Bridal Showers are Boring – Give Yours a Makeover

You better hope for spiked punch if you want to have fun at a bridal shower.

I don’t know many people who don’t dread going to bridal showers. Even most of my married friends found their own bridal shower to be a bit dull and uncomfortable. The reason for this is that while the rest of the world has evolved since the 1950’s, for some reason bridal showers have not.

In another lifetime I don’t doubt that women did enjoy getting dressed up, exchanging recipes, playing stupid games, and winning prizes such as dish towels and potpourri. However, that era has past. It’s now up to us to give bridal showers a much needed makeover.

Bridal Shower Themes

Deciding on a bridal shower theme allows you to neatly pull all of the million other little details together. For example, if your theme is candy, such as with Ralph Lauren’s daughter Dylan’s bridal shower, you can give guest ring pops as favors, use bowls filled with candy as centerpieces, and serve candy inspired cocktails.

Bridal shower themes allow you make the decorations, activities and food flow together into a classy event, instead of a hot mess.

Get Rid of the Bridal Shower Games

No one likes bridal shower games. They’re stupid, cheesy, and usually result in a good half hour of your life that you’ll never get back. Instead of a failed attempt to entertain your guests with dumb games, create an activity that’s actually fun and cute.

Every bridal shower budget is different, and that’s okay. You can come up with a pricey winning activity if this is a big budget affair,but it’s also easy to find some good, cheap entertainment.

Bridal Shower Activity Ideas:

• Cupcake decorating contest. Have each guest decorate a cupcake or a cookie with an assortment of toppings. Make the bride be the judge. Give the creator of her top choice(s) a box of chocolate or a bottle of wine.
• Cocktail Seminar. Hire a bartender, or bribe a friend that makes good drinks, to give the ladies a couple of cocktail making lessons.
  Allow everyone to have a sample of each creation, a small one of course. No one wants to see Aunt Sally getting sloppy.
• Spa Day. If you have a big budget and can afford to host the bridal shower at an actual spa, then absolutely do so. Otherwise, hire a
  couple of manicurists from a local beauty school (cheap labor) to come and do the guests’ nails. Instead of spending money on a ton of favors and prizes that guests will never use, give them the gift of great nails.
• Cooking Demonstration. Hire a chef, culinary student; someone that knows their way around the kitchen — whatever fits your budget, to show the ladies how to cook some kind of fabulous dish. Unless you plan to rent out a restaurant kitchen, your guests will just be watching and not participating, but regardless they can still learn a few points by observation.
• Invite the Men. There’s no reason why men can’t accompany women to bridal showers. After all, the groom benefits from the gifts
  given to the couple just as much as the bride does. Turn the bridal shower into a low-key cookout, and let the groom help open some of those gifts!
• No Activity. Whether you’re trying to keep the shower short and sweet, or have a really tight budget, it’s more than okay to just have
  no activity. This has to be better than bridal bingo.

Bridal Shower Food Ideas:

If you’re holding the bridal shower at a restaurant, then you have it made. Your guests will be served a lovely lunch that you don’t have to prepare, serve, or clean up after. While this is ideal, it is not necessarily an affordable option for most people.

Otherwise, consider not holding your bridal shower during lunchtime for these reasons:

• Makes the bridal shower drag on, and on and on…
• Unnecessary added expense. No one expects you to serve them a full meal at a bridal shower. Save that money and put it towards giving guests a nice dinner at the reception.
• Lots of extra work. Preparing a full meal, serving it, cleaning it up take a lot of work. Save yourself the effort and just serve appetizers or desserts.
• Lack of quality. If you’re trying to prepare an affordable meal for a moderately large bridal shower guest list, you’re probably going to have to cut corners to make it affordable. Why make the event less classy when you don’t have to?

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