Keeping it STRESS FREE for the Bride-to-Be
BRIDE-to-BE
Tips for an AMAZING and stress free bridal shower!
If any of you out there have planned or are in the process of planning a wedding, you know all too well that it can quickly become STRESSFUL!
Planning a Bridal Shower is just another thing on the seemingly never ending to-do list and it wasn't too long ago that I was scrambling to make sure everything would be PERFECT for my own shower.
STOP!
If I can give you one piece of advice for anything wedding related it is that not everything is going to be perfect and exactly the way you want it. If you can accept that very early on in the planning process, you will enjoy wedding planning much, much more and save yourself a lot of sleepless nights and unwanted breakouts.
Okay....now back to the shower!
TIP #1
RECRUIT HELP!
(What else are sisters for??)
My first tip is to ASK FOR HELP! I am the queen of multitasking and sometimes to a fault. I am always eager to take on a lot of projects at once and sometimes I find myself overwhelmed. With your Bridal Shower especially, try to let go and hand the majority of the planning over to someone else. Luckily, I have 3 sisters and a lot of amazing friends who were willing to help out to plan my shower.
Pick ONE person to be in charge, however...with wedding planning, its very easy to get too many "cooks in the kitchen". I gave my sister Jess the task of spearheading the operation and she did an AMAZING job.
She made sure to ask me about the types of things I wanted at my shower, but handled all of the nitty gritty details herself and also recruited my other sisters and close friends to help with planning various aspects of the party.
Dont forget, this is still YOUR BRIDAL SHOWER so if you know there is something you absolutely WANT or DON'T WANT, speak up! I knew I wanted a giant charcuterie board as part of my shower and I was adamant about relaying that throughout the process. I also knew I didn't want cheesy party games, so I made sure that Jess knew all of these things early on in the planning process.
TIP #2
SECURE YOUR VENUE & SEND INVITES EARLY
THE VENUE
There is nothing worse than knowing exactly where you want to host your shower and then finding out it is unavailable! With all things wedding, make sure you call to secure any venue early on, especially if you are planning any event from mid-spring through fall!
Also, don't think you need to spend $$$$ to get a fancy venue. Chances are, you are already paying a pretty penny for your actual wedding day, so planning your shower or engagement party at your home or the home of someone you know, a park, etc., is a great option. I personally LOVE hosting in a home because you don't have to deal with food or drink minimums (also budget busters) or guarantee a certain amount of people. The atmosphere also tends to be a bit more laid back and you don't have a bunch of restrictions on decorating or making things exactly how you want them!
Decor - You can do a lot with the space that you have! Balloons, banners, and fresh flowers can make any space go from blah to BAM! AMAZING! For my shower, we utilized the pool and blew up giant balloons to float as well as a big INFLATABLE RING and SWANDA. It gave an otherwise normal pool, a pop of fun!
Chairs/Tents - if you know you will need chairs or any other types of materials that require a rental company, make sure you get those early as well. Again, these companies book quickly during the busy season. I used these Garden Style Chairs that run about $3.00 a piece to rent. You can find all sorts of different chairs out there to fit your theme and budget!
THE INVITES
Another thing to make sure you get done and sent out early are your invitations. Remember, if you are having a summer Bridal Shower, people plan vacations, graduations, and have other events pretty frequently. Make sure that once you've secured a date, you send those invites out ASAP! I would say at least 1 month in advance, but I always err on the side of caution and do a 1.5-2 months, depending on the time of year.
Invites are another thing you don't need to break the bank for! You can easily create invites from free online templates or even pay a few dollars on sites like Etsy to download a fully created invitation that you just print yourself at a place like Staples or FedEx. If you (or someone in your group of those you've enlisted to help) are somewhat creative, I say go for making your own! We created the bridal shower invites from on online template and used this amazing Heidi Swapp Minc Foil Machine to add a touch of glam to the invitations. It was a great investment because we ended up using it for the wedding invites too!
TIP #3 - The Food
As I mentioned earlier, I knew early on in the planning process that I wanted to have an AMAZING charcuterie board for my shower. After all, any charcuterie board and a nice glass of vino are two of my most favorite things in the entire world.
I got the inspiration for the charcuterie "grazing" table from none other than Pinterest and my sister and aunt really helped to execute it perfectly! There were so many varieties of Italian meats and various cheeses as well as fresh fruit and also some desserts. I had about 20 people at my shower and this table was more than enough food to keep everyone happy. You don't need to go crazy with planning an all out sit down event for a shower..I actually find those a bit annoying as a guest because its much harder to mingle and socialize. Having some good food and lots of wine and champagne kept my guests happy throughout the shower.
I mean seriously.....
How good does this look?!
(Obviously I was too busy eating it to get great pics)
TIP # 4
Party Games & Entertainment
Okay so I usually HATE party games. I don't know why, but I've never liked them and I really didn't want to have any at my shower. BUT, my sisters and friends assured me that they wouldn't plan anything too painful!
I actually ended up LOVING what we did at the shower in lieu of "games". There were scratch off lotto tickets for everyone and some revealed that a guest had won a prize..easy enough! They also planned to have everyone decorate a mug instead of wrapping each other in toilet paper, which I was totally fine with. There were easy to follow directions, as well as a ton of different patterns and sayings for everyone to customize their mug with.
Decorating the mugs allowed for everyone to continue to enjoy themselves, socialize, and also create something customized that they could take home as a favor - win, win!
The mugs ended up being so cute! Obviously I need to touch mine up a bit, but you get the picture.
Wine and Frenchies... really all I need in life
TIP #5
HAVE FUN!
This might seem like an obvious one, but I mean it, HAVE FUN!
It is really easy to get caught up in all of the things going on and wanting to make sure everything is perfect for everything wedding related, but take a step back and just try to enjoy the moment!
All of the people around you on your Bridal Shower day are there to celebrate YOU. Try to relax and take in all of the love and happiness surrounding you on that day.
I guarantee you will have a ton of laughs and it will be a day to remember!
Thanks so much for checking out this post! I wish you the best of luck with planning your Bridal Shower or next event.