Tag Archives: bridal shower

Bridal Shower Favors from ModCloth

Uhm, you guys, I am so freaking excited. And may I tell you why? ModCloth has started a line of home goods! When did this happen and why did I not know about it before Christmas?? They are clearly selling everything like hotcakes as new items are appearing daily and sold-out items reappearing due to demand. We’ll soon be rolling in delightfully cute elephant salt shakers and world-shaped cork boards. I’ve brought together some charming little creatures that would be perfect as bridal shower favors. All work out to less than $15 a guest, and sometimes much less. The mini mason jars are $50 for a set of 12, including straws! My personal favorite? The vintage-style birdcage hooks.

ultimate bridesmaid bridal shower favors from modcloth

Shop the entire ModCloth home goods collection here.

5 Simple Bridal Shower Games (that don’t suck)

Bridal shower games are not mandatory, but they can help break up the day and be funny and cute. Save the racy stuff for the bachelorette though. At a bridal shower, you’re going to need activities that work for a mixed group of ages. Remember that people want to eat, drink, and chat, not have a regimented schedule of enforced games, so just choose a few to sprinkle in. And have prizes! People are more likely to take interest if there’s chocolate involved.

Bridezilla

Before the shower, make the most hideous veil you can with a cheap tiara, glitter, different colors of tulle—whatever you can muster. Then once all the guests have arrived, tell them that the word “wedding” and “bride” are banned. If you use one of the words, you are Bridezilla and have the wear the veil until someone else slips up! During your time as Bridezilla you are encouraged to add to the veil to make it more hideous if possible.

Ring Hunt

Hide fake diamond engagement rings around the house and tell the guests to collect them throughout the party and put them on as they find them. The guests wearing the most rings at the end of the party wins. This one is simple, non-invasive and will lead to plenty of cute pictures.

Chick Flick Charades

We all know how to play charades. But raise the bar by banning the typical tactic of acting out the words in the title. Instead, pairs of guests have to act out a scene from different chick flicks. You’ll end up reenacting the Katz’s Deli scene from When Harry Met Sally, snapping a jewelry box closed as Julia Roberts reaches for her necklace in Pretty Woman, or trying to jump into Patrick Swayze’s arms for Dirty Dancing. If both players claim to have never seen the film and thus cannot act out a scene, let them default to the title, but make sure you appropriately shame them for neglecting to watch You’ve Got Mail. You can also opt for a tiered point system: 1 point for just acting out the title, 2 points for a scene, and 5 points for acting out the entire movie in less than two minutes. Some other flicks to throw in: My Best Friend’s Wedding, Runaway Bride, 27 Dresses, Sleepless in Seattle, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Something’s Got to Give, Love Actually, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Two Truths and a Lie

Guests take turns sharing two truths and a lie about the bride. It’s a good idea to announce this game early in the shower so guests have time to think of good facts. Maybe bring it up before lunch or dinner is served or before you open presents. The facts can be about their friendship or history with the bride—they’ve been friends for 15 years, they taught the bride how to drive, they shared a lost weekend in Myrtle Beach—or a little known fact about the bride—the details of her first kiss, what she really thought of her groom when she first met him, her biggest pet peeve. Everyone else writes down the number of the fact they think is false. Those who get it right get a little prize or a point and most points win at the end. Remember to keep this PG-13 if you’re in a shower with mixed age groups or that includes relatives or coworkers of the bride who may not need to know about her scandalous behavior in college…or six months ago.

Purse Scavenger Hunt

This game may seem too simple or overdone, but in this version you add an element of urgency. In the typical game you get a point for each item that you have, but in this version it’s the first person to find the item who wins. Watching women frantically rifle through their purses is what makes it funny. People will know they have that peppermint but they just can’t find it!

Come up with a list of items a woman might have in her purse. The host reads the items aloud and the first person to fish that item out of her purse gets a prize. You can also give out small prizes for each item, but then designate points to each item for a big reward at the end. Make sure it’s on a sliding scale so that easy items like wallet and keys get one point and harder ones like dog treat, pepper spray or corkscrew get more. Here’s a fun sample list. You’ll be surprised how many of these people have in their purses!

Wallet, keys, cell phone, mirror, lip gloss, foundation, mascara, deodorant, hairbrush, tweezers, umbrella, book, pepper spray, dog treat, condom, tampon, Advil, band-aid, stomach medicine, underwear, scissors, a Groupon, a stamp, a mint, a bottle of water, USB flash drive, a $50 bill, a menu, stain remover and bottle opener. You can also throw in a few things that require a little bit of extra effort. For example: a picture of the bride. Someone’s got to have it on their phone, right? A cup of coffee will have clever people riffling through their wallets for their Starbucks gift card.

Fiesta Bridal Shower Inspiration

Everyone loves a fiesta, especially in the summertime. The colors are bright, the food is delicious and the drinks are strong—the perfect inspiration for a fun backyard bridal shower. My advice is to not go too literal on the invitations—in other words, stay away from sombreros, tacos or margaritas. Instead choose color palettes and motifs that evoke the occasion. This Etsy number uses spot-on color combos, but a modern chevron pattern. I also love the mix of fonts, which really gives the invite an personalized look.

The decorative flourishes on the edges of this invite from Wedding Paper Divas evoke a festive fiesta, but white space and typography make it seem a bit more fancy.

I also like this option from Polka Dot Design. It’s a simpler version of the Etsy invite above, but as a bonus they have napkins and Lucite serving trays in the same pattern (and the back is printed in allover chevron).

Now decor. The traditional choice would be Fiesta ware, but if you can’t get your hands on the real stuff, ask around for brightly colored plates and serving bowls and mix and match for an eclectic feel. I love the mix and match feel of this tablescape: bright traditional Mexican textiles as a tablecloth, mix-and-match colored plates and a few quirky pieces in the center.


I also love the chic simplicity of this setting. The colored glassware in particular pops on the table and the sunflowers evoke the perfect summer mood.

Can we talk about how adorable this idea is?? Flowers in limes!

For drinks, I love the look (and taste!) of this strawberry basil sangria, made with chardonnay and a bit of club soda for bubbles. Add don’t forget the margaritas, of course.

A serve-yourself taco stall looks adorable and lets guests regulate the amount of spice they like in their food. Fill small bowls with chopped lettuce, diced jalepenos, halved cherry tomatoes, and slices of red onions and avocados. Then choose your fillings. For a no-hassle option, you can always shred rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, but if you want to fancy it up, try these tequila-glazed chicken thighs (then shred into taco-sized pieces). For a delicious and fresh salsa topping for your tacos, boil sweet corn for about 10 minutes, then use a knife to take the kernels off the cob. Next, mix with chopped avocado and cherry tomatoes. Stir in two tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons sea salt, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro and the juice of one lime.

For a side dish, I love these grilled sweet potato fries with lime cilantro vinaigrette. They’re super easy to make and taste delicious.

And for dessert, you have to go with Mexican wedding cookies! Check out a recipe here.

Additional sources: Hostess with the Mostess Mexican fiesta, Celebrations.com fiesta and The Stir table settings.

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Q&A: Handling a Huge Guest List

Q: My bride wants to invite 20 people to her bachelorette party! What are my options for throwing a big party on a reasonable budget?

A: Accommodating a huge guest list is definitely a challenge, especially when you want to keep the cost low for both yourself and your guests. Here are a few party ideas that work well for large groups and won’t cause you to have a breakdown.

  • Host a girl’s night in at your house: The ultimate in easy party planning, throwing the party in your home or apartment will definitely lower your stress level. You can keep it simple with delivery or take on a home-cooked meal. The only downfall to hosting the party at your house is that you’re more likely to spend a lot of money yourself on food and drinks. Make the party a potluck and assign each guest a category: appetizers, side dishes, alcohol, mixers, desserts, or paper products. Then take on the main dish yourself. Turn it into an old-fashioned sleepover party complete with sleeping bags, truth or dare and kareoke.
  • Rent a house at a beach, mountain or lake: Everyone loves a getaway, and with this many people you’ll be grateful for the space of an entire house. If you add $5-$10 to the cost of the weekend per person, you can stock the kitchen with cereal, yogurt, and sandwich fixings to keep breakfasts and lunches easy. Sites like vrbo.com and Homeaway.com are great sources for vacation rental homes all over the country. A few words of advice: Finding a house that sleeps 20 people is going to be very difficult, so be sure guests know they may have to sleep on blow-up mattresses or couches. You’ll probably have to quote a lower number of guests to the property owner since many don’t want parties larger than the house actually sleeps. Be sure you’re going with a group of people you trust to leave the house in one piece—the last thing you want is an angry owner with your name on the agreement. As long as you know your group will clean up after themselves, go for it!
  • For the sporty bride: How about a kickball game and picnic at your local park? Some parks have rules against alcohol, but many are lenient if you don’t bring glass bottles or get too rowdy. Personalize “Team Bride” shirts with the guest’s names on the back (Old Navy has a tee that you could personalize yourself or this site will personalize them for you).
  • Bar crawl: Skip fancy dinners; bars are much simpler and better for big groups! Start with appetizers at a local brewery, then progress to cocktail lounges, dance clubs, kareoke bars, strip clubs—whatever best suits the group. Make sure you choose bars that are within walking distance of one another, or arrange for transportation in the form of designated drivers, taxis or a limo.

One of the hardest things to do with a big group, in my opinion, is have dinner at a restaurant. Here’s why: Continue reading →

Signature Drinks: Raspberry Mint Limonata Cocktail

No celebration is complete without specialty cocktails. For a bachelorette party or bridal shower, you can come up with a drink that honors the bride, or turn mixology into a theme and ask each guest to come prepared with a cocktail recipe to teach the group. This weekend while at a rooftop BBQ I tried a variation on a Tom Collins that would work beautifully at a summer bridal shower. It’s the perfect combination of sweet, minty, fruity and bubbly. All my favorite things! Here’s what you’ll need:

Gin (or substitute vodka if you don’t like gin)

Diet tonic water

San Pellegrino limonata

Raspberries

Mint

Ice

Mason jar (optional)

Fill glass halfway with ice. Muddle 3-4 mint leaves and raspberries together. If you don’t have a muddler, just rip the mint leaves into little bits and crush the raspberries before you drop them in. I added a few whole raspberries as well because they are pretty and yummy.

Add one shot gin, about half a can of limonata and top with diet tonic water. Stir and serve (preferably in giant Mason jar).

The limonata provides the sweetness, but it’s mellowed out by the tonic water. The mint is super-refreshing and you will knock yourself out trying to fish out the raspberries (which also give the drink its pretty pink color). If you don’t like gin, this would work just as well with a smooth vodka. Enjoy!

Lingerie Shower

When it’s time to pick a theme for the shower, lingerie is going to come up inevitably. And it can be a really fun idea, but only if a couple very important factors line up. First, make sure that the bride will be comfortable with it. Not everyone likes the idea of handing out their sizes to their guests and unwrapping unmentionables while everyone looks on. Second, I recommend limiting lingerie showers to groups of girlfriends of around the same age. Chances are your bride will have at least one shower thrown by a parent or friend of the family and ladies of all age groups will be present. Some women may only know the bride through her mother or a relative. A lingerie shower in that instance is just going to get awkward.

If points one and two are met, full steam ahead! My friend Amanda had a lovely lingerie shower at her home in Atlanta, thrown by her amazing maid of honor and sister, Emily. Amanda’s shower was part of a combination bachelorette/bridal shower weekend since many of her close friends and bridesmaids (including me!) are spread out over the country.

The food theme was sweet and a little sinful (to fit the lingerie). While Amanda left the house to go for her hair trial, all the bridesmaids pitched in to prepare the food and decorate the house. Hosting the shower at home helps to greatly cut down the expense and also lowers the stress level. We were able to pump some music as we melted chocolate for chocolate-covered strawberry and fondue.

Emily broke out their family’s beautiful silver punch bowl and put together a family-favorite punch. The scoops of ice cream made it look a little crazy at first, but it tasted like heaven and as the ice cream melted it all came together.

Before Amanda arrived, a few of the bridesmaids decided to run to Wal-Mart for a few last-minute gag gifts…like the biggest Granny panties we could find in the store! We also picked up a little something for the groom—a pair of camo boxer-briefs and a matching camo bra for Amanda.

After all the gifts were opened, we strung them up on a clothesline for pictures. All the lacy things looked so cute hung up together (though we took them down before the groom got home—we wanted them to be a surprise!).

As for where to find bridal lingerie, I always try to skip Victoria’s Secret. They have some great pieces, but since it’s such a popular lingerie destination, you run the risk of ending up with duplicate gifts. Continue reading →

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.