Picture yourself getting a wedding shower invitation in the mail. (GROAN!!) It’s not that you don’t want to support the bride-to-be and lavish the lucky couple with gifts and well wishes…but couldn’t these traditional get togethers be a little bit more enjoyable? The best part of going to one is usually all the great food and home baked goodies and visiting with relatives that you don’t see very often. But the thought of sitting through ALL THOSE GIFTS being opened seems like a chore.
The last wedding shower I attended had allot of new ideas. The most unique one was that it was a Display Shower, which meant that all the guests brought their gifts unwrapped and they were displayed for everyone to look at.
If you want to host a shower like this your first step would be to include a note with the shower invitations to inform the guests NOT to wrap their gifts. You might want to say something like, “This is a Display Shower so please bring your gift unwrapped. We will be making special cards at the shower to display with your gift.” or, “Please bring your gift unwrapped, we will be creating an awesome display of all the gifts.
Next you would have to decide if you have enough help from the wedding party to do this yourself or if you want to hire a service to do it for you. I would recommend hiring a service to do it for you. It takes allot of time and many different supplies to make it look great. If you did it yourself you would probably need to enlist the help of all the bridesmaids and then there would be no one left to take care of the guests.
When guests arrive, there is one person with a guest list. You tell them your name and hand over your gift. They record the gift item next to your name and a card is made with your name and your gift written on it. (e.g. Jane Doe – crystal wine glasses) A group of five women were in charge of the gift display and they did an amazing job. They set up tables that were hidden behind privacy screens before anyone arrived. Then, in order to display each gift they also removed everything from the boxes and set it all up. They used candles, colored stones, pretty, gauzy material to drape around the tables and plate holders to set up the gift display cards.
At each place setting there was a guest’s name written on an envelope so everyone knew where they were sitting. There was also a blank card there. When the game part of the shower started everyone was instructed to write their address on the envelope and they were given to the bride-to-be to use for the thank you cards. The blank card was for the first game. Guests were told to write their best marriage advice and sign their name. The cards were put in a basket and three were drawn and read aloud for a prize. There were a few more games played and all the prizes were scratch-off lottery tickets in a little colored bag with a penny inside to use to scratch off the ticket.
After the games were finished the guests were invited to view all the gifts. As I said before, the display was really spectacular. Having everything out of the boxes was fantastic and the candles, stones and other decorations made it look stunning.
Dessert was last. The caterers supplied the dessert that was served and to go boxes were provided for every guest to take home various cookies, cupcakes and breads that were home baked by a few of the relatives. What a great idea!
After all of the festivities were done and the majority of the guests had left, the display crew tore down their beautiful display of gifts, taking their supplies with them and putting all of the gifts back in the boxes as if it had just come from the store. That had to be the absolute worst part of the job, and the main reason for hiring a service. The bride-to-be was provided with the completed guest/gift list and the envelopes with all the guest’s addresses already filled out. What a time saver for her!
As a guest, this Display Shower was very enjoyable. Having the gifts already opened and displayed was a huge time saver and also ensured that the guests wouldn’t nod off from boredom. I’m sure this Display Wedding shower theme will be a huge trend setter!
See Also: The Best Wedding Shower Gift
