A bridal shower is a gift giving party held in honor for a bride-to-be in anticipation of her wedding. The bridal tradition stipulates that the "Maid of Honor" is responsible for organizing and running the bridal shower for the bride but must coordinate the event with the bride's mother. The official bridal shower should include the bride's mom, the groom's mom, all the bridesmaids, even the grandmom's, and other close friends of the bride.
Bridal showers, kind of had their beginning thousands of years ago and started out as a dowry concept. A dowry is a gift of money of valuable goods so she can provide gifts to the groom-to-be for marriage. There may be times that the bride does not have enough money or goods for the dowry. So in order for the bride to have a dowry for marriage she would meet with relatives and friends at a venue and they would provide her with money and goods so she could meet the demands for a dowry for her marriage.
Today bridal showers remain a pre-celebration tradition prior to a wedding as family and friends gather bearing gifts the bride needs and wants. The maid-of-honor is responsible for organizing the date of the event, runs the affair, which usually includes food and drink, bridal shower games, and the unwrapping and opening of the gifts. The gifts for a bridal shower which can run the gamut, can be pre-wedding presents and can be things that the bride wants such as an espresso maker, fancy serving dishes, kitchen things, things for the house, beautiful clothing is acceptable too. Bedroom and honeymoon things such as lingerie, bathrobes, designer towels, slippers, and massage and body lotions and oils are encouraged.
There is no set rule on gift buying for bridal showers, buy what you can afford. Anyone invited to a bridal shower must be invited to a wedding. It would be considered rude and an insult to invite someone that is not also invited to the wedding. Sometimes, the bride's mom will run the bridal shower instead of the bride, that's okay but the bride's mom should work things through with the maid of honor. Sometime's even there are a number of bridal showers, if the groom's mom lives far away should may have a bridal shower, the bride's school friends may run a party and friends from work or clubs may run a bridal shower too. Whoever runs a bridal shower should always at least consult with the maid-of-honor so there is no date conflict, to get bridal registry information and to be informed of gifts the bride has received.
The best bridal parties tend to be at somebody's home. That's because often there are the bridal games and it's best to be in a place where the girl's can really have fun and say a little personal things and let their hair down. If the event is not held out of somebody's home, it can be held in a private room in a restaurant, reception facility, hotel room, beach house, or a private area of a golf, country, or yacht club. The bridal shower invitations don't have to be anything special, the announcement of the bridal shower should go out 4 to 6 weeks before the bridal shower and should be held one to two months before the wedding. It is a good idea to include information on the bride and groom's bridal registry on the invitation.
Sometimes the bridal shower will have a theme and the venue may be decorated to the theme. The theme may be Hawaiian, Mexican, Masquerade Ball theme, Victorian, or something other. Some bridal showers will include the guys, but sometimes the guys ruin the affair, will flirt, embarrass some girls, get in trouble with the girlfriend, roughneck, and tell stories the girls don't want out. The best bridal parties tend to be just with all the women. A nice gesture is when the groom pops in to the bridal shower near the end of the affair.
Sometimes, bridal showers are mixed up with bachelorette party. You should have a separate party if you want a bachelorette party. Many mom's and grandma's and even very conservative friends might formulate a bad impression. The bride too must be open minded to this type of event. Bachelorette parties are very similar to bridal showers, the big difference is the gifts may be a little risque and naughty, with gifts such as vibrators, sexy lingerie, sexy panties, funny t-shirts, and how to have sex guides. Also bachelorette parties, might include male striptease, or maybe include drinking or a night on the town visiting striptease places or having drinks at a late night club. To keep the girls out of trouble with their families, you might consider using a limousine, and have a sleep over pajama party afterward. Some online sites for bachelorette gifts are listed below.
Bachelorette Party Gag Gifts
www.bachelorite.com
www.bacheloretteparties.com
www.bachellorettepartystore.com
www.baronbob.com
www.chiff.com
www.funslump.com
www.giftapolis.com
www.midnightdreamslingerie.com
www.spencersonline.com
www.wastesomecash.com
The main event at bridal showers are the bridal shower games, some common bridal shower games are listed below. The bridal shower games helps to make the event adding some fun and excitement. Don't forget to take pictures and videos of all the ladies in action and keep as part of your keepsake material along with your wedding album and wedding video.
Bridal Shower Games
1 - Wedding Bridal Bingo
Wedding Bridal is just like Bingo but the numbers are replaced with wedding words on the cards. The bingo cards are recreated using wedding words instead. The girls take turns picking a folded paper with the wedding word out of a flower girl basket or a hat appropriate for a wedding and mark the appropriate square on the card. Don't forget there is a free space in the middle. A favor prize goes to the winner, is it five in a row or does the card need to be filled up?
Bingo Letter Wedding Word Replacements
B1 - Altar, B2 - Balloons, B3 - Best Man, B4 - Bible, B5 - Bride, B6 - Bridesmaids, B7 - Bouquet, B8 - Bows, B9 - Candy Buffet, B10 - Catering, B11 - Centerpiece, B12 - Ceremony Site, B13 - Chocolate Fountain, B14 - Color Scheme, B15 - Cruise, I16 - Diamond, I17 - Decorations, I18 - Disc Jockey, I19 - Engagement Ring, I20 - Favors, I21 - Fiance, I22 - First Dance, I23 - Florist, I24 - Flower Girl, I25 - Gift Baskets, I26 - Gifts, I27 - Hairstyle, I28 - Honeymoon, I29 - Hors d'oeuvres, I30 - Husband, N31 - Ice Sculpture, N32 - Jewelry, N33 - Limousine, N34 - Luncheon, N35 - Maid of Honor, N36 - Makeup Artist, N37 - Marriage Certificate, N38 - Mother of the Bride, N39 - Nuptials, N40 - Officiant, N41 - Orchids, N42 - Photo Frames, N43 - Photographers, N44 - Present, N45 - Punch Bowl, G46 - Reception Facility, G47 - Recipes, G48 - Rehearsal Dinner, G49 - Ribbons, G50 - Ring Bearer, G51 - Ring Pillow, G52 - Romantic, G53 - Rose, G54 - Shower Games, G55 - Silk, G56 - Song, G57 - Speech, G58 - Streamers, G59 - Theme, G60 - Tiara, O61 - Veil, O62 - Videographers, O63 - Wedding Cake, O64 - Wedding Chapel, O65 - Wedding Day, O66 - Wedding Dress, O67 - Wedding Invitations, O68 - Wedding March,
O69 - Wedding Musicians, O70 - Wedding Planner, O71 - Wedding Program, O72 - Wedding Sparklers,
O73 - Wedding Tent, O74 - Wedding Toast, O75 - Wife
Wedding Bridal Bingo should be one of the first games played. The words conjure up wedding thoughts and ideas that gets mentioned at the bridal shower.
2 - Wedding Favor Price is Right
Go visit a wedding favor website and gather information on about two dozen wedding favor products and their prices. You can print the screens and show pictures too, but you don't have to. All the ladies start out with $10. Each favor is shown or mentioned, each lady submits the price, the amount she missed the price by gets deducted from the $10. When the $10 gets wiped out the lady is eliminated. The last lady left wins a wedding favor.
3 - Wedding Dress Game
The ladies at the bridal shower break into two teams. Each team gets three rolls of toilet paper and six large paper clips. Each team chooses one member to be the model and is decorated with using the toilet paper into a wedding dress. After the dresses are all made and decorated, the bride chooses which dress she likes the best and that team wins a favor.
4 - What's in the Paper Bag
A bunch of manly things are placed in paper bags. Each paper bag is passed around and the ladies try to figure out and guess what's in each bag. The lady that has the most guesses correct wins a favor. The bags include guy things such as a beer mug, shot glass, jock strap, decorator boxer shorts, men's wallet, shaving cream, razor, aftershave, golf accessories, condoms, tuxedo bow tie, men's tee shirt, baseball cap, suspenders, belt, zany toilet paper, a pipe, cuff links, bottle opener, tools, whatever you can think of. If the groom arrives later at the bridal shower, he is presented with a bunch of these gifts.
5 - Bride and Groom Trivia
Before the wedding, the Maid of Honor asks both the bride and groom a bunch of questions and gets their answers. She then asks all the ladies at the bridal shower if they know any of the answers to the questions. The lady who has the most correct answers wins a favor. Ideas of questions to ask are listed below.
What is their favorite color?
What is their shoe size?
Where did they first meet?
What color is the groom's eyes?
Who's their favorite actor, actress?
What's their favorite sport?
What's their favorite game?
What's their favorite movie?
What's their favorite TV show?
What's their favorite food?
What's their favorite dessert?
Where and when did they get engaged?
6 - Celebrity Hubby
A bunch of pictures of male celebrities pictures are printed out along with a picture of the groom. All the pictures of all the celebrities are rolled up with a rubber band and placed inside a balloon. At the bridal shower all the ladies have to pick a balloon and blow the balloon up and have to bust the balloon, the preference is to sit on the balloon, it depends on the ladies, they could prick the balloon with a pin or toothpick if you can't get the ladies to sit on the balloon. Whichever balloon has the groom, that lady wins a favor.
7 - Pass the Bouquet
If you don't have a bouquet, you can create a makeshift bouquet by gathering all the bows on the gifts and taping them together. This game is played like musical chairs. All the ladies are gathered around in a circle, could be a table or a number of chairs. One lady is given the bouquet and starts passing the bouquet around. The maid of honor or somebody plays wedding music on a music device in a room next door who can't see the action. Whoever was holding the bouquet when the music stopped gets eliminated. The last lady left standing wins a wedding favor.
8 - What's in Your Purse
Time to bring your purses out ladies. A bunch of pieces of paper are folded and placed into a flower girl's basket with things you might find in a lady's purse. Things that are very common might get 1 point, things kind of common get 3 points and things not so common get 5 points. Each lady takes their turn and pick a piece of paper and states what they must find out of their purse. Things like lip stick, chewing gum, nail files, a credit card with the number 4 on it somewhere, lip balm, mini scissors, picture of a guy, picture of a girl, a ten dollar bill, three pennies, the bride's phone number, the maid of honor's phone number, etc. The first lady to get to 21 points wins and gets a favor.
9 - Two Truths and a Lie
Each lady writes on a piece of paper three things on a sheet of paper, two things that they did that are the truth and one thing that's a lie. The maid of honor or bride read all the lady's statements and all the remaining ladies have to guess which statement is the lie. Whichever lady has the most correct guesses, wins a favor.
10 - Lady's Memory Lane Game with the Bride
Each lady writes down three memorable occasions they had with the bride, the occasions are read aloud and the ladies have to guess which lady wrote the memory, the lady with the most correct picks wins a favor. Divulge who wrote the occasions after all the ladies occasions have been read.
11 - Cotton Ball
Hilarious game, take some pictures or videos. Each lady takes a turn, she is given two large bowls and a wooden spoon. She is blind folded, one bowl is filled with cotton balls. She has 60 seconds to move all the cotton balls from one bowl to the other without touching the cotton balls with her hands. Not so easy because the cotton balls are so light. The lady that successfully transfers the most cotton balls wins a favor.
12 - Guess the Famous Person or Wedding Item
Similar to 8 Ball, a moderator is needed for this game. Pin or tape the name of a famous person or wedding item to each person's back as it becomes their turn. Each lady takes turns in asking a question about this famous person or wedding item. The person asking a question gets first dibs in guessing who or what the answer is within 15 seconds and then the remaining ladies gets a turn to guess and has 30 seconds to formulate an answer. If nobody has the answer then the next lady gets to ask a question. Person who first guesses correctly gets 1 point, whoever has the most points after all the ladies have their turn at the end wins a favor.
13 - Wedding Scramble
Rearrange a bunch of wedding words associated with the bride. Include things that are important to the bride, such as where is the ceremony taking place, the reception hall, the full name of the groom, where the couple met, their wedding song, what is their favorite movie, her favorite actress, where did she go to school, where is the honeymoon going to be, etc. Whoever gets the answers first wins or the most answers wins a favor.
NCUCNA CANCUN
INAST RKAM CRUHHC SAINT MARK CHURCH
EISSADE CHEBA BULC SEASIDE BEACH CLUB
RIDESVIER GHIH LOCHOS RIVERSIDE HIGH SCHOOL
MESAJ RYNEH DAMAS JAMES HENRY ADAMS
14 - Pass the Spoons
You break the ladies down into two teams. Each team gets a big wooden spoon and has a long piece of yarn or ribbon tied to it. The competition begins, the large spoon with the tied string has to pass down underneath each lady's clothes through her shirt and pants or dress and then on to the next lady. After the spoon passes through all the team member's clothes, a bow has to be tied from the spoon of the last lady back to the first lady with the end of the yarn or ribbon. The team who wins the contest wins the favor. Cut the yarn or ribbon about five foot per person playing.
15 - Stuff It
The Maid of Honor sits down with the groom and asks him a list of questions. What's his favorite color? Who is his favorite actor? Where did they go on their first date? Where was their first kiss? What's his favorite restaurant? The Maid of Honor asks the bride all these questions at the bridal shower, if the answer is wrong the bride has to pop in a wad of bubble gum. Hopefully things won't get too messy.
16 - Wedding Ad Lib Game
You can go to your local book store or game store and find one of those Ad Lib books which tells a story with nouns, names, adjectives, and adverbs missing. You can also get some Ad Lib stories online, one site that has then is www.sunhagen.com. Go around the room and have each lady supply a wedding related word and fill the word into the story. When all the words are added, read the story aloud. The story comes out pretty comical.
17 - Chinese Wedding Favor Game
This Wedding Game can be played one of two different ways. It can be played between each bridal game or played like it's own game at the very end. The main difference, the winner of the bridal game picks a wedding favor or each lady picks a bridal favor as her number is picked. The game goes like this.
A bunch of wedding favors sit on a table. There should the same amount of wedding favors as ladies at the bridal shower, each lady is given a number. All the wedding favors should be nice favors at prices that are affordable. The favors might include bath soaps, bath creams, bubble bath, cookbooks, wine corkscrew, kitchen apron, cheese spreaders, cheese and cutting board. etc. You want one or two naughty gifts too, might be a vibrator or some type of sex toy, how to make love book, ball and chain, fur handcuffs, wacky bathroom toilet paper, wacky underwear, sexy lingerie, massage oils and lotions.
Be careful of the gag pick you choose, don't get too wild if the gag will offend some of the bridal guests. Know your bridal audience, ask beforehand if guests might be offended with risque gifts.
The game begins, maybe there are 20 players. The first number is chosen out of a flower girls' basket or a lady's hat. Maybe the first number is picked is lady with the #4. This lady can pick and unwrap a favor. The next number is picked and #11 lady goes, she has a choice, she can steal number #4's gift or pick a favor that has not been opened yet and open it. If #4's gift is stolen she then would pick another wrapped gift and open it. The next number picked maybe it's #13. The lady with #13 goes and can steal either gift that has been open or open a new wrapped favor and open it. If a lady has her gift stolen she can go after someone else's gift or go for a new wrapped favor and open it. The game continues until all favors have been opened and each lady has a favor.
The game gets zany once a number of gifts are in circulation. There are a few rules though. You can't take back a gift directly that was stolen, if somebody takes your gift you can't directly take that gift back, you have to take another gift in play or pick an wrapped favor and open it. Also if you claim a gift 3 times, you can announce I claim this gift and the gift is yours to keep for good. Sometimes the gag gift really gets around and sometimes the person is stuck with it. The game ends after everybody has their turn. It works well from about 6 gifts up to 50, but it may take awhile to play if you have more people.
The other way to play it between bridal games, you need the amount of favors according to the amount of bridal games you want to play. You might have standalone bridal favors for team play.
This Chinese favor gift game always makes the bridal shower a memorable occasion, as long as the favors are pretty good. A good gag gift creates a lot of fun, memories and laughs too. This game is great to have taped and shared with the guys afterward.
So that's it, there are still many other bridal games out there, find others off the internet! The bridal games help make the bridal shower a very special day. Also remember to serve good food at the bridal shower, the food can either be served by the hostess or you can ask each guest to bring their specialty. If there are some recipes someone wants to try out before the wedding, this is a great opportunity to try them out.
Some bridal parties might start off with inviting a wedding hair stylist or makeup artist to give a little talk. You also might invite any of your wedding vendors that you feel comfortable with to the bridal shower that are female. This could be your hair stylist, makeup artist, officiant, wedding cake baker, florist, decorator, musician, organist, wedding coordinator, or wedding planner. There is no obligation, only if you feel a bond or have made a good friend.
Don't fret, the key is to organize it like you remember kid's birthday parties. The bridal games and the good food gets everyone conversing, and makes it a day all you all will always remember. See you on the other side!
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