Hosting a Bridal Shower
 

I am throwing a shower for my engaged friend, a Tri-Delta alumna of my university. It will be a small crowd of about 15-20 ladies.

Any recommendations for how to throw an inexpensive and elegant tea?

Make the food yourself and don't go overboard! I always make WAY too much food. Really ladies don't eat that much, especially if they're all dressed up. Wal-Mart pink lemonade (frozen kind) is inexpensive, pretty in a crystal pitcher, and tastes great. A package of brownies, cut up some fruit, and you've got a party!

Do you have a theme? One of my favorite themes for bridal showers is a Christmas theme- then the couple has a lot of great holiday items to decorate their first home together. A great web site to look at is party411.com and it has a good message board under "discussion forums."

Good luck!

I threw my friends bridal shower. One word of advice, start work now. LOL. It was hectic. But I was very lucky, a lot of people pitched in.
Her shower also had about 15 people in attendence.
I actually recieved alot of support from her mom and stepmom. Her stepmom actually bought finger sandwiches from a deli (like albertson's or bashas or something) and brought them. Her mom brought a carrot cake.
I supplied the drinks and some finger foods (like chips and stuff).
Another bridesmaid decided to buy the balloons.

Some of the games we played were the following:

1) her mother wrapped up some things that had been bought for the bride (like a rolling pin, a measuring cup, stuff like that) and then they were numbered and passed around. People then tried to guess what each item was. It was actually pretty humerous.

2) Pin the kiss on the man. I'm not kidding. I found this at a party store. I then replaced the face of the man on the game with the face of a famous actor that the bride loves (for her it was John Cusak). It was also pretty funny seeing where we managed to put the kisses.

3) the infamous toliet paper bride, but we didn't give a time limit. I was the dummy bride and I've never had so much toliet paper on me in my life. LOL.

4) a scrap book of the couples relationship. What I did was gathered all of my old magazines. I had the bride give me a account of how they met, where their first date was, where he proposed, etc...Anyways, I divided the people up into groups of two or three. Each group had a certain 'topic'. For example, one group had the proposal. Another had the wedding, another had the first date, again etc...
I bought a photo album (just one of the regular ones where you pull the plastic from the page and place the items on it). We had a blast cutting up the magazines and making the pictures. Then each group told the story of their 'topic' to the rest of the group.

5) Wasn't really a game but during the entire time one woman recorded everything the bride to be stated during the course of the shower and then at the end you read the list off saying 'this is what so and so will say on her wedding night'. It gives you a good laugh

Good luck.

Brianna

Thanks for the great ideas! I was thinking of skipping the games, and just having something at around 2 PM on a Sunday--- have some baked goodies set out, a few varieties of tea and soda, a cake and some fruit. The entertainment can come from the bride opening her gifts and we can decorate with flowers...

Thanks for the advice about not over-feeding! I think we all have a tendency to do that too much :)

Any advice on invitations??

I did my invites via microsoft publisher. It was a three fold (long ways). On the front it had a rose and then on the next flap it asked for peoples attendance to the bridal shower. On the inside I had the address.
Hope this helps.
Good luck
Brianna

Brianna, can you download publisher free if you already have the microsoft package? Thanks :)

I was messing around with some stuff with my art dept, and I am playing with using vellum laid on top of natural stock and gluing a dried pansy on top of the vellum (her sorority flower) :)

Also, has anyone ever made finger sandwiches? Advice-- better to buy or make??

Thanks sisters!

<------- Finger Sandwich Queen!

I have a wonderful Betty Crocker cookbook that takes you step by step for the novice finger sandwich maker. If you have the time, I could photocopy & mail it to you.

Otherwise, I usually plan about 4 different types of sandwiches. If you have a bakery that will make colored bread, all the better! Order Pullman loaves, and have at least one of them sliced lengthwise instead of the regular way (some bakeries can't do that).

When making the sandwiches, keep an ever-so-slightly damp tea towel at the ready, and as you make them, cover them with the tea towel so they don't go stale. Also, butter the inside of the sandwiches VERY lightly so the filling doesn't goop into the bread and remember to always trim the crusts.

You could easily make Deltas (4 per slice of bread) for your Tri-Delta shower! Yellow bread would look nice, too. Try to contrast the colors for the most appeal, and keep the food coloring handy.

Good fillings include egg salad, tuna salad, ham salad, chicken salad, cucumbers (thinly sliced).

My personal favorites (obviously, I use the blue bread for ADPi!):

*Date nut bread spread with cream cheese (colored or not)
*blue bread with egg salad (yellow food coloring) or tuna salad
*white bread with ham salad or cucumbers.
*puff pastry (frozen sheets rolled out & cut with a buscuit cutter, then a hole made after they're baked) with chicken salad
*pinwheels made with the long pieces of the pullman bread; wheat bread with ham salad looks very pretty!

Be sure to have some small cakes (small frosted brownies, those mini-cheesecakes, lemon squares) and small edible but decorative fruit (small clusters of grapes, strawberries) scattered among the trays. A tea is one of the best times to remember "presentation"! Use the prettiest china, silver, or whatever you have, as it's truly "An Occasion"!!

Oh, you get to collapse afterwards.... :)

I got completely out of control, and started surfing the net for "tea parties" and "tea sandwiches". There are thousands of ways to go.

I'd make the sandwiches yourself and maybe buy the cakes - unless you know of a place which makes the sandwiches right. I think they'd be VERY pricy if you did!

Good luck!!

Publisher is not free, but double check that your office install disks dont have it and it just isnt installed...I have had that happen with publisher...

I agree with Honeychile about making your own finger sandwiches- I think the ones bought from the store are usually too dried out & crusty!

Just subscribing... im hosting a bridal shower for a friend in October... im very excited and nervous also.

Thanks for all the great tips!

adpiucf,
I can't believe I missed your post. I have been a bridesmaid more times than I can count so I've hosted many, many bridal showers. My top pieces of advice:
A. Quiz the bride on each and every guest, make sure you as the hostess know a little bit about each woman attending. Showers can be deadly because not everyone knows each other, so my best advice is to give very detailed introductions when each and every woman comes in the door. Make sure you know which women are work friends, which are cousins etc. Try and see if there are any commonalities between the women coming. Did two of them just have babies, did three of them recently vacation in Europe? Seat them together and let them know what they have in common. ***SORORITY WOMEN ARE EXCELLENT AT THIS, JUST REMEMBER ALL YOUR BASIC RUSH SKILLS!***
B. The best and cheapest decoration, theme and favor is "English Garden." Tea is elegant. Sandwiches are fairly easy. And then just a cake and if you want, chocolate dipped strawberries are always a huge hit.
But the favor and decorations that are inexpensive and that make a great impression are little pots of flowers that can be used as decorations in your home and then given away as favors. Go to your local nursery and get a bed or whatever flower or flowers you like, then wrap them in a pretty color tissue paper and tie them with raffia. (That way you can keep them in their plastic pots.) Presto: decoration and favor in one.
Also a very cute: use flower seed packets as place cards, the women can take those with them as well.
Hope this helps. Below is a pretty good recipe I've used before! Good luck!

Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches
Recipe Summary
Prep Time: 5 minutes Yield: 2 dozen

24 slices thin white bread
4 ounces Ginger-Cilantro Lime Butter, recipe follows
8 ounces thinly sliced smoked salmon

Spread all of the bread slices generously with the ginger butter. Place slices of smoked salmon in an even layer on half of the bread slices. Top with remaining bread slices. Using a 2-inch flower-shaped cookie cutter, cut out the tea sandwiches. Remove the top slice of bread from each flower. Using a 3/4 to 7/8-inch round biscuit cutter, cut a circle from the center of each, discard the circle. Replace the slice, butter-side down, on the flower.

GINGER-CILANTRO LIME BUTTER:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 ounces (1/4 cup) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Place butter, cream cheese, ginger, lime juice, cilantro and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse just until ingredients are combined, about 30 seconds.
Transfer mixture to a sheet of parchment or waxed paper. Roll into a 1 1/2-inch wide log. Refrigerate until ready to use. Yield: 1 (7-ounce 10 by 1 1/2-inch) log

Bump!
 

Did you already have the shower, adpiucf? How was it? ??? :)

These are all amazing ideas; thank you so much to everyone! The shower is next month, and the MOH has finally stepped up to do the planning. I did the invitations (I work at an ad agency, so one of my artists helped me make them!)--- so I am bowing out-- the MOH is the bride's childhood best friend, horribly disorganized and a control freak. I'm laying low for this one!!! Mostly for my own sanity's sake. The wedding is in Dec... only a few more months to go until the insanity dies down :)