More wedding stuff - What kind of showers do you have?

[RUDisney]

In my family, we have come to call the type of shower that we throw, a "Scranton Shower." This phrase was coined by my SIL. She is from the Philadelphia area and had only been to house showers until she went to mine. Hers were always a surprise for the bride, so she said the bride often showed up in jeans. Usually, the hostess(es) make the food themselves. The bride opens all of her gifts and shows them to the crowd.

A "Scranton Shower" is one where you book a restaurant or a hall for the luncheon or brunch. The bridesmaids open and pass the gift to the bride to show the group, or all of the gifts are displayed on tables as the guests arrive.

My SIL wanted a "Scranton Shower" so we through her one for our relatives and then the bridesmaids she had near Philadelphia through her a traditional shower in one of their homes for her friends and relatives.

What type are you more apt to attend in your area?

 

[CamColt]

Mine was a Sunday brunch at a restaurant. It was a "surprise", but I dont do surprises well, and figured it out...all but where it was. My bridesmaids were all there(even one who had been in the hospital the night before with alcohol poisoning), and they sat around and helped me and DH open the gifts(ie passed them to me, took them away, wrote stuff down, made bouquet with the bows, etc...).
The shower was actually thrown by my mother and sister(MOH), because none of my bridesmaids had any money and they wouldnt have done anything decent.

Most of the showers Ive been to are like that, out at a nice place, with a meal served, and a "surprise". Ive only been to 1 house shower and that was for the brides second marriage, and Ive also been to 1 non surprise shower.

 

[snoopy]

We've always done house showers in my family, but I like the idea of doing it in a restaurant. Takes the work off of one particular person, and makes it more of a group effort.

I do not like the idea of the bride not being surprised though. I like surprises, and would be very disappointed if anyone had told me about my wedding or baby shower.

 

[caitycaity]

i only had one shower and it was 3 days before my wedding. i live very far away from all of my family, and even further from dh's family. most of my friends had just graduated college and had no money to travel to where we lived, and b/c of the wedding, i had no money to travel to where they lived.

both dh's family and my family threw me a shower together three days before my wedding though, which was great. since we got married at wdw, everyone who came to the wedding was able to be there. it was brunch at 1900 park faire and we got a semi-private room. the theme was even better: disney christmas ornaments since we got married right before xmas and hadn't ever had our own tree before.

obviously mine was non-surprise since i was running around like a madwoman three days before the wedding.

 

[disykat]

House showers thrown by friends or bridesmaids. I've never seen one that is a surprise, usually the bride provides the guest list. It used to be cake, punch, and maybe nuts only were served, but lately people are starting to have appetizers or a light meal too. The bride opens her own gifts.

Personally, I hate that everything now has to be a catered event to be socially acceptable. Give me cake, punch, and a few good friends any day.

 

[MerryPoppins]

I had several wedding showers. They broke down like this:

Christmas shower - Couple shower with a lot of my people from church and friends of my parents & given by a friend of the family(DH got to open the gifts), in a home with appetizers

Kitchen shower - Ladies from church attended this party given by a friend from church, in a home with cake and punch, each lady gave me a recipe along with a gift for my kitchen

Yard and Patio shower - Informal couples shower with some of our close friends & given by our college roommates who also married! (DH got to open gifts again), in a home with appetizers

Misc. shower - Large shower with friends of DH's parents & given by several lady friends of DH's parents, a fancy shower in a large home, cake & punch

Misc. shower - Large shower in a restaurant & given by several close friends of my parents, lunch was served

I had a designated friend writing down the gifts and someone else passing them or putting them out on a table. No one else ever helped me/us open our gifts. Few people attended multiple showers - if they did we made sure that the second one was Christmas or something like that, so they wouldn't have to spend a lot on another gift. I'm trying to remember, I think only 2 sets of our attendants got to attend any of the showers. Most of them didn't live in the same town.

 

[mtemm]

I was married in MA, but not brought up there. Our family was used to house showers and that is what they threw me and what I wanted. I'll never forget how different it was for the local people more used to ones at restaurants or halls with catered food! LOL!

Mine is still talked about by both different groups...to the MA friends I had a tiny shower (over 30 people!) but to my midwest/west coast friends I had an enormous shower! LOL!

I was not surprised, although I would have loved to be. My sisters threw it for me and one of them just doesn't like surprises. Also, they were both travelling from out of town, so I would have figured out the date (I did months before they told me...I knew it when it would logically be).

M.

 

[WDWLVR]

When I got married 12 years ago I had three showers and all were small (10-15 people) home showers. DH came to all of them and helped with the gifts. My bridesmaids only came to 2 of them as they weren't invited to the family shower my MIL threw (DH was the oldest of his generation and I don't think she was up on what to do for a shower).

Anyway I've been to both - small, family ones, and big ones in a hall with lots of people. I prefer the smaller ones.

 

[Fire14]

Mine was Very small at hostesses Daughter's house. I was asked for guest list and when I'd like it and was involved with planning.

My one Bm was invited and attended, my MOH wasn't invited (me bad) and I doubt would have attended.

My now Husband knew about but didn't attend.

 

[Boots]

My son and his fiancee had a really nice one. They are getting married on July 12th. He is a youth director at a large church. His youth had an ornament shower for them before Christmas. They received over 70 ornaments and none were the same. They also recieved a big box to put them in plus a tree skirt. One lady brought an electric can opener because she didn't realize what it was. I thought this was just so nice.

 

[Marla Hellwig]

2 - one mostly family and co workers - all female

the other one was a couple from the community theatre that we both were in at the time

 

[Hambone128]

My MIL threw a shower for us and she called it a co-ed shower both my friends and DW's friends came and we all had a blast!!!!! We played games and stuff like we took stickers and put sexually suggestive things on them slapped them on people's backs and we had to give clues as to what it was. But they couldn't be obvious clues we had to try and stump them. they got a prize for it or something I don't remember.



Another one we did was I we (DW and myself) each had to be blinfolded seperately of course and all of the guys lined up on one side girls on the other and we had to guess which kiss was from each other...MAN WAS THAT FUN!!!!!!! Anyways those are just some ideas I really do encourage people to try this stuff it is a complete riot. I would do it again if I could!!!
Any more questions about it feel free to ask I don't mind at all

 

[LuvTigger]

I've been to all kinds of showers too, some at houses, some at restaurants. Some were the "bachelorette party" type, and some were very proper and "clean."

One tradition we have in Hawaii (I think it's more with Japanese families) is that the bride unwraps her gifts and keeps the paper and ribbon as in-tact as possible. After all the gifts have been opened, the guests then proceed to "dress" the bride in the wrapping paper and make her look like she's wearing a wedding dress. The ribbons are strung through a paper plate to be made into a "bouquet."

One shower was co-ed, so not only did we dress the bride, we dressed the groom too!

 

[MerryPoppins]

We kept ribbons to make a bouquet, too. In fact, my bouquet at the rehearsal was a big bunch of ribbons from one of my showers that a lady put together for me. LOL! I wonder if I have a picture of that?