Bridal Shower Ideas
Asked to be hostess for a bridal shower?
When you’re planning a bridal shower, you'll want it to be an enjoyable and memorable afternoon for all of your guests. But it may seem like the responsibility of hosting a bridal shower comes with a hefty bill!
After all, you’ve got to mail out invitations, find a venue, get decorations and make food.
So, how can you host a bridal shower without spending yourself into the poorhouse?
Bridal Shower on a Budget
Follow these 5 easy tips and you’ll have end up with a great bridal shower that didn’t cost much at all.
Bridal Shower Invitations
You don’t need to spend a fortune on invitations. Look for paper or index cards you have around the house.
The invitation needs to be classy, but it doesn’t need to be made by someone else. Use things you already have. And to save major money on postage, hand-deliver the invitations. (As much as you’d like to, email bridal shower invitations are still not appropriate. Nice try, though). For more creative, unique bridal shower invitation ideas visit our bridal shower ideas page.
Bridal Shower Location
You likely won’t be hosting the only bridal shower for the bride, so your guest list shouldn’t be too crazy. It’s not necessary to rent out a hall or a church for the afternoon.
Find somewhere to host a bridal shower for free. You should be able to fit 30-35 women in your home easily, as long as you’ve got the seating. But if your quarters are already crammed, find someone who is willing to offer up their home for the location.
It is more than acceptable to host the shower at someone else’s house. Guests will certainly understand this choice. (Just be sure to thank the homeowner with a small gift).
Bridal Shower Decorations
While you may feel obliged to decorate your home to look like a piñata with streamers and balloons everywhere, a few classy decorations will suffice.
Use fresh flowers from your garden if you can, and ask friends and relatives if they have any banners or signs from previous wedding showers.
Again, if you decorate with the idea of using what you’ve already got, you won’t have to spend anything.
Bridal Shower Food
Bridal showers are usually held in the afternoon, after people have already eaten lunch. Yet too many hostesses feel the need to bombard guests with more food than they know what to do with.
A few trays of cookies and some tea or coffee is really all that is needed.
You might even ask a handy mother or grandmother to contribute to the treats with her “I-could-never-make-it-as-good-as-you-do” goodies. She’ll be honored that you asked and it will save you time and money.
Bridal Shower Gifts
A tradition when playing bridal shower games is to award winners with a small gift or prize. But you need to remember that the bride is the focus of the party.
Guests are not expecting to go home with lavish gifts themselves, and so the prizes that you choose need not be expensive. If you have a talent for handmade gifts, consider using those instead. Small candles are also inexpensive and would be the perfect little prize for a winning guest.
Hosting a bridal shower doesn’t need to be an expensive responsibility.
You can easily host a memorable and enjoyable afternoon for your guests by simply using what you have and taking advantage of the generosity of friends and relatives.
As long as the party still comes off as classy and well-organized, the bride will forever be appreciative of your efforts regardless of the price you paid.
Bridal Shower Printable Games
If you’re planning a bridal shower, then you already know that games play an integral part in the day.
Games bring enjoyment, laughter and entertainment to the afternoon and they even give guests the opportunity to take home a little treasure if they should win. Guests almost expect games to be part of the bridal shower festivities, although some might prefer that they weren’t.
First of all, games that are pre-printed make your guests feel like they need to make an effort when playing the game because you’ve made the effort in creating the game. No one is going to leave a pre-printed game blank, so this will definitely increase your guest involvement in your games.
As well as getting your guests involved, printable games leave little unknown. Guests should be able to easily look at a printable game and know what is expected of them. Fewer questions are asked and the game can then progress more quickly and smoothly. (For many guests, these reasons alone will allow them to enjoy the game more).
Printable bridal shower games also allow for involvement of all guests. Some more physical bridal shower games might leave some guests sitting out, but with a printable bridal shower game, guests need only sit and write to be involved in the game.
Most guests prefer this less-active approach, enjoying the safety and comfort of their own chair and nearby acquaintances. With a printable bridal shower game, guests are not asked to step out of their comfort zone.
If you’ve got a competitive bunch of guests at your bridal shower, then you’ll enjoy the objectivity that printable bridal shower games allow. With every question and answer being clearly written down, there is no room for confusion. Answers are either right or wrong, and guests can add up their own scores. No one will feel compelled to argue against the decision for who won the game since the answers and winners were obvious and indisputable.
Perhaps one of the best arguments for using printable bridal shower games is the opportunity they give the hostess to be organized ahead of time.
All she needs to do is simply print out the sheets for the games she has chosen to play during the bridal shower and then staple them into a booklet for each guest.
Once each bridal shower guest has a booklet and something to write with, the host can then proceed with each game uninterrupted. All of the organization is done ahead of time with printable bridal shower games.
Using printable bridal shower games is a great strategy for a hostess.
They offer well-organized and fun entertainment for guests without requiring too much of them.
Guests will appreciate the time and effort you put into organizing the printable bridal shower games. But more so, they’ll feel comfortable playing them which will leave them with fond memories of your bridal shower.