Bridal shower ideas

jenice95

Hi all,

I'm a BM in a wedding in October and the bride's shower is coming up soon. The MOH is a major slacker in planning ANYTHING so I was hoping to get some ideas for games and prizes, or just any general ideas to make it special for her. Any ideas would be appreciated. I've actually only ever been to one!

TIA.

jrsygrl10

i am approaching my own personal wedding season-i am in 3 weddings in 3 consecutive weeks from sept-oct. bride #1's shower/bach party is next weekend and it goes on from there! so needless to say, i've been in bridal shower mode for months now! 2 of the showers are pretty simple, but i am MOH for bride #2 so it's pretty much what i have focused my time and efforts on.

i split the tasks up among all of the BM's, so i am not entirely sure what each girl is doing with her specific task. however, there are a few things that i do know.

it seems pretty typical any more for the BM's to each put together a gift basket for the shower and then raffle them off to guests. this is in addition to favors. it was done at my shower and it's being done at all 3 of my brides showers. they all have theme's: coffee; spa; romantic; candle; italian; picnic; kitchen, etc. i intend to purchase a light colored tulle and ribbon to wrap the baskets up so that they are somewhat uniform. i haven't decided how they will be "raffled" off at the shower, but i'll figure something out.

also, for bride #2 i spun off of the panty game (you buy 7 or 8 pairs of panties and there is a poem that goes along with them as you hand them to the bride). we are asking each guest to bring a pair of panties and wrote a little saying to go along with the request. it's a toss up whether i will take everyone's panties and put them in a basket to give to the bride or if i will purchase clothes pins and string them up around the venue (it seems the majority keeps leaning towards the latter). the saying says that any pair of panties can be purchased, it doesn't have to be sexy.

you can also print out recipe cards and mail them out to the guests and ask them to write their favorite recipe on the card and bring it to the shower and place them in a recipe card box. that was done for my shower and was really cute & helpful.

we didn't do any games, so i can't help you there. i have another BM heading up the games for one of the showers and i'm not sure what they are. i think bridal bingo is one of them.

i have also seen index cards passed around to the guests with the request to write down some advice for the couple. the cards were then placed in a tackle box with some candles and things like that. the point was that when the couple would have an argument they were supposed to pull out the tackle box and take out the items to help bring them back together and read one of the index cards for some advice. the tackle box was actually handed to the groom when he showed up at the shower.

just start googling, tons of ideas will come up! good luck!

king26

I did this for my cousin's shower and she did it for mine, and it was really fun!  We did 12 prizes, one for each month.  We had 12 bags, each with a month name on it, then put little things in each for each month.  February had heart stuff in it (candle and dish towel and candy), October's had Halloween stuff in it, etc.  That was really fun.
  We also did the recipe thing, where my MOH sent out a recipe card in each invite asking for a favorite recipe and one ingredient to make that recipe.  It was cute-I got a ton of new recipes, my mom bought me a recipe box, and I had a whole basket of food to take home!
  As PP mentioned, having each BM make a basket is common as well.  I won a cool one at one bridal shower that was a cooking basket with all kinds of spices as well as some cooking utensils.
  As for games, we did the how well do you know the bride, the game where you put one half of a famous couple and people put the other half, bridal gift bingo is a popular one I've seen.
Good luck!

jlbaxter33

I think the baskets are a good idea. What we did at my friends shower was each guest received one ticket when they arrived to put in the baskets. Then we played a trivia game and people who won a question got a ticket.

I love the recipe cards, especially b/c I love to cook so that will definitely be happening at my wedding. I think it was LaFemmeRousse mentioned a fun game that I think we are going to do. The bridesmaids go to a kitchen store (like William Sonoma) and buy very odd looking tools (like an avocado slicer, cherry pitter etc) hold them up and the attendees guess what they are, if they guess correctly they get a ticket for the baskets, and the bride gets to keep the random tools. I think its fun.

I also like the purse scavenger hunt. You make a list of random items (like safety pins, kleenex, gum, paper clips, etc) that may be found in a purse and the person with the most items gets a ticket.

I know a lot of people don't like the games, but I think they're fun!

morainemom

My daughter's bridal shower was a Sex and The City theme. We had a Chanel purse cake and also a cake with a city skyline and a big hot pink high heel shoe on top.

Instead of the toliet paper gown game - I made one that was a Project Runway Wedding Gown Fashion Show.  I bought PR fashion dolls from Michaels and Joann Fabrics.  I made wedding gowns of different styles, lengths and colors.  I had all kinds of accessories.  I put all of the items in ziplock backs with adhesive tabs.  Ech table had around 5 minutes to make a gown that they thought my daughter would wear on her wedding day. 

My daughter left the room while the designers were hard at work - and then returned and picked a winner and a runner-up.

We also had a game about How Well Do You Know The Bride and Groom. 

We had a champagne bottle timer and while my daughter was opening gifts - whoever's gift she was opening when the timer went off, won a prize.  We did that several times.

We had 2 gift baskets that the guests put tickets in to win - one was a Wine basket, the other a Sex and The City basket.

If you would like to see photos of the shower, PM me and I'll give you the link.
The wedding reception was at LeMont and I have photos of the wedding and reception on there as well if you would like to see them.

And I agree with the PP - I love games and the guests all seemed to have fun and enjoy them as well. 

LaFemmeRousse

jlbaxter mentioned my favorite game from mine   I think I have the full list of random kitchen stuff if you want it!  I also love the "how well do you know the bride and groom" game, or the version where instead it's "how well does the bride know the groom" with questions asked beforehand and recorded. 

The purse scavenger hunt sounds fun!

As far as prizes go, I've seen those cute theme baskets that others have mentioned.  I've also seen little trinkets like nice stationery, picture frames, kitchen gadgets, etc.

jenice95

Thanks for all the ideas ladies. Some are ones I haven't heard of yet!

LaFemmeRousse and Morainemom, YGPMs!

morainemom

Jen,
YGPMB!

I hope you can find some ideas and inspiration!

InkedMegs

At a friend's shower last weekend, they played Pass the Poem which I thought was cute.  The site I linked to says "The Bridal Book Game."  They cut rectangular pieces of paper, made each of them a "page" of the poem and put a ribbon through a hole they punched in the corner to tie the "book" together.  They handed this out right at the end of the shower, but I think it would have been a great game to play at the beginning if you have people sitting at tables where they don't know the other people (which I was!!!)

I heard of someone doing the "Lights Out" game as well:  The BM's bring a suitcase filled with different articles of clothing.  The bride is blindfolded and told that the "power is out" on her honeymoon and she has to get dressed in the dark.  I think it's a funny idea, but there really isn't a "winner" here per say.  You just get to embarrass the bride!!!

LaFemmeRousse

Jenice, sending you PM back now!