Anyone Fancy a Bridal Shower?

Anyone Fancy a Bridal Shower?

Alternative Bridal Shower Ideas

So you’re throwing a bridal shower… Now what? Should you take the traditional route with classy invitations, tea cakes, and gifts from the registry? Or should you go over the top with a “Helen from Bridesmaids” Parisian themed shower? Lots of ladies are taking up the trend of throwing lingerie showers with sexy sultry themes and showering corsets, lacy panties, and racy nightgowns on the bride for her first few months of marriage and honeymoon of course! But there are lots of other ways to throw a shower that your bride will absolutely love and maybe even more than the traditional cookie-cutter parties!

“Bridal Bakery”

A Sugar Sweet Shower.

For the Martha Stewart Bride who can whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies from scratch that taste like heaven or anyone who loves to bake- this shower is for you! Rather than spending the day gabbing and snacking, you ladies can spend the afternoon showering the bride with fun baking-related gifts and then baking all kinds of fun treats! Instead of purchasing food for the shower, the host will purchase the ingredients for the treats and drinks to make while baking! Also check out these cute ideas for decorating the shower- cupcake liner garland!





Gift Ideas: Guests will all bring a bakewear item for the bride… ideas to suggest would be a cake pop maker, electric hand mixer, decorating kits, aprons, etc.







Fun Drink Ideas: Bridesmaids could serve dessertinis while the ladies are baking to go along with the sweet theme of the shower! Chocolatinis, White Chocolate Raspberry, and there is even a recipe for a Puffs Marshmellow Martini… how cute!

Invitation Ideas: Recipe cards (ingredients substituted with shower details), invitations shaped like cupcakes, or even send out cake pops with invitation details attached! 

 “The Perfect Pair”

A Wine-O Shower

Have a merlot-minded bride on your hands? Spend the day tasting wine and drinking some too! You could decorate the shower like a Tuscan winery, a vineyard gardens, or like a Napa Valley cast room. Why not have each guest bring the bride a bottle of wine to stock her new home? As the host, decorate with vines and rustic wood, have cheeses, chocolates, and crackers to go with your liquid delights… as well as plenty of glassware to go around for the tasting. This is such a fun and classy alternative to the traditional shower!

Gift Ideas: Each guest could bring a bottle of wine to help the bride start her wine cellar collection or the ladies could bring wine accessories as gifts. Accessory ideas: wine aerator, wine openers, cute wine charms, Bordeaux glasses, white wine glasses, champagne flutes, wine racks (there are lots of neat wall mounted racks and decorative stands out there!)… the guests could even all chip in to purchase a wine cooler for the bride!

Another cute idea is a wine basket with a bottle for each important night in the bride’s upcoming weeks: a bottle of champagne for the wedding night, a nice red for the first night of the honeymoon, a Prosecco for an afternoon on the beach while they watch the sunset, one for their first anniversary… with tags on each to let them know which one to drink!

Invitation Ideas: Attach a wine cork to the invitations as a cute additional decoration, shape the invites in the form of wine bottles, send an empty wine bottle and tell the guests to bring it back as a gift for the bride (They can paint it, chalkboard it, put flowers in it, message in a bottle, etc.)

“Drink and Be Married”

Champagne Showers

We’ve all heard of “stock the bar” parties or showers where guests bring bottles of the bride’s favorite liquor to stock the bar in her and her groom’s new home. Obviously not a shower for every bride, but if your lady of honor was a party girl in college or still enjoys her afternoon margaritas- why not throw her a bridal cocktail party (literally)!



Have the guests wear little black dresses, serve specialty cocktails, stock up her bar, and have a fun afternoon showering her with gifts and maybe even some champagne! You could hire a bartender to serve up the fancy drinks or make them yourselves for an entertaining afternoon of cocktail party fun. Whoever throws the shower will be in charge of getting the ingredients for 3 or 4 specialty drinks, ensuring the proper glassware is in order (you can always rent it if you do not have it yourself), decorating like a swanky lounge, and serving up a few snacks so the girls don’t get too out of hand! A fun snack idea would be candy served in martini glasses or cute cocktail inspired cupcakes!

Gift Ideas: Similar to our baking shower… start a registry! The guests can choose from martini glasses, margarita glasses, cocktail shaker sets, blenders, and other specialty drink-making goodies. Each guest bringing a bottle of liquor to stock the bar is a necessity- but you could also have everyone come together to make a gift basket like the wine-o shower! A bottle of vodka for a night on the town, a bottle of whiskey for when she’s feeling frisky, Grey Goose to get her feeling loose- anything that’s cute and fits her personality! Don’t forget about the groom and what he likes too!

Invitations: Mini Bottles! Warning: Some states have particular laws about mailing alcohol- so be sure to look this up before you go mailing mini bottles of Little Black Dress Vodka! Try creating drink recipes, but replace the ingredients with party details. Cut out invitations shaped like martini glasses or margarita glasses with salt on the rim (gluing white glitter to the rim of the invitation will give the illusion of salt). 1oz Bride to Be (insert Bride name here), dash of your favorite alcoholic gift, garnish with your favorite cocktail dress, and arrive at time and location to Drink and Be Married! Make it your own and have fun with the details.

“Tea Party”

A classic and traditional shower idea- the tea party. Biscuits and English tea with beautiful china in the garden… what could be classier? Have the ladies bring a gift of their choosing and fit the invitations to the event- perhaps lace or floral patterns to go with the dainty theme.

“Day at the Spa”

Everyone loves a little pampering, especially a stressed out bride-to-be! Throw her an indoor spa day (or even a garden spa day with the smell of fresh roses and sound of water running to calm her nerves). The guests can bring spa gifts such as treatments, specialty oils, or even gift certificates for massages, manicures, etc. and the host will supply relaxing candles, music, light snacks, and hire a masseuse for the day to treat the ladies. If that is out of the budget- the host could purchase products at a local spa or Bath and Body Works type locale and the ladies can treat each other to massages, manicures, and treatments while chatting, listening to music, and sipping on refreshing cucumber Skinny Girl martinis.

                  




The options for throwing a fancy bridal shower are honestly limitless! The homebody bride may love a “Blockbuster Shower” where you all stay in, watch movies, and eat movie theater style popcorn. You could throw a pool party shower with strawberry daiquiris, bikinis as gifts from each guest for the bride to wear on her honeymoon, and fun pool games. Or even try a “Recipe Shower” where each guest submits a recipe with her RSVP and the host creates a cookbook for the bride-to-be as a gift from all of her friends with their secret family recipes. Get creative and don’t forget about your bride’s personality. And with so many fun options… who is to say she can’t have more than one shower?

XOXO,

Audrey

Bridezilla or Anti-Bride?

Sunday Styles

Bridezilla or Anti-Bride?

Check here for some great non-traditional dresses

Main Entry: The anti-bride
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: A bride-to-be who would rather avoid the months of tedious planning, being the center of attention, copious amounts of cash splashed and simply head directly to the nearest justice of the peace.
Also known as: the pleaser bride; the codependa-bride

Main Entry: bridezilla
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: The temporary (but potentially long-term) insanity that befalls brides-to-be, such as Elana of New York who ordered $27,435.14 worth of flowers for her wedding, paid for it upfront using a cashier's check, and then turned around and sued her her florist for $400,000 because the colors were a little off.  Roses are red, violets are blue, but a bridezilla will sue, if her hydrangeas are of the wrong hue - especially if she is a lawyer.

I loved these examples!  They are so true of the past year.  I even think I had borderline anti-bride syndrome.  While there is nothing wrong with eloping, being intimidated by the planning process, or wanting an intimate wedding to stick to a budget here's how you know if you fall into the Anti-Bride category:

Bridesmaids
So you want your besties to truly wear their dress again right?  Telling them a color, style, shoes, and how much to spend seems so demanding?  You're probably not the matchy matchy bridesmaid type, and your temp is rising toward anti-bride-itis. Anti brides created the mismatched bridesmaid look! (PS- Thanks for that!)  

Thankfully, technology is on your side.  To make it affordable site like Rent-the-Runway and Little Borrowed Dress can give the girls a fancy look without breaking the bank.  Beware here- timing and a small bridal is key.  When renting there's no room for alterations, no room for them to plan to lose weight, and no room to see how it looks.  If you're choosing this option you need to be very confident in your girls- but if you're anti-bride that actually has a bridal party, that's saying enough.  ModCloth and other online retailers offer great options for your girls to express their style too!

The Dress
Do you remember the Sex in the City scene when Carrie broke out in hives trying on wedding dresses?  Do you relate?  Would you feel more comfortable in an off-the-rack ensemble like she ended up in?  You may have a touch of anti-bride-itis. Anti brides are about comfort and staying true to their style.   Luckily for you there is no shortage of white dresses (if you even want to do the whole "white" thing) in the spring/summer season.  Even better, some stores have amazing casual bridal lines like BHLDN and Nordstrom, and vintage style finds are always on Etsy.  Here's a couple of my faves:

Free People

via polyvore

via etsy

via Etsy

 via BHLDN

























Reception(and anything else that places you at the center of attention)

Do you fear the thought of making it through the day in heels and have no clue where to find wedding flip-flops?  Are you having nightmares about your guests posting video of your lack of rhythm to Facebook?  Do you just want your fiance to send an Evite rather than thumb through stationery books and lick stamps?  What if they don't like the food?  You and your beloved prefer dim-sum and  sushi and your fam loves Texas BBQ?  What do you do? 

Well, if all of the above are true, I would have to diagnose you with a full blown case of Anti-Bride-itis!  There are two very important steps here:

First:  Don't Panic!  Panic is the transition of going from Anti-Bride to Bridezilla.  Throwing your hands up and saying I don't care, breaking your family's hearts, and not giving you and your honey even just a second to bask in some kind of limelight will come back to haunt you.  
Remember Bridezilla is just someone that gets so wrapped in details (even if its the idea of non details) that she forgets that other people have feelings and just want to share in her day somehow.  

While there is nothing wrong with eloping, telling your families in person can help soften the blow when they don't understand your vision or budget constraints.  Getting creative and Skyping your elopement, or enlisting the very vehement protesters to help in DIY projects  could help everyone too.  

Second:  Enlist a planner! No this isn't a shameless plug, (well maybe a little) but all the details you hate are the things we live for.  We can help you decide on what's really important and make whatever vision you have, no matter how minimalistic come to life.  Planners are Bridezilla's Kryptonite.  So whether you're just starting the fever, or have a full blown spell, there is hope for the anti-bride! And to the anti-brides of 2012, we thank you for giving us some great style ideas and decor trends!

TTFN
Rachel