Bachelorette & Bridal Showers
Bachelorette…
For the Girls:
Consider a luxurious sleep over you so you and your bridesmaids can enjoy a night in! Find a hotel with a restaurant, spa, and salon or simply a quaint bed and breakfast. Have dinner and cocktails, then a movie night in one of your rooms with movie candy, popcorn, and wine, followed by a full day at the spa with a sauna, facials, and massages, or brunch al fresco.
If the bride loves the great outdoors, consider taking a surfing or sailing class together! This great if you’re planning a destination wedding, especially if you only have a handful of bridesmaids and close girlfriends attending. If the wedding is a Saturday night, have your friends come on Thursday to extend their vacation and have your outing during the day, so everyone can relax and unwind before the wedding festivities begin!
For something a little less time consuming, have an afternoon of pampering. Go to a spa for a massage, mani pedi, and blow out while sipping on champagne. If you do this the day before the wedding, all the girls will be ready for the wedding and not have to rush the morning of!
Bachelor…
For the Boys:
Put a twist on the typical bachelor party and enjoy the great outdoors by grabbing the guys and heading to the mountains. Go on a hike, grill outside, and have a few beers (without heading to a casino or club!).
For the film-buff groom, pick up 2 or 3 of his favorite classic films, plenty of snacks and drinks, and head to the friend’s home with the biggest TV! For an added bonus, put together a movie trivia game with a special prize for the winner (the Lord of the Rings trilogy director’s edition on DVD, perhaps?).
If the groom has been known to retell stories from his glory days on a varsity team, have a high school sports day. Get your boys to grab their old athletic gear and play your favorite team sports from baseball to basketball to tag football. How can you go wrong with a day like that?
Pretend you’re kids again and go play laser tag, mini golf, paintball, or arcade games. Have a few beers and go have some good old-fashioned fun! And a little friendly competition never hurt.
For a classy gentlemen’s evening, go out for a fancy steak dinner with good red wine. After dinner, pretend you’re in the Golden Age and sip scotch while smoking cigars (cracking jokes about JFK optional).
Legend says the first bridal shower took place in Europe after a well-to-do girl fell in love with a poor man and her father refused to help pay for their wedding. So, friends and neighbors gathered and offered gifts to the young couple to help them build their new home. By the late 1800’s, the bridal shower had evolved into a more common practice for less wealthy brides, who couldn’t afford a dowry, to set up their new home. We’ve come a long way since then. Today, bridal showers have morphed into a festive way for the bride’s female family and friends to grab some girl time before the Big Day! Guests still “shower” the bride with gifts, often for her new household, but there are also bridal showers that have more specific themes – from lingerie parties to cooking classes.
the spa shower…
You can bring the group to a spa or have aestheticians come to you with their magic potions and talents. Note: If guests want to have facials done, you shouldn’t plan this shower too close to the wedding date.
the garden party…
Breathe in the cool, fresh smell of the outdoors with a Garden Party shower. To truly delight the senses, decorate tables with fresh flowers or potted mint plants! For breathtaking beauty, hold the shower outdoors in daylight or by candlelight in the evening.
around the clock…
Rock Around the Clock at this uniquely themed bridal shower! Ask each guest to bring a gift related to a certain time of day; the more times you assign, the wider the variety of gifts for the lucky bride. Get the party started with an imaginative selection of “hours” d’oeuvres!
the wine tasting shower…
Nothing breaks the ice better than food, so why not make the shower all about exciting peoples’ palates? Wine or cheese tastings encourage guests to nibble,
compare, and talk. Local cheesemongers and wine merchants are usually happy to select a tasting menu, but you can also turn to online cheese and wine specialists for reliable, easy, delicious results.
the pajama shower…
A girl’s night just isn’t complete without a Pajama Party bridal shower! Everyone arrives in their cutest pajamas bearing gifts to pamper the bride. Enjoy
manicures, pedicures, facials and massages with your guests as you sip pink martinis and giggle far into the evening. Indulge in fun party favors for
the girls such as personalized spa slippers, personalized toiletry bags, or monogrammed cosmetic cases.
so what exactly happens at the bridal shower?
So, what exactly happens at a shower? Besides food and drink, there are a few activities that traditionally take place
at the bridal shower. Opening the gifts: Unlike the wedding, this party’s entertainment often includes a time where the bride opens her gifts. This is especially fun at themed bridal showers. If you are hosting a lingerie party, for example, the ladies will love to see all the sexy items the bride is receiving.
Ribbon bouquet: Usually fashioned by the maid of honor, the bride collects all the ribbons tied to her gifts and a
ribbon bouquet is created from the colorful strips. The bride then carries this item down the aisle during the wedding
rehearsal.
