30 October, 2012
Weddings

Planning a bridal shower – our top tips

30 October, 2012
As part of our Wedding Guide, we’ve enlisted Lauren from Sassy’s fave party-planning company Sweet Soirees to give us her top tips on planning a bridal shower!

It is always the most amazing news to hear your best friend is getting married! But planning a wedding can definitely be stressful (as you can guess from our top ten wedding planning tips here!), which is why it’s up to the bride’s maid of honour and best friends to make sure the bridal shower is one thing the bride does not have to worry about. A lot of ladies may find the task of throwing a bridal shower quite daunting, however, I hope that some of my hints and tips can help you plan a beautiful shower and eliminate some of the stress.

Like I always say, the first thing you need to do when planning any party is chose a theme. A theme makes it a lot easier to coordinate your shower and it also helps to make sure every aspect complements each other. Some of my favourite bridal shower themes are Tea Time, Spa Shower, Double Happiness and Cosmopolitan Cocktails. For this bridal shower, I chose a brunch theme – because who in Hong Kong doesn’t love brunch?!

Bridal showers, in my opinion, should be pretty and fresh. For this bridal shower, I went with a light blue and white colour scheme (there should be ‘something blue’ after all!). These colours are consistent throughout the décor to tie everything together and can be seen in the crockery, flower arrangements and food cards.

Bridal showers are usually held within one to three months of the wedding day. Try not to plan the shower too close to the big day because everyone will be busy with last minute preparations and it also may be too much to ask guests to buy multiple gifts in such a short amount of time.

The next thing you need to do is plan your guest list. Invite the bride’s closest female friends and of course, all female family members. Make sure your home or venue has enough space for everyone. Send out themed invitations and keep track of RSVPs.

Planning your menu is key and it’s always nice to match your food options with your theme. For my brunch bridal shower, I decided to go with a selection of popular breakfast items (all of which could be ordered in from Olivers or City’super). My menu consisted of:

Apple & Orange Juice
Coffee & Tea
Strawberries and Blueberries
Granola
Blueberry Muffins
Pancakes
French Toast
Croissants

Other venues will offer catering services themselves; just remember to keep it light and simple and make it easy for guests to help themselves. And lots of sweet treats are a given!

It’s always fun to get everyone interacting together! A popular easy bridal shower game is to come up with a list of fun and random questions about the bride and groom and see how well your guests really know the happy couple… or how well the bride knows her groom to be (this could get interesting!).

Make sure you assign a slot during the shower for the best bit – opening all the presents! Sassy tip: have on hand a pair of scissors, a notebook and pen to record all the gifts and their givers, and a trash bag for all the discarded wrapping.

It’s always nice to send your guests home with a gift to say thank you for coming. For my brunch bridal shower, I made up some little baskets filled with scones and mini jams. This is a cute easy gift that won’t break the bank but that looks really lovely.

I hope these helpful hints will come in handy when you are planning your bridal shower!

Lauren is the owner of Sweet Soirees, one of our favourite party-planning companies. If you fancy leaving all your party planning to the experts, they are certain to add some sparkle to your shindig!

All photos in the article above were taken by the hugely-talented Sabrina Sikora of Sabrina Sikora Photography.

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