Hi babes! Cassie here. I am the blog and content manager for A Fabulous Fete.
I recently got married, and wanted to share a little insight on my bridal shower!

Being engaged is such a fun and exciting time. You are overly celebrated, showered with love, and totally stressed all at once for MONTHS, which I promise is just as amazing and horrible as it sounds.. Haha! One piece of the planning process that I was fortunate enough to not stress out over was my bridal shower — my mom was so excited to host and threw me the most gorgeous shower. She is super creative and really crafty, so I knew it was going to be amazing.

Other than the fact that I knew it was happening and who was invited, the entire shower was a complete surprise.

first things first…

guest list:

There are some “traditional protocols” when it comes to who to invite to your bridal shower, but I decided to focus on the people that I wanted there that would be excited and honored to celebrate with me. When crafting your guest list, try to remember you can’t make everyone happy and try to invite who will make you happy! It’s YOUR big day after all..

For me, the guest list was easy. I chose to include all of the women who I had a friendship with who were invited to the wedding. This included friends, neighbors, my bridesmaids, aunts and cousins. I did not include many people from out of state, because I worried they would feel obligated to come or send a gift, and the shower was just a month prior to my wedding.

location:

We ended up with a guest list of roughly 35 people, and so that required a space that could fit most of the group [assuming there would be some women who would have to decline the invite].

Having the shower outside was an immediate obvious choice, because the weather in California is great year-round, and guests would have the option to spread out a bit, mingle, and enjoy the day! Luckily, my parents have a decent sized backyard, so the shower was hosted there.

theme:

My parents yard has raised garden beds, hundreds of blooms, and is filled with succulents, so my mom decided to go with a succulent theme that had a bit of a vintage bohemian feel to it. From succulent invites to potted succulents with a “let love grow” sign as a favor, she considered every little detail and tied everything back to the theme.

food + drinks:

When crafting the menu, the first things that were taken into consideration were the time of day and length of the shower. Because the event started at 10 am, my mom felt it was important to make sure people were well-fed since they likely wouldn’t have a breakfast prior to arriving. With that in mind, she decided on having a crepe-maker, salad, and some little single-bite cupcakes for dessert.

Once all of the big details were dialed, my mom was able to focus on the little things to make the shower so special and fun. Like I said, she truly thought of every detail.

To really make the shower a party, she set up a “Photo Booth” backdrop, put together a build your own mimosa bar with juice options and various fruit garnishes, and found ways to get guests mingling.

As a lot of my guests were from different areas of my life, my mom made name tags with a spot for the guests name, as well as how they knew me, which was such a fun way to get conversations started between people.

There was also a fun “what’s in your iPhone” game — rather than the typical “what’s in your purse”. I was very anti-game, and didn’t want to take away from time I could be visiting with people, but this game was actually quick, a fun “icebreaker” and I nearly won, so that was cool ;) There was a list of options of things on your phone — photos with the bride, a specific music genre, app organization, etc. Whoever had the most points won a little prize!

top tips for planning a bridal shower:

• Be selfish and continue to make it about you, and what you hope to get out of the day. If you don’t want to open gifts, don’t open gifts. If you want to invite men and women, invite men and women! Don’t get caught up in the “traditional” way of doing things.

• Start with your guest list, location and theme. Once you have those nailed, the little details are easy to figure out.

• Think of ways to keep your guests entertained. Remember, you may have people there who don’t know anyone else, so find ways to get everyone mingling.

• Make sure people are fed! There is nothing that will cut a party short like growling stomachs.. or not enough alcohol. You don’t have to go over the top with food and drinks, just some light bites and bottles of wine on hand and people will be happy!

• Send thank you’s! The wedding planning process is a never ending cycle of planning, party and endless thank you’s! But the card in the mail means a lot to people and they are doing so much to celebrate YOU!

do you have any tips for hosting a bridal shower? let me know in the comments!

xo, Cassie