Thursday, August 20, 2009

Sign me up for Bridal Showers 101.

So I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm the MOH (maid of honor) in my cousin's wedding coming up in October. And with the regular day of wedding and some pre-wedding duties comes planning the bridal shower. Ummm say what? One more time? Mic check?

Yes I love planning holiday parties and birthday parties but even though I'm a future bride (and I've been to two bridal showers lately) I'm pretty dang clueless.

Here are the facts:
  • The bridal shower will be mixed with family and friends both young (well 19 at youngest) and not as young (like aunts in their 40s/50s).

  • I'm having the shower Labor Day weekend, so it might be hot it might not be.

  • She'll be honeymooning in Thailand (I was thinking maybe a beachy theme or Thai food, but umm no idea).

  • It's a luncheon, so like noonish.

  • The shower is going to be at an Aunt's house.
For food I thought about doing some appetizers like spinach dip, fruit tray and chips or something. And for lunch maybe sandwiches and salad? But it just seems so boring, I need ideas people! And for dessert I think I'm going to make cupcakes or a cake or lemon bars or umm something awesome.

For decorations I'm completely clueless, I have no idea what to do. And favors? Ha! Help?

And for games, I don't want to go overboard or do too many. But I was thinking of a "newlywed game" where I ask her fiance questions about her and we make her answer them. And them yeah that's all I got. Help again?

Um so if you have any ideas, tips, free food please send them my way! I'll love anything you've got, this is quite the learning experience for me :)


And how appropriate is this comic? haha.




happy thursday!

23 comments:

Vanessa said...

For party favors, go to Ikea and pick a few kitchen things like mixing bowls, funky picture frames or vases from the plant section. For food, I have a recipe for a fantastic dill dip that is served is a round of Hawaiian bread. (you know, the one that comes in the orange package?) Let me know if you want the recipe, it's super easy.

Pandora said...

If you go to bridalshower.com (haha who thought it would be that easy) they have a bunch of great ideas. You could always have a couple people who come bring something for food. A potluck sort of thing. That way you can have a nice variety of things on the menu.

amanda said...

decorations definitely don't need to be anything fancy. especially since it's at a house. but as far as the decorating goes-stay within the colors of her wedding. like the color of yours dresses and such.

the newlywed game is super cute. something also fun, as she is opening up her gifts-have a timer set for 7 minutes. when it goes off, the persons who gift she is opening gets a little prize.

you can have a wishing well for the shower as well. you can write in the invitation that everyone should bring a small kitchen item, or a recipe, or a gardening tool or anything small to throw into the wishing well. {unwrapped of course}

i am sure whatever you do, it will turn out just lovely!

Kyla Roma said...

There's a bridal party.com website?? Perfect! Between that and notes taken from you I should be set, I'm the MOH for my best friend's wedding next year. Crazy!

Unknown said...

You can do a gift bingo - give everyone a blank bingo card, they write in the squares what they think the bride will get, and and when they get bingo you give them a prize. At the last bridal shower I went to, for prizes it was just little things like nail polish or lip gloss. I was just a bridesmaid so I understand the stress!

MH said...

oooh, bridal showers are fun! A simple way to decorate that is super cute is using heart-shaped ballons floating in the room...
The newlywed game is fun, the girls did that for my shower... loved it!
Another cool idea is ask everyone to send you a recipe so you can put together a cookbook - or they can bring it to the party and write them down on a book!
Oh, so many ideas! There are great websites with lots of ideas... Just have fun with the planning, it's gonna be great!

Auburn Kat said...

For my sisters I printed off love recipes and tied them to cookie cutters. For decorations we bought flowers in pots and then gave them away as prizes. We also had each bridesmaid bring a gift basket to give away as prizes. Good luck!

A Super Girl said...

I like the idea of a thai theme. Thai chicken pizza and other thai-esque recipes can probably be found online. If not, I know I've got a recipe for it somewhere that I could send.

I like the newlywed game, too!

Ali said...

Okay, I just went to a bridal shower and they played that "how well do you know your fiance?" game but when the bride-to-be got a question wrong, she had to shove a piece of gum in her mouth. See how this can get fun?

Also, each guest wrote down a piece of good advice and bad advice for her and the bride-to-be decided which were good and which were bad. You can get pretty creative (and funny) with the advice!

Aaaand that's all I got!

Kathy Campbell said...

Just had one this past weekend and made beach cupcakes: http://mrssoup.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/cupcakes/

We also wrote down bits of advice/letters/notes on a piece of paper and placed them in envelopes and on the outside of the envelopes put the date that they could open them. 1 year, 2 days after the wedding, their 50th anniversary, that sort of thing.

I'm a huge fan of the toilet paper bride game as well.

Also, don't forget to make a bouquet out of the bows from the presents for her rehearsal bouquet.

Anonymous said...

A great game for mingling, especially when there are lots of various age groups there is a game I made up where you assign each guest the name of a famous lady who is married. They get two clues to share with people about who they are, and they have a number on their shirt. Each guest gets a piece of paper with the numbers listed on them and space to write. They have to talk to each other, get the clues, and try to guess who the "famous bride," is. I had a victoria secret gift card for the winner, but it can just be for fun, too.

For party favors I usually get little chinese take-out boxes and fil them with candy & a black & white photo of the bride/groom.

And yes, don't foget to keep the bows for the rehearsal bouquet! =)

Whatever you do, it will be fabulous!!!

oyveyheyhey said...

I second the bridalshower.com recommendation! Seriously. I had to plan a bachelorette/bridal shower for my cousin and that site helped me A TON.

Rachel said...

That's a really cute comic! Sooo true, huh?

Jill Pilgrim said...

I love the idea of doing something a little beachy- its always nice to tie in to the wedding somehow, you know?

Simply Valorie said...

That newlywed game is a great idea -- just don't ask anything too hard to scare him, haha. Also, Starbucks has a chalkboard-ish mug you can write on right now -- as they're mingling, all the guests could write advice or well wishes on the mugs. I guess you could also do that with any mug and a paintpen, haha.

Do really cutesy fun favors -- I'm thinking IKEA or pottery barn (sale items) or anthropologie (sale items) for cutesy/funky things like little barrettes or frames or cookie cutters or mugs. And candy, everyone likes candy.

Thai food would be really great since they're going to Thailand. Have alternative dishes though, just in case you've got an picky eaters! You could even get like little Thai themed favors if you have a World Market or something similar near you.

..That's about all I got. No matter what you do though, it'll be great (you know, unless you magically spill paint on her wedding dress somehow). Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I was my best friends MOH so I have some experience... I think that pink, yellow and baby blue balloons are the best and maybe put some pictures on the wall of the bride and groom.

In terms of games... here is what we played at her bridal shower:

1. the clothespin game (which gets people talking to other people) where everyone gets a clothespin when they walk in and if they cross their legs (and someone at the shower notices) they have to go up to them and get their pin... whoever has the most clothespins at the end of the game is the winner

2. bride bingo is also great! and a big hit at the shower I threw

3. what's in your purse? game is fun

4. I also asked the bride a bunch of questions (embarassing ones) before the shower and then handed out questionairres about the bride. Whoever got the most questions right wins!!!

Good luck and let us know how it goes! :)

rachaelgking said...

I'm going to send your plea to my friend mn125, who has experience in such things, whereas I certainly do not...

Caz said...

Ok so my whole "I have tons of ideas for you but i'm drunk right now and I'll tell you in the morning" comment I wrote? Yeah I wrote it on someone ELSES blog. On a totally inappropriate post too. Guess I was drunker than I thought. Embarassing.

But now that it's morning? I'm too hungover to give you any ideas. Sorry.

Angela Noelle said...

To be honest, I love boring finger food, haha! Cheese trays, fruit trays, those little sandwiches with the crust cut off, tiny little dessert bites that I can eat 50 of... YUM!!!

As for games, we did a really fun one at one of my showers. The hostess sent Colby and I each a list of questions about ourselves that we answered and sent back. Then she turned those answers into a bunch of bingo sheets. She asked the questions at the party and everyone pitched in to answer and then you marked your sheet if you had it. We did just the normal BINGO and then blackout and the winner got to take home the centerpieces. It was so fun :) If you want, let me know and I can probably dig up that list of questions and send it to you!

Good luck, I'm sure she'll love whatever you plan!

Mandy said...

I am no help whatsoever for showers but can I just say that I now have a craving for Thai food.

Actually having bridesmaid do various baskets is a great idea, we did that for one of my friends showers -- there was a pizza one with a pizza stone, cutter, sauce, etc; a gardening one, a laundry basket with laundry stuff etc. Good luck!

Bayjb said...

Hmm decoration can be pretty easy, get pictures of the bride and/or the couple and sprinkle around the room, also some streamers, balloons, table tents, etc. You can do it! It'll look great.

Lexilooo said...

I can send you my recipe for strawberry shortcake cookies! They are amazing!

savor - silence - savor - cin said...

just had a bridal shower so hopefully this helps:
1. the girls had a paper plate placed on their heads and with a pencil (and not looking...obviously) they had to draw a picture of the bride. then the bride chooses the best drawing. hillarious!
2. a bit more on the conservative side. get bags and number them. fill them with candles (about 5 of them) and then pass the bags around and let the girls try to guess what the scent is. the ones that guess closest wins.

suggestions on food - anything on skewers. girls like finger foods. skewers are easy to deal with and clean. well depending on what is placed on them.
hope this helps!
Cin