Hey all-
So i'm a bridesmaid in the wedding of a very close friend of mine. in her bridal party, she has 6 bridesmaids (one is the MOH-her sister), and a junior bridesmaid.
most of us will be in post-secondary once september comes around, and that doesn't finish until April. And the wedding is in May 2011.
so i've been trying to figure out the logistics for pre-wedding parties.
we'll be having a bachelorette next May. it will include just the bridal party (to keep things small, since we'll *hopefully* be going to a cottage for the weekend) and her MOH (sister) is planning that one.
the 6 bridesmaids (including me) have been discussing what showers we'll be throwing for her. we'd like to have a specific lingerie shower (separate from the bachelorette hopefully) and a regular shower. the lingerie shower will be very small (just bridal party and a couple close friends/groom's sisters possibly) and we'll most likely have it at someone's home. the guest list would probably be around 10-15 people. now here's my question: should we expand the lingerie shower (somehow) to incorporate more than just lingerie? because if everyone brought one piece of lingerie that would end up with around 10-15 sets... which seems like a bit much. for one person who's just getting married. now, lingerie IS something she wants/will need as she doesn't have any right now and isn't planning on buying any until after she's married. is there another way we could organize it, or would that be okay? i'm open to any kind of suggestions!
however, we still want her to have a regular shower. she's young and won't even be leaving home until she's married. so that will be easy to give gifts at... soo my second question is this: i talked to the bride's mother to ask if she knew of any showers being planned for her already. her mom said that she was going to have one for family members in October and was hoping us bridesmaids could throw one for the younger people... pretty much all her friends. so i talked to the other bridesmaids and MOH to see if any of them wanted to plan the shower. i know traditionally it's the MOH who does that, and her MOH is her sister so that could work, but her sister is already planning the bachelorette and when i asked her if she wanted to plan it, she said she'd be comfortable with me planning it because i seem to know what i'm doing with it. the other bridesmaids said the same thing, and agreed to help in any way that was needed.
is it okay then for me to host the shower for her, or should it just be hosted by all of the bridesmaids?
also... does anyone have ideas on where to have the shower? we might just have it at someone's home, but since we're already having the lingerie one at a home (more private/less awkward that way) i thought it might be fun to try something else. but i'm not sure what.
and final question: the timing of the showers. as i mentioned above, school starts in September. so we will need to plan around the school calendar
the wedding is on May 20th (friday) of 2011. the bachelorette will most likely be the weekend of May 6-8th. the weekend after that is another wedding so that weekend is totally written off.
School finishes on April 30th. So, for the regular shower, we were thinking of having it in mid February. it isn't too soon before the wedding, and a few of us have a holiday from school then.
now, for the lingerie shower... it gets trickier. the bride really would like to include her FH's sisters in some of this. but they live on the other side of the country. we were hoping to have them come to the lingerie shower, and therefore just have the lingerie shower sometime just before the wedding (so in May).
of course, it would depend on how early they would be coming down... but the bride just mentioned to me that she's not sure if it would be too busy then to have an afternoon/couple hours in the evening for a small shower. i told her to think it over and let me know (having it close to wedding for FH's sisters to come vs. having it earlier in the year like December so it isn't too close to the wedding date)
but I'd like to hear your opinion on this, before she lets me know what her thoughts are.
I mentioned this to the other bridesmaids, and said we could divide the 3 parties into 2, but they said they'd like to have 3 rather than just 2.
thank you!!