Great Bridal Shower Ideas
Will Fall Into Your Lap by
Starting with the Right Theme

As a maid of honor, bridesmaid, or friend of the bride, you need great bridal shower ideas so you can have the "best ever" wedding shower for your favorite bride-to-be. Unless you plan parties for a living, though, you may not feel confident in your bridal shower ideas. Not to worry! Your planning can be made easier by starting with a wedding shower theme and then using invitations, decorations, and food that complement your theme.

Even if you’ve never done it before, planning a bridal shower can be easy. It’s simply a matter of organization that goes something like this…

Pick a theme – this will help make some of your other decisions easier. Then…

Break the planning down into manageable parts that you can tackle one at a time. Don’t worry, they’ll all come together in the end because you’ll be building each part to go with your theme. Breaking the whole event into bridal shower ideas that you can consider individually will look something like this:

• Bridal Shower Themes

• Bridal Shower Invitations

• Bridal Shower Decorations

• Food and Snacks

• Bridal Shower Game Ideas

• Bridal Shower Favors

• Bridal Shower Thank You Cards (though this is for the bride, read on to the bottom of the page to see why it would be helpful for you to consider this item)

Now all you have to do is fill in the blanks. It’s a lot easier than you think. Especially if you pick a theme to drive your bridal shower ideas and planning.

One Wedding Ideas and Details staffer recently helped to plan and throw a bridal shower in September. She borrowed her autumn bridal shower theme idea from one of our wedding favors - "Falling in Love."

With the theme decided, invitations, decorations, food, and favors all came pretty easily. The bridal shower invitations featured a maple leaf motif with text printed in a reddish-orange color. The cake was also covered in leaves of frosting. Decorations included fall flowers and sprinklings of dried leaves, with napkins, plates, etc. in red, orange, brown, and gold. In addition to some yummy finger sandwiches, there were apple slices with caramel dip and spiced apple cider.

To get you started, consider these
bridal shower ideas and themes:

• Meant to Bee - This theme can incorporate bees, honey, flowers, etc. in the decorations and food.

• Love So Sweet - Perfect for a late afternoon or after dinner party, this bridal shower idea could feature scrumptious desserts like ice cream sundaes or rich cheesecake and pie.

• Around the Clock Shower - This classic bridal shower idea involves assigning each guest a time of day (usually in the invitation). Each guest then brings a gift that the bride might use at that time of day.

• Kitchen Themed Shower - A kitchen themed shower is ideal for the bride who hasn't lived on her own before and/or has a lot of kitchen items on her registry. Gifts typically will center around kitchen and dining items.

• Break out the good china and biscuit cookies (or rent out a local tea shop) and throw a tea party for your guest of honor. Use tea pots filled with flowers as centerpieces and send guests home with miniature tea cups filled with candy.

• Color Theme – This is one of our bridal shower ideas that is very easy to incorporate. You can have a wedding shower theme that uses the same colors as your bride’s wedding or her favorite colors. Decorations can match, food can match (think colored icing here), and guests can even get gifts for her that complement her favorite colors as well.

• Couples Showers - The Couples Shower concept has recently taken off! It's nice because it involves both the bride-to-be and groom-to-be and breaks the usual "girls only" rule of bridal showers by inviting both men and women. Probably best dubbed a "wedding shower" rather than a "bridal shower," the couples shower idea can be a fun way to incorporate everyone. One good theme idea for a couples shower is The Perfect Pair - with decorations in monochromatic green colors, fresh pears as place card holders, and pear-flavored jelly beans in small personalized tins as favors. Other couples wedding shower ideas include The Perfect Blend (think coffee bar with all the fixings), Cut Out for Each Other (with cookie cutters as favors), or a luau themed party.

• Not so much a theme but just a unique and fun bridal shower idea - the Paint Your Own Pottery Shower. Most major cities have a paint your own pottery studio, and many will rent out the store or a room for parties like bridal showers. Our Bridal Shower Idea: You can have the bride pick out the colors she'd like and then have each guest paint a dinner plate, salad plate, bowl, etc. to create a custom set of dishes she can actually use.

• Victorian or Vintage Shower Theme These themes are on the rise in popularity, go well with tea party ideas, and can even encompass other themes.

• Spa Shower Theme You'll have lots of prizes that guests will love with this theme. It's easy to decorate, too, as shown by the picture at the top of the page that has simple printable invitations and note cards from our store.

Regardless of the theme you select, you'll need to consider these aspects in your bridal shower planning:

• Determine your budget, date, time, and location. If you're the maid of honor, consider splitting the costs and duties among yourself and the other bridesmaids. Don't forget to get some of their bridal shower ideas, too.

• Talk to the bride-to-be about the guest list and get any addresses you'll need for invitations. Also find out where she's registered. While it's in poor taste to mention gift registries on a wedding invitation, it's totally acceptable for shower invites to include this info.

• Order invitations or make them yourself. You can get custom printed invitations to minimize your manual labor, or buy "fill ins" where you will write in all pertinent information. Read more about bridal shower ideas and invitation options here .

• Address and send invitations. It's probably a good idea to have them in the mail 3-4 weeks prior to the shower date.

• Plan for and purchase any decorations, food, and favors. If you started your planning by selecting a theme, these bridal shower ideas will probably be easier to plan.

• Think about whether or not you'll play games and pick up a few small prizes for the winners.

• Prepare the food and set up for the party. Make sure you have a place for guests to put gifts as they arrive.

• While the guest of honor is opening gifts, assign somebody to write down each gift and the gift giver's name so thank you notes can be sent.

• Thank you cards - Although it will fall on the bride's list of responsibilities to write out thank you cards, you may want to consider purchasing some thank you cards that coordinate with the shower theme or invitations and give them to the bride as a gift. It'll help to carry the theme you worked so hard on from the beginning to the end, and save the bride the time and money she'd spend shopping for bridal shower thank you cards on her own.