Being a part of a wedding party is an honour. You have been chosen to stand by your friend or family’s side on one of the biggest days of their life. With this honour though there is also quite a bit of responsibility – one of those responsibilities being that you are in charge or a part of planning the bridal shower.
If you’re anything like me, you won’t have attended a bridal shower ever before having to host and plan one for your bride. I was honestly clueless – but with the help of my fellow bridesmaids and good old Google, I was able to pull together what I hope was a successful bridal shower.
If you’re also like me (which I’m assuming you are… yay 4 being a millenial) – you and the rest of your bridal party will be working full time, on little money so you’re also trying to do this thing on a budget
I figured I would share some of my tips
Make your own cake/cupcakes
A little bit more work for the fraction of the price. Seriously. You don’t even have to be good at baking honestly just buy a pre-made cake mix and follow the instructions. The dollar store has 1 use piping bags as well that you can use to decorate the cupcakes as well, and if in doubt – add sprinkles! They’ll cover up any mistake.
We bought two pre-made cake mixes and made them into cupcakes: vanilla and chocolate. Then we made our own icing (but to make it even easier you could buy pre-made icing), and piped it onto the cupcakes. We purchased a cardboard cupcake stand from the grocery store and popped the cupcakes on it and it really didn’t look half bad!
Cater it yourself/make your own food – pick simple items!
At the end of the day, people are coming to your event to celebrate the bride, the free food really is just a bonus. We made our own mini sandwiches, bought a couple of pasta salads and veggie trays, and had other more snack-like foods like chips, pretzels, and crackers.
Utilize the Dollar Store
People harp on the dollar store but you can find some great bits in there that would cost 5-10 times as much at a party store or Walmart.
We bought our paper plates, table cloths, some snacks, our favour boxes, and the stuff for in the favour boxes. You can also find thank you cards in the dollarstore, fake flowers, cute little chalkboards and signage, wrapping paper and all kinds of other bits and bobs that would be perfect for decorating the shower!
Be Savvy With The Venue
I’m lucky enough to have parents that have a big, well kept and nicely “decorated” backyard, so picking a venue was easy for us – that backyard!
If someones house is an option for you, take it and run with it. You will save yourself SOO much money it’s not even funny. You can turn any space into a bridal-esque theme. We decorated with twinkle lights, balloons, streamers, and bridal signage.
If you don’t have access to someones home, though, there are some other options. If the shower is being held during the summer months, most cities have parks or outdoor areas that you could host at. All you would need is a bunch of picnic blankets, chairs, and food! That makes it even less expensive as you likely won’t have many things to decorate.
Another option would be a restaurant. Typically restaurants have party rooms that you can book out (most of the time you don’t have to pay to reserve them either!). They usually are also able to accommodate big groups by just providing more of a buffet style collection of food – like pastas, salads, meats etc…
Party Favours – You Don’t Need To Go Overboard
Games