Category Archives: Bridal Shower

Bridal Shower Invites: Summer Fete

A new crop of bridal shower invites especially for summer showers. I chose invites full of bright colors and floral motifs. These all seem perfect for outdoor events!

I’m such a sucker for the chevron pattern right now and the combination of fonts and colors in this one makes it feel quirky and laid-back. It says “come to my patio, there will be fruity cocktails.”

Though the colors are customizable on this one, I’d go with the default combo. The grey, aqua and grass green seem perfect for a late summer shower.

I love the watercolor feeling of these flowers and the pretty pastel palette. Seems perfect for a garden party. Bonus: the flowers spill over onto the back of the invite as well!

I adore these Stock the Bar shower invites. They’re available in several different color palettes and seem to promise something cooling and refreshing. The intricate wrought-iron table and the delicate blue leaves make the invite feel handcrafted and unique.

This one sets the mood by suggesting twilight, twinkle lights and plenty of cocktails. I also love the included recipe card, which would make a fun game for the party and a nice keepsake for the couple.

I think this lime and coral number is my fave of the bunch. This modern summer invite screams margaritas and daiquiris to me and would be perfect for a summer fiesta theme.

Shower Suggestions: Savannah

For Marisa’s bridal shower, I wanted to take advantage of Savannah’s beauty. Forsyth Park, famous for its gorgeous moss-draped oaks and iconic fountain, seemed like the perfect location. I also liked the idea of a picnic because it would be casual and we wouldn’t be locked into a tight schedule with a restaurant reservation or feel rushed through a sit-down lunch (with a bill at the end). I think hosting a shower at someone’s house is always the best option because it’s more personal, but for a destination weekend this seemed like a great solution for creating a similar atmosphere. I asked girls who were driving up to bring camping chairs, blankets and folding tables. I had trouble finding a map of Forsyth Park to stake out a spot beforehand, but after a quick drive around the perimeter we settled somewhere near the middle of the park. We had views of the fountain and were under the trees, just like I wanted. The north park of the park has open fields and is less picturesque.

Theme: For a shower theme, we came up with “Stock the Closet.” Lingerie is a common theme, but I knew that wouldn’t fit Marisa’s personality. I’ve also seen showers focused on home goods, where each guest is assigned a room and asked to bring a gift that would go in that room. But since so many brides register for home goods, I didn’t want to do that either. I wanted the presents to focus on Marisa since the day was for her and I thought what girl doesn’t love clothes, jewelry, makeup and accessories? I was so impressed with scope of the gifts! There were tons of sundresses, earrings, and even a subscription to a site called Birchbox that sends monthly makeup samples so you can try new products.

I also decided that I wanted to have some kind of group gift for Marisa. I thought it would be a nice way to bring all the girls together. The idea I decided on was a friendship scrapbook. I really thought the weekend should be focused on friendship and girls. I asked each of the guests to buy a piece (or more) of 12×12 paper and put together a scrapbook page about their friendship with Marisa. I encouraged them to get creative and use as many or as few photos as they wanted. Some added captions or wrote silly poems. I bought an album and we just slid all the pages in before presenting it to Marisa. Not only was it an awesome remembrance of the weekend, but it was really fun for us to pass around at the shower. Not all the girls knew one another, so we were able to see pictures of Marisa from different eras, from middle school dances to recent nights out.

Refreshments: For food, I did a ton of research on catering in Savannah and settled on Thrive, A Carryout Cafe. Emma at Thrive was able to design a menu that fit my budget and also accommodated my requests for both gluten-free and vegetarian options. Thrive sources their ingredients locally and the lunch was delicious. Our hands-down favorite was the pesto pasta salad, which we all literally dug into with our hands later after a long night out on River Street.

Invitations

Choosing invitations for Marisa’s bachelorette weekend turned out to be way more difficult than I expected. I didn’t think my criteria were too demanding. I wanted something classy and simple but fun. Marisa’s a graphic designer, so I knew the typography and design needed to be modern and clean. Little did I know that “modern” and “clean” don’t factor in to many of the invites on the market. Getting away from black and pink was almost impossible so we just embracing it in the end. But I didn’t want anything that overtly referenced lingerie or Sex in the City (you would be astonished at how overdone these themes are). Designers, there’s a niche here that’s under-represented in my opinion! Here are a few of my favorites that Alyssa and I tracked down after lots of searching and the invite we ultimately went with.

This one felt like a good balance between modern and vintage and the muted pink and black is subtle and still chic. It’s customizable but not custom, so the price is good. You can find it here on Wedding Paper Divas.

This one stole my heart. The chevron pattern feels so modern and the colors are tweaked toward gray and coral, which makes this invite feel sophisticated and unexpected. You’ll find these on Etsy and need to contact the designer directly for a personalized listing.


I loved that this one got away from pink and incorporated sparkle in a fresh way. The script feels hand drawn and the vibe is vintage modern. This listing is for a digital file and you can find it on Etsy as well.

Polka Dot Design is another good site if you’d rather set your own type rather than working with a designer. This invite is actually for a New Year’s party, but I thought it could easily be tweaked for a fancy bachelorette party.

If you’re going to go lingerie or kitsch, I think this is how to do it.The playbill lettering and ’50s pin-up balances perfectly with the cream paper and feels vintage without being busy.

This invite was our final choice. We loved the simple typography and the “All You Need Is Love” theme fit our bride perfectly. The hot pink seemed fresh with the crisp white instead of the black that I’d seen on so many other invites. Lisa from Blushface was also very easy to work with, responding quickly and sending us a few proofs until the invite looked just right. She also printed for us, which was something we were looking for.

In general, I recommend you shop around because prices can vary considerably. Print-on-demand sites like Wedding Paper Divas and Polka Dot Design are great for a budget and do have lots of options allowing for one-stop shopping and less time spent searching, but the templates aren’t completely customizable and I didn’t find very many designs that met my “clean and modern” criteria (the two sites I’ve mentioned were by far the best in that category). Designers can be more expensive, but not always. They also tend to have more interesting designs and will customize the invite to your needs. I found Etsy to be the best resource for this by far. Most of the designers on wedding website directories are looking for wedding invite orders, not smaller parties like showers and bachelorette weekends. Though I saw some amazing work, their clientele is focused on brides. Etsy invite designers were much more approachable for our purposes. Some designers provide printed files, but some don’t which means an extra expense. Alyssa and I used a board on Pinterest to display invites we liked all together, which helped to narrow our options and keep links at the ready for price comparison.

Please post links to invites you’ve found! I’m going to need ideas for the next time around…