What You Need to Know to Host a Proper Wedding Shower
May 2, 2007
A wedding shower can be a phenomenal event. It can provide a much-needed bonding experience between a bride and her bridesmaids. It can be a joyful occasion where friends and family get the opportunity to treat the bride as a queen. It is definitely one of those “scrapbook moments†that a bride will remember for the rest of her life.
But, while a bridal shower can be fun and entertaining, it’s also important for the planners of the shower to adhere to certain rules of etiquette. Otherwise, misunderstandings and hurt feelings can result, turning what should have been a happy occasion into a miserable one for all concerned.
To begin with, the maid of honor should be the one in charge of the wedding shower. This is true, even if the maid of honor happens to be the bride’s sister or other relative. If she is unavailable for some reason, she can choose someone else with a connection to the bride to host the shower. It is generally considered bad form for the mother of the bride to play hostess, because it gives the appearance that the mother is trying to solicit presents for her family. These days, it’s also acceptable to hold more than one bridal shower—particularly if the bride is in the workforce and would enjoy a wedding shower exclusively with her co-workers.
Generally speaking, everyone who is invited to the wedding shower should also be invited to the wedding. This means that all female members of the wedding party should be invited to the shower. It would be a shame for someone to be asked to come to a bridal shower, only to be excluded from the actual event. However, conversely, it is not essential for every female wedding guest to be present at the wedding shower.
The bridal shower invitation can take a variety of forms. However, it should include key information such as the date, time, and location of the wedding shower. It’s also a good idea to include information about where the bride is registered, so that the guests have some idea what kind of gifts she would like to receive. Such information can also prevent duplication of gifts, since the registry will record whenever a noted item has been purchased. Also include contact information for the hostess so that the guests can RSVP by an appropriate date. You might also want to include directions to the event—especially if the guests might be unfamiliar with the location.
On the actual day of the event, the hostess should be careful to greet each guest as she arrives. The hostess should inform the guests about where gifts should be placed and where they should sit. During the gift opening ceremony, the hostess should make careful note of who gave which gift so that the bride knows how to craft her thank you notes. This task can be more difficult than it would at first appear, since, in the frenzy of gift opening, it can be hard to keep track of all the different gift-givers. But it is also an essential chore, since no guest wants to receive a thank you note meant for someone else—or to be overlooked for a thank you note altogether.
Keywords: Wedding Planning, Weddingblog, Wedding, Wedding Shower
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