Congratulations on your engagement! This is a really exciting time in your life. It’s also probably going to be a bit stressful.
During this next year, I want to walk through this process with you. I’ll give you a 12 Month Guide to planning your wedding and explain things along the way. You can start from the beginning here (click). Come back to this blog each week for the next installment.
Week 42 – Wedding Showers and Parties
Hope you’re cheeks aren’t too sore from smiling for your engagement photos! This week we’re looking at some of the parties that take place before the wedding.
Wedding Showers
You will probably have people asking you about wedding showers, if they haven’t already. So that’s what we’re going to focus on today.
Generally a friend or family member, or a group of them, will offer to host the shower for you. They pretty much plan everything (which is great since you have your hands full with other things). The one piece of planning you have to do is provide a guest list. Don’t invite people to more than one shower, this pressures them to give more than one gift. Also, make sure that the people you invite to the shower are also invited to the wedding. After that, you pretty much have to dress the part, show up and say thank you for all the support.
If people are looking for some shower theme options, here are a few options to look at:
Room Themed Shower – Each guest is assigned a different room. They then bring a gift for that room. Examples: A guest in charge of the laundry room may choose to bring a laundry basket with various laundry supplies to get the couple started. A guest in charge of the bedroom could bring anything from closet organizers to bedding.- Time Themed Shower – Each guest is assigned a different time of day. They then bring a gift for that time. Examples: A person who has the 8 a.m. might bring a shower set, robe or coffee equipment. A person with the 12 p.m. time frame could bring Tupperware.
- Color Themed Bridal Shower – Guests are assigned a different color. They’ll bring fun honeymoon or romantic supplies in their assigned color as gifts for the bride. This may include lingerie, robes, etc. This also makes for colorful decorations and fun food ideas to match the assigned colors.
- Old-fashioned Pounding Shower – Each guest brings a recipe and the ingredients for it (or a pound of this and a pound of that). This stocks the couple’s pantry and is a wonderful start for their first few weeks together.
- Coordinates Shower – Guests bring his and her gifts. These might be matching robes, a hot cocoa set with mugs, books, bedside lamps, or a tool set for him with picture frames for her. Everyone interprets it differently.
Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
The best man and maid-of-honor usually head the planning of the bachelor and bachelorette parties. This is a special time for the groom to get with his groomsmen and the bride to be with her bridesmaids, and it can include a few close friends. I’ve heard of many different types of parties. Anything as tame as games and a Bible study to something as extravagant as an out-of-town trip and as wild as a crazy night on the town. Everybody has different levels of comfort, financial capability and even some spiritual values that are involved. Decide what you and your fiancé are comfortable with and ask the best man or maid-of-honor to not go any crazier than that.
With all the work of preparing for the wedding, it’s great to take a few moments to let your hair down and enjoy this special time with family and friends. How are you going to celebrate?
Next week we’ll look at the menu selection!
Katelyn is a certified wedding planner. She is available for consultations.
She will even meet with you on Skype to help you work through part of your wedding planning.
Click here for more information.