So you’re the maid of honor and you have a very important job at hand. You need to make the bride-to-be feel special for at least half a day, if not the entire day. Well, I have been there, done that. It is no easy task I tell you. I had a very small budget, but was able to put together something meaningful and creative and I’ll show you how to do it.
First off, you really need to make sure you know the bride. What are her favorite things to do, to see? Where is she going on her honeymoon? What colors are her favorites? Most importantly, who will she truly appreciate seeing at her shower? These are all questions you need to answer before you even start planning. For my sister’s shower I knew she loved the color lavender. She was going to Hawaii on her honeymoon and loved, I say that with emphasis here, loved wearing flip-flops. Still does to this day. Her best friends were mostly those she attended college with in California, but she still had some good friends from high school in Washington State, where I was living.
The bride may have a preference as to when to make sure the majority of people she wants to come can and will attend. So asking her first for a time and how many people, and who, she would like to invite are crucial steps in gathering information. Some maids or matrons of honor ask the bride exactly what she wants. But, for most, it’s great to see the look on their face of sheer surprise when they see what you are able to put together on your own. So get those names and numbers and circle that date on your calendar.
Next start by making a lot of phone calls. Ask the people on her list if that date works for them and what they feel she is most interested in and if they have any details of the wedding they can share with you. And make sure they swear utter secrecy to you. Also, unlike a bachelorette party, you have to, have to, have to invite the mother of the bride, the mother of the groom and any grandmothers and other women who are involved in the wedding. Make sure you let any girls you suspect of buying “honeymoon” type gifts to save it for the bachelorette party itself. The mother of the bride may be okay with those, but grandmother’s aren’t always keen about having to see what guests bought at their local love barn. Make sure you remind everyone to include a gift receipt, just in case.
Now that you have a date and a guest list. Start making those invitations. For my sister’s shower I hit Joann’s and bought terry cloth and card stock. I cut the terry cloth to fit in an envelope and used a hot glue gun to attach the card stock to it. I took a paint pen and printed on the card stock, “Help us send Stephanie and Carl on their journey through the rough and calming seas of marriage.” Use stickers and little drawings or mementos or photos. You should save one for yourself, in case you ever have to do this again, and one for the bride as a memento.
After making and sending the invitations out, It’s time to start thinking about gift bags for the guests. There are many places to buy them: The Dollar Store, Joann’s and Michael’s, just to name a few. Oriental Trading Company offers great party supplies in bulk at a price that won’t rip your wallet in half. You can order their stuff online and it gets to you usually within two weeks, depending on what and how much you order. For my sister’s shower I hit Joann’s, my home away from home, and got the right number of lavender colored paper party bags. I bought some glass spice jars and filled them with bath salts that I made, very cheaply I might add, from a recipe I found online. I painted the spice jars with Hawaiian stencils I found and filled them up, covered them with some cotton balls and distributed them into their bags. I made each girl a home beauty recipe book with printer paper and colored pencils. Beauty products are great for showers because it’s something every woman uses and they smell great! I also took the tissue paper the glass spice jars were wrapped in, shredded them and stuck them in the bag to add a little extra something. I crocheted flowers that were in her colors and each girl got one also.
For the bride, I like to do something extra special. So I made her a sign that she could hang on her bathroom door to let her hubby know when she was beautifying herself in the tub and needed quiet time. I also bought a large poster board and my other sister came over and cut it into the shape of a giant flip-flop. I got some stickers that were of a bikini and her beach bag and towel and stuck it on the poster board along with stickers of what a guy would wear to the beach while holding airline tickets in his hand. Everyone was to put their advice for her and blessings and their name. Now that’s something they could hang up on their wall.
As with all party favors and gifts at a bridal shower you want to keep it tasteful. Feel free to go nuts at the night-time extravaganza bachelorette party. But, for now, it’s all about class and politeness. Another thing you should have on hand, or make yourself, is a book where you can write down who sent what. Also include thank you cards and some self-addressed envelopes so all the bride has to do is fill out the card, stick a stamp on it and mail it out. Make life as easy as possible for her. After all, she has a million other things to do for this wedding of hers.
What would a bridal shower be without a cake? Nothing. Girls would starve. It would be on the news. Ha, ha – just kidding. But, really there is no need to go to a special bakery and spend upwards of $50 or more for a cake that will be gone in 30-60 minutes. For my sister’s cake I went to Albertsons with a rough sketch of what I wanted the cake to look like. I paid about $5 more than the cake was with the original toppings on it and got a wonderful cake that looked like a desert island with two people sitting on the beach. It had written on it: Bon Voyage!
Games are something no bridal shower can do without. The best place to look for games is online. Just type ‘Bridal shower games’ into your search bar and see what you come up with. There are so many great websites out there to look at, it really would be pointless for me to just give you a few.
Two more things to make this a truly special day for the bride and her girls. Food and a little something for the bride’s head: a veil. Food is as easy as 1,2,3. Make a list of what she snacks on, go to the store, buy that along with something to drink and other finger foods and viola! You have food for the shower. The veil is also very easy to come across. Most local craft stores have a wedding and party aisle. It contains a tasteful, but loud veil, that let’s everyone know that she is the bride and deserves all the attention in the world. If you can’t come across a veil, make one. It doesn’t need to be fancy at all. You don’t even need to sew. Just buy some veil material at the craft store, half a yard should do it, and bunch it up together at one end, secure with a rubber band and hold it in place in the bride’s hair with a simple hair clip. If you really want it to look great you can always sew things into the material itself or weave some ribbon into it, but simple is usually best I find. Especially if you’re strapped for time and money.
All in all, it’s best to start the preparations about 3 months before you want to have the shower. It may take less than two pages to write down how to do it, but believe me, speaking from experience it takes at least 2-3 months. But, when it’s over and you’re at the shower, it will be so worth your time and money. Have fun and remember it is all about the bride!
