I'm hosting a bridal shower
 

So, my sister-mother (sometimes GreekChatter but not for a really long time) is getting married in the fall and I'm hosting (co-hosting, really, with her mother) a shower for her at the end of the month.

Food, venue, favors are taken care of. Well, I think so. We're holding it at her mom's house and her mom and I will be making the food. So, it's TBD, really. But the invitations are sent out so we'll have it together by then, hopefully.

I'm doing small favors that just say "thanks for coming" and are little candy packets, and then small vases filled half with tea lights and half with jellybeans decorated with ribbons in the wedding colors. First question: is this lame? I don't know - I'm trying to DIY and keep it simple, but since I'm not particularly a "shower" person, I'm at a loss for whether or not this stuff is cute or stupid.

I also am making prize baskets - six, in fact:
- Sparklers/Firecrackers/USA stuff since the shower is 2 weeks before the 4th of July
- A bottle of wine, two glasses and a corkscrew
- A beach towel, flip flops, sunscreen and aloe gel
- Bath & Body Works foot creams and lotions with the little shea butter socky things
- Bath & Body Works shower gel, lotion, two candles and a loofah
- Cake decorating supplies (a little booklet plus tips and bags) and cute cupcake cups, plus a box of cake mix and icing

Second question: Are any of these eyeroll worthy? They'll be in cute baskets with the cellophane wrappers and ribbons on the top in the colors of the wedding.

I left a bag at Michaels, hopefully I can get it back tomorrow. I'm super bummed about it. Once I get that, I'll have all the supplies for the favors and baskets.

Third, and probably most important question: The bride really likes shower games so we'll definitely do them. I figure we'll do four shower games and raffle off the remaining two baskets. Is four too many to do for a two hour shower? I'm almost thinking it might be, but for me, one game is too many.

I have a few ideas, but I'm just not sure. If you like games, are there any that you remember were really fun? For one shower I went to, everyone bought a (new) pair of undies for the bride and we hung them up and she guessed who brought what. That was fun but this shower is going to be A. Pretty big if even two thirds of the people who were invited come and B. The only shower she's having, so it'll be family, friends, and coworkers. I don't want to do anything embarrassing.

Also, should I get nametags for people? I know nametags are total lamesauce but there are going to be a lot of people there that don't know each other.

I'm so lost - I go to showers just to give the bride a present really - I never really enjoy the games or festivities. I should have insisted on switching with the other MOH and done the bachelorette party instead. ;)

I should add: I'm actually quite happy to throw this shower. While I'm not a shower person, I really want to do something nice and have a nice time for my sister-mother, who's probably one of my best friends ever on the planet. So, none of this is me complaining, really, at least, not about throwing the shower. :)

1. I think you should change the date so you can come to Indy and see me that weekend instead. :)

2. I like the gift baskets idea for prizes. I'd let people choose which one they win though because some will appeal to some guests but not others. OR, one shower that I went to had raffle tickets as game prizes. Then guests could put half the ticket in a container to try to win the basket they wanted. They gave a bunch of tickets for some game winners but did a lot of "Who traveled the farthest?" "Who has the most credit cards in their wallet?" "Who has been married the longest?"... whole list of that kind of stuff, most keys, birthday closest to bride's, groom's, anniversary closest to wedding date, etc. Am I making any sense at all? LOL

Nametags could be a good idea. I'm terrible with names and appreciate when they are worn for that reason.

I've done the undies game at bachelorette parties, not so much at showers. Do some google searching. When I was throwing a baby shower for my brother, I found lots of games online. Bingo is always a good one too... you pass out blank bingo cards and people fill in the gifts they think the bride will get. As she opens things, they cross out those squares until they get a BINGO. Especially good at big showers so there's something to do while they open ALL those gifts.

LOL - I can't - this is the third scheduled weekend. When I realized when TLC was, I'd just sent out the invites. I had a sad. I'd skip but it'd be a pretty lame shower with no games or favors.

This actually does make sense - I'm trying to decide. It would definitely be a "pick your own" because they're all about the same price for the baskets (although the fireworks one came out super cheap but is sure to be a crowd pleaser).

I've found some online. I think bingo might be great.

And with the BINGO thing, just about everybody could win a raffle ticket to put in to try to win one of the baskets too.

Yeah that seems like a really great idea. Since there are so many different age groups and walks-of-life of women that will be there I'm trying to appeal to as many groups as possible. The shower gel, foot stuff, and wine baskets might appeal to everyone but the fireworks, cake decorating, and beach baskets probably skew toward different demographics.

Although I would love to have any of them. So, in addition to getting my bag (that has all my ribbons and the cake decorating stuff) I'll look into raffle tickets. Say everyone gets three to start and then different amounts for different games.

My favourite shower game is the peg game - you give every guest a couple of clotherspegs to wear on their clothes, and then ban a couple of words for the afternoon, i.e. "bride", "wedding" and maybe the bride's name. If someone says a banned word, whoever calls them out on it gets to take a peg. The person with the most pegs at the end wins.

It makes people get creative - talk about the upcoming "nuptials" or the like, and is a great ice breaker

I just barely remember my sister's bridal shower but one thing I do remember was a game of fun facts about the couple. The person who got the most right wins. It led to lots of funny stories when people get the answer wrong: "No no he proposed at the park! Oh he was so nervous, let me tell you about it..."

The only thing to be careful of is to pick questions that aren't common knowledge. Like "Guess her first thought when she saw him." instead of the basic "Where did they meet?" If they are just factual questions, then whoever is closest to the bride is a shoo-in to win. That's what happened at that shower--I won because she was my sister so I knew where they met, where he proposed, etc. ;)

Feel free to ignore my man opinion. ;)

The tea light jelly bean vases strike me as something that would collect dust or be thrown away. The less permanent stuff you send people away with is usually for the better.

Something cool you might think about adding to the wine basket is a wine deck. It's basically a deck of cards with different kinds of wine with facts, origins, mood pairings, etc. on the back. Someoe hgave me one a few years ago, and I use it all the time.

/man opinion

We did something similar to this at my friend's shower. Her best friend asked her fiance all these different questions like "Do you prefer lake or mountain?" And then at the bridal shower friend had to answer them. For each one she got wrong, she had to put a large marshmallow in her mouth but couldn't chew or swallow. It was really funny trying to get her to talk with her mouth stuffed full of marshmallows :D Some of the questions were harder and some were easier.

I was at a shower recently, and one of the games was really pretty great: One person thinks of a word relating to weddings or marriage that starts with an A; then the next person repeats that word and adds a word beginning with B, and the third person repeats the A and B words and thinks of one beginning with C. You work your way around the room and through the alphabet (returning to A again if you get through Z). If a person messes up any of the words that preceded her or can't think of a word for her letter, she's out. The last person standing is the winner.

Yeah, those are going to be little centerpieces so I'm not really concerned with whether or not they're useful after the fact - folks that want them can take them but since I'm only making 10 of each it's not like everyone will get one sent home with them.

I'll look into the wine deck.

No offense, but I hate this game with a purple passion. I always end up hurting myself on the clothespin and to be honest I think it has a chilling effect on conversation (plus people get really freaking obnoxious about it).

I think I can work on something like this, maybe a combo of this, and below.

This sounds exceedingly difficult.

ETA: Are four games too much for a shower with 40ish people at it that's 2 hours long? I want to leave plenty of time for chit chat and food and gifts, just not sure how many games to have (or how long they will take).

Yeah, I've played that game at baby showers and I think it's lame.

The showers I've attended have been low on the games. The most recent one I went to consisted of a cocktail hour, then lunch, then one interactive game (a trivia game about the couple), and the prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd were gift cards. Then the bride opened her presents, we oohed and ahhed and left. There were about 30 people at that shower. The favor for that one was a cookie cutter related to the wedding's location (it's a destination wedding).

I went to a wedding this past weekend, and the DJ had the bride and groom play a game after the MOH and Best Man's speeches. He had both of them take off their shoes, and switch one shoe with the other person. Then he asked them questions like, "Who made the first move?".. "Who wears the pants in the relationship?".. "Who takes longer to get ready before going out for the night?".. "Who, after tonight, will be the first to say, 'I'm not in the mood'?".. and the bride and groom would have to raise a shoe, either theirs or their spouse's, which they thought best answered the question. It was actually really funny.

You could carry this same idea over to the shower. Give everyone two notecards, one that says the bride's name, and one that says the groom's. Then ask a question, wait until everyone is ready with their answers, and all at once have everyone hold up their desired notecard. Everyone who has an answer that matches the bride's gets a point. The people who have the most matching answers at the end will receive tickets for the raffle.

Yeah, I dislike the games as well. Inevitably, the women who like to host showers chock full of games are annoying and bossy. The trivia game at the shower in April was like, 10 minutes tops. There was a sheet on everyone's place setting with the questions.

I love showers!! I had so much fun hosting my sister's bridal shower. I did a "tea," and my sister loved it.

Four games does sound like a lot. I would think one or two, at most.

Enjoy the experience. :)