someone else:
I love to do that as a gift!! I have a really in depth one and one of my friends was actually upset when I didn't do it for her shower OOPS! When I do it I just go to Target and start looking and find all sorts of different things and when I'm there try to figure out what I could say. Some normal things are: tide, era, SOS, chocolate treasures, kleenex, bounty paper towels, a laundry basket to put it all in, pledge, joy, and gosh I can't even remember the rest.

googled and found this one:
"Dear Sarah, You are entering a new ERA. There will come a THYME in your marriage when you find "groom's name" is not always MR. CLEAN, but don't send out the S.O.S. because he might VANISH. "Groom's name" will always bring you CHEER and you will find him to be your white DOVE. When you are together you will find JOY, so remember your PLEDGE and give him your ALL. To "bride's name" and "groom's name" the Best of Luck & Good Fortune in the years to come. And may "groom's name" always be your HONEY.

Variation: This one is a letter utilizing mostly cleaning products and health products. This is to be presented by the bridal party to the bride in front of guests:

Dear "bride's name", It is only fair that we let (Bride's name) in on a little SECRET. (Groom's name) may be FANTASTIC but wait until (Bride's name) finds out that he is not MR. CLEAN. He'll expect her to be a DYNAMO in the kitchen and he thinks all women should MOP & GLOW. At night he'll wake you up at DAWN to SNUGGLE up close. We all AGREE that (Bride's name) and (Groom's name) will have a very happy LIFE together. Our wish for you is that your home be filled with JOY and you remain as happy as ever in the FUTURE.

 

[zulaya]

sent you an e-mail

 

[WDWAurora]

I liked all the registry stuff of course, and all the "wedding-y" stuff that you only get at this point in your life. We got a lovely silver (pewter, whatever) cross that has the "Two shall become one" Bible verse on it that hangs by our door. We got a house cleaning basket that had a couple rugs, kitchen towels, dish washing liquid, a swiffer, etc. in it. The gift cards to the places we were registered were good because we could use them to get the stuff we needed more urgently, like our bathroom stuff (for some reason people weren't buying the bathroom stuff-which we really needed, and it wasn't expensive, so who knows).

I gave scrapbook supplies one time and did the first page for her using their invitation and an engagement picture I got from the groom. That was really well received. Otherwise I've just done stuff off the registry.

I wish we had gotten more frames, and a framed invitation. I thought those were things that you always wound up with too many of, but we only got one 8x10 frame and no framed invite. I'll do those things later. I also wanted more wedding-y stuff, but a lot of people don't like that stuff, so who knows.

I like the game where you do questions about the bride and groom. I also like the wedding word scrambles. I'm not big on games overall, but that's because I grew up only going to big showers (that's just how we do them here) and it just wasn't how we did it. The two I mentioned were the only 2 I had at the shower where we had games. No games at the showers at home.

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

I got to watch most of my friends get married before I finally did, and I somehow got nominated as the bridal shower planner for most of them! The best ones I planned (or helped plan) were the ones where we did a theme. Here's a few of our favorites:

Baskets: We asked everyone to incorporate a basket into their gift, so some people brought spa baskets, some bought items off the registry and arranged them in a basket, some brought baskets of kitchen items (food or utensils), and one woman brought a basket of cleaning supplies. We carved a watermellon into a basket shape for fruit salad, and we used baskets as serving bowls for a lot of the food.

Spa: We found some recipes for "home spa" treatments - facials, scrubs, masks, etc. and set up stations around the house for people to make their own and give themselves some pampering. Guests brought robes & slippers with them, and we provided all the headbands, towels, etc. We had candles lit and quiet music, and it was a lot of fun!

"Moving": The bride was moving out of state after her wedding, so we all gave her gifts for the move. Gifts could be something to help with the move, or to remember her old state, or to help her get familiar with the new state.

As for games, the most popular one was the purse scavenger hunt. I have a list of items that women might have in their purse with points assigned to them. For example, you would get 5 points for each credit card you have, 50 points for having a penny from the year of the bride's birth, 25 points for a tube of red lipstick, etc. We usually did this one in teams, and the team with the highest score gets a prize.

We also did a clothes pin game where each guest is given 2 or 3 clothespins when they arrive and they have to clip them onto their clothing somewhere. Anytime someone catches you sitting with your legs crossed (not your ankles, but your legs with one leg over the other knee), they can take one of your clothes pins away from you. The person with the most clothes pins at the end of the party wins a prize. Some people will intentionally give up all of their clothes pins just so they can sit with their legs crossed again, and others get very into it and catch everyone else! The bride is given all the clothes pins in a hanging bag at the end of the party. I have a list of alternative uses for clothes pins that I pass on with them (things like nailing them to a wall and using to hang scarves/mittens/hats, or using to hang kids art work, or keeping socks paired up in the wash, etc.) When I had time, I would paint the clothes pins with patterns or even just solid colors and then put a coat of weatherproof sealer of the top when they dried.

Sorry this got really long - I have a few more ideas from my days of planning showers if you're interested - just PM me!

 

[Aimeedyan]

My fave gifts were those off our registry - really. We are not sentimental people with regards to material things and didn't want nor need lots of wedding frames, candles, pictures, crystal, etc. We got some of that stuff and for the most part, we gave it away to family or sold it at a garage sale. Just not our thing.

We were setting up house for the first time and had NOTHING - no towels, no bedding, no cookware so those were the things we truly wanted and needed. And yes, I still remember who gave us what and we married 3.5 years ago.

One of our showers was a cooking theme, where people were supposed to bring a recipe, the dry ingredients for it, and a cooking utensil to use. Some did it but most didn't. Cute idea, though!

There are lots of great shower game ideas online. We only played games at my lingerie shower, and I won't talk about those games =)

Have fun!