|
Bridal Shower Gifts
Bridal showers are a great time for the ladies to get together and shower the
bride to be with gifts that celebrate the role she is soon to be taking up as
a wife. Bridal shower gifts can follow the theme of the bridal shower itself.
A morning coffee or brunch bridal shower might inspire gifts for the morning
like coffee, robes and more. An afternoon tea and dinner party can inspire leisure
time and evening activity bridal shower gifts.
Bridal Shower Favors That Tell The Future
While you prepare for your wedding day, it’s possible your friends (if
they’re still single) are asking themselves some pretty serious life
questions. Will I ever find the “one”? Will I ever get married?
Will my mother ever stop nagging about the clothes I wear? Being the good friend
that you are, you’re probably thinking it would be pretty awesome if
you could provide all the answers for your friends. The good news is you can!
Well, sort of. Most people have heard of the Magic 8-Ball, but if you haven’t
it’s a nifty toy with magical powers. No, really. Ask it anything you
want and it’ll give you an answer. Help all of your bridesmaids map out
their futures by giving them each one of these bridal shower party favors.
The Magic 8-Ball is portable and can be used anywhere, and for anything. For
example, your bridesmaid might ask the ball, “Will I ever be rich and
famous?” and the Magic 8-Ball will have an answer for her.
Okay, I know you’ve got this figured out and, unless your bridesmaids
were raised in a cave with bears, they won’t be overly mystified by these
unique bridal shower favors. You can’t say they’re
not interesting though! At the bridal shower party, have a little fun and take
turns asking the Magic 8-Ball some of your deepest, most secret questions!
Warm up your abs because you’re going to do some laughing.
Don’t be thrown off guard with these mysterious bridal shower party
favors, expect it to give you one of these common replies:
Better not tell you now
- Cannot predict now
- Concentrate and ask again
- Don't count on it
- It is certain
- It is decidedly so
- Most likely
- My reply is no
- My sources say no
- Outlook good
- Outlook not so good
- Reply hazy, try again
- Signs point to yes
- Very doubtful
- Without a doubt
- Yes
- Yes - definitely
Before you give out the gift, tell your bridesmaids and maid-of-honor that you
got them something to guide them through the rest of their lives. Now, look into
the ball and ask your question.
Engraved Bridal Shower Favors
These days, you can get just about anything engraved or
personalized by why would you want to stick with the same old tried and true
traditional bridal shower favors when you can have really neat things engraved?
Okay, maybe a lock for your gym locker doesn’t exactly fall under the “neat” category,
but it’s definitely practical and every time your bridesmaids get their
sweaty gym sneakers our of their lockers, they’ll think of you!
Bridal shower favors don’t have to be expensive
gold-plated candle holders or engraved pewter jewellery.
The average everyday person wants something useful
that serves two purposes: It has to have some meaning
and practical value. Bonus points if it makes them
laugh! Alright, that begs the question…what
kind of engraved or personalized bridal shower favors
should I get? Below is a partial answer to that question.
Keep in mind that
“practical use” can be very loosely defined:
1) Engraved or personalized wind chimes;
2) Belt with
engraved buckle;
3) Personalized toilet paper rolls;
4) Personalized
wallet;
5) A set of engraved coasters;
6) Personalized board games;
7) Personalized photo Rubik’s
Cube;
Maybe you know someone who had the neatest bridal
shower favors that you want to copy their idea. Maybe
you’d like to come up with your own bridal shower
favor ideas. Through a combination of suggestions from
friends and online searching, you should have no trouble
coming up with some unique bridal shower favors for
your bridesmaids.
Gags And Gadgets As Bridal Shower
Gifts
Whoever said girls were made of
sugar and spice and everything nice didn’t meet my friends. It’s too easy
to fall into the tried and true traditional bridal shower
favors when there’s a whole world of gadgets and
gags out there! These days, you can buy anything from
a swearing parrot to pole dancing kits. If traditional
bridal shower favors are completely out of the question,
consider the following unique bridal shower favors:
1) Pink drill set
2) Humorous tee-shirts (pre-made or DIY)
3) Funny undies/panties
4) Squirt Guns
5) Silly String
6) A subscription to Playgirl or a calendar
7) Caricature drawings of either the bridesmaid or
the bride and groom. Get photographs and take them
to a local artist, someone who specializes in caricature
drawings.
It’s easy to find stores that sell gag gifts.
If there isn’t one near where you live, do an
Internet search using keywords like “funny gifts” or “gag
gifts”
to give you an idea of what’s available, prices,
etc. Sometimes the things you see online inspire your
to create your own homemade bridal shower favors. The
key to pulling off gag gifts is knowing your bridesmaids.
If there’s one who you know is going to be offended,
be careful in what you give as a bridal shower favor.
Otherwise, the bridal shower gift is only limited by
your imagination.
The Bridal Shower Party Favor Game
Bridal shower favors don’t have to be overly expensive;
in fact, the whole concept should be fun and light-hearted.
What you want to do is bring everyone together to share
a few laughs, enjoy each other’s company, and take
something away from the experience that they’ll
cherish forever. So instead of stressing over the perfect
bridal shower favors, why not turn the whole thing into
a game. This game works best if one of the bridesmaids,
or the maid of honor, coordinates it. It’s really
simple, fun, and everyone will take away a good experience
from it. Here’s how it works:
1) Ask each bridesmaid, and the
bride-to-be (as long as the party isn’t a surprise!)
to each bring a wrapped gift.
2) Set a price
limit.
3) It’s up to you if you want to have the gifts
theme-based. Is the party theme-based? If so, try to
keep the gifts within that particular theme.
4) At the party, someone needs to be at the door to
greet guests. For all the guests who have a gift, their
name goes into a hat.
5) Put all the gifts on a table in one spot.
6) At some point in the evening, after a light meal
and a few drinks, begin the game by pulling a name
out of the hat. That person gets to choose from any
of the gifts in the pile. They have to open the gift
in front of everyone before sitting down.
7) The next name is drawn from the hat and that person
gets up and chooses a gift. She, too, must open the
gift in front of everyone. At this point, she can trade
gifts with the person who went before her.
You can only trade your gift once! By the end of the
evening everyone who brought a gift should be going
home with a gift. This way, everyone goes home with
inexpensive bridal shower favors and memories of a
fun evening.
Sweet Bridal Shower Favors
There’s nothing that says you absolutely have to
give bridal shower favors, but it’s a nice way
to thank your friends who’ve been there for you.
If your bridesmaids have a sweet tooth, consider giving
candy-coated bridal shower favors. Forget the expense
of buying individually boxed and personalized mints (you’ll
pay a lot of money to get three mints in a box!). Here
are some ideas for cheap bridal shower favors that’ll
help keep your bridesmaids’ blood sugar at an all-time
high:
1) Be generous with jelly beans! Fill a clear plastic
candy bag with jelly beans and insert the package into
a white mesh lingerie bag. Stick a pretty white bow
on it. Now your bridesmaids will have something sweet
to nibble on while they wait for their delicates to
finish in the rinse cycle.
2) Gigantic lollipop bouquet. Take three gigantic
lollipops and cut the “stems” to different
lengths. Fit them into a tall, slim vase, and present
them as bridal shower favors to your bridesmaids.
3 ) Marshmallow pillows. Buy your bridesmaids each
a high quality pillow case (stitch their initials into
the pillow case yourself, or splurge on having them
personalized). Fill the pillowcase with oodles of large
marshmallows (it’s going to take a lot of them!),
but first protect the pillowcase by placing the sugary
treats into clear candy bags. Tie up the end of the
pillowcase with white ribbon.
These are just a few ideas, but there are so many
candy choices out there that it shouldn’t be
too hard to come up with ideas for sweet bridal shower
favors. Use practical items as candy containers and
jazz up the gift with sparkles,
Gags And Gadgets As Bridal Shower
Gifts
Whoever said girls were made of
sugar and spice and everything nice didn’t meet my friends. It’s too easy
to fall into the tried and true traditional bridal shower
favors when there’s a whole world of gadgets and
gags out there! These days, you can buy anything from
a swearing parrot to pole dancing kits. If traditional
bridal shower favors are completely out of the question,
consider the following unique bridal shower favors:
1) Pink drill set
2) Humorous tee-shirts (pre-made or DIY)
3) Funny undies/panties
4) Squirt Guns
5) Silly String
6) A subscription to Playgirl or a calendar
7) Caricature drawings of either the bridesmaid or
the bride and groom. Get photographs and take them
to a local artist, someone who specializes in caricature
drawings.
It’s easy to find stores that sell gag gifts.
If there isn’t one near where you live, do an
Internet search using keywords like “funny gifts” or “gag
gifts”
to give you an idea of what’s available, prices,
etc. Sometimes the things you see online inspire your
to create your own homemade bridal shower favors. The
key to pulling off gag gifts is knowing your bridesmaids.
If there’s one who you know is going to be offended,
be careful in what you give as a bridal shower favor.
Otherwise, the bridal shower gift is only limited by
your imagination.
The Bridal Shower Party Favor Game
Bridal shower favors don’t have to be overly expensive;
in fact, the whole concept should be fun and light-hearted.
What you want to do is bring everyone together to share
a few laughs, enjoy each other’s company, and take
something away from the experience that they’ll
cherish forever. So instead of stressing over the perfect
bridal shower favors, why not turn the whole thing into
a game. This game works best if one of the bridesmaids,
or the maid of honor, coordinates it. It’s really
simple, fun, and everyone will take away a good experience
from it. Here’s how it works:
1) Ask each bridesmaid, and the
bride-to-be (as long as the party isn’t a surprise!)
to each bring a wrapped gift.
2) Set a price limit.
3) It’s up to you if you want to have the gifts
theme-based. Is the party theme-based? If so, try to
keep the gifts within that particular theme.
4) At the party, someone needs to be at the door to
greet guests. For all the guests who have a gift, their
name goes into a hat.
5) Put all the gifts on a table in one spot.
6) At some point in the evening, after a light meal
and a few drinks, begin the game by pulling a name
out of the hat. That person gets to choose from any
of the gifts in the pile. They have to open the gift
in front of everyone before sitting down.
7) The next name is drawn from the hat and that person
gets up and chooses a gift. She, too, must open the
gift in front of everyone. At this point, she can trade
gifts with the person who went before her.
You can only trade your gift once! By the end of the
evening everyone who brought a gift should be going
home with a gift. This way, everyone goes home with
inexpensive bridal shower favors and memories of a
fun evening.
Sweet Bridal Shower Favors
There’s nothing that says you absolutely have to
give bridal shower favors, but it’s a nice way
to thank your friends who’ve been there for you.
If your bridesmaids have a sweet tooth, consider giving
candy-coated bridal shower favors. Forget the expense
of buying individually boxed and personalized mints (you’ll
pay a lot of money to get three mints in a box!). Here
are some ideas for cheap bridal shower favors that’ll
help keep your bridesmaids’ blood sugar at an all-time
high:
1) Be generous with jelly beans! Fill a clear plastic
candy bag with jelly beans and insert the package into
a white mesh lingerie bag. Stick a pretty white bow
on it. Now your bridesmaids will have something sweet
to nibble on while they wait for their delicates to
finish in the rinse cycle.
2) Gigantic lollipop bouquet. Take three gigantic
lollipops and cut the “stems” to different
lengths. Fit them into a tall, slim vase, and present
them as bridal shower favors to your bridesmaids.
3 ) Marshmallow pillows. Buy your bridesmaids each
a high quality pillow case (stitch their initials into
the pillow case yourself, or splurge on having them
personalized). Fill the pillowcase with oodles of large
marshmallows (it’s going to take a lot of them!),
but first protect the pillowcase by placing the sugary
treats into clear candy bags. Tie up the end of the
pillowcase with white ribbon.
These are just a few ideas, but there are so many
candy choices out there that it shouldn’t be
too hard to come up with ideas for sweet bridal shower
favors. Use practical items as candy containers and
jazz up the gift with sparkles, ribbons, etc.
Games People Play
Most of the women who attend a bridal shower have at
least one thing in common: they are all there to celebrate
the bride get ready for her wedding. When you have that
many women, some whom may be meeting for the first time,
bridal shower games are the way to go because not only
do they get conversation started, they can also help
increase the enjoyment of the party.
Three good bridal shower games to get your party guests
talking include:
Eat & Tell - Set up a buffet and
for each food item type on the table, label them with
different topics such as high school, college, first
kiss - etc. For each food type a person has on their
plate, they have to reveal something with regard to the
topic mention (e.g. tell the story of their first kiss,
what was their favorite activity in high school and what
did they want to be when they were college, etc.)
Play Detective - as guests arrive, give
them a note card with the name of another guest. The
goal of the game is to discover fun events, information
and stories about that person without actually talking
to them. It can be hard, especially if some of the guests
don’t know each other, but it can be fun to discover
one anecdote about the person on their card.
Old Fashioned Truth or Dare (Sans the Dare) - Let
everyone have a drink and some snacks and gather them
in a circle either in a comfortable area or around a
table. For this bridal shower game, the idea is to have
fun and laugh, not to really embarrass anyone or reveal
deep dark secrets. Some great questions to get the game
started are:
- Describe one of your most embarrassing moments.
- If you were a character in Veggie-Tales, what vegetable
would you be and why?
- If you could describe yourself in one word, what
word would that be?
- Cast yourself in a Disney movie - who would you
be and why?
- Can you answer the question: 'how many hairs are
there on Chewbacca?'
- Do you have a tattoo? What is it?
- What's the goofiest thing you've ever done at work?
Customs & Bridal
Showers
Do you know the tradition and customs behind bachelor
parties and bridal showers? For those who like to know,
here is a little history lesson.
The bachelor party dates back to the times in Ancient
Sparta. Sparta was a city-state in Ancient Greece. At
the time the bachelor party was considered the future
groom’s last chance to gather money for his future
by gambling. After the marriage took place, his wife
would take over the finances. Since she ran the home,
she also controlled the purse strings.
Bridal showers actually got their start not from celebrating
the woman’s betrothal, but because a woman’s
father disapproved of the daughter’s choice in
husbands. If a father did not give his blessing to the
marriage, he did not have to provide a dowry for his
daughter’s future marriage. Bridal showers took
the place of the dowry in order to provide the bride
with household items and supplies to seed her future
marriage home with. Our modern concept of the bridal
shower did not begin until after the late 1890’s.
Bridal Shower Gifts
Some popular bridal shower gifts today may include:
- A Thin Digital Camera - Digital cameras are getting
more and more compact. Every bride to be has a hundred
different things to do and to remember. A thin digital
camera will fit in her purse and let her take snaps
of the different items she wants to remember so she
can compare them all together later rather than trying
to remember a certain shade or pattern
- Comedy Gifts - A gift of comedy can be a funny
book, a funny movie, or tickets to a comedy club
- planning a wedding is stressful as all get out
so giving them something to make them laugh is a
great gift
- A Day at the Spa - Go in with the other girls and
pick up a spa gift certificate that lets her get
a manicure, pedicure, hair done and even a massage
- talk about shedding the stress and pampering her
- Travel and Guide Books - Do you know where they
are planning to have their honeymoon? Do they have
more than one place they are talking about? Give
her some guide and travel books to the different
destinations so they can check out the different
options and make their planning easier
Holiday Bridal Shower Cakes
Do you have to make a cake for the bridal shower? Some
bridal showers incorporate holiday themes, particularly
standard holidays, that may fall close to the wedding
date or the bridal shower date. For example, a couple
marrying at Christmas may have a Christmas tree cake
at the bridal shower. Here are a few ideas for choosing
your bridal shower cake:
- A table of mini-wedding cakes is a cute idea, especially
if you are going for the all out wedding themed bridal
shower. The mini wedding cakes can be single serving,
so be sure to order enough for the entire party.
- Holiday themed bridal shower cakes are a real kick
especially when you incorporate ideas from major
holidays like Halloween, Christmas, Easter and more.
- Themed bridal shower cakes
may embrace a theme from the bridal shower itself,
much like a kid’s
birthday cake does – for example, if the bride
is a sport’s enthusiast and the honeymoon is
going to be spent scuba diving, skiing or doing some
other great activity, theme the bridal shower and
the cakes around that idea.
- Picture themed cakes are a
neat way to go, especially in honoring the bride
parties; silk screening allows you to take several
photographs of the bride at various points in her
life and creating a scatter picture as the cake
decoration – this is a real heart
string tugger, especially when you have photos of
the bride as a baby, child, teenager and young adult.
|
