How to Plan a Fun Bridal Shower + Free Checklist

Planning for your wedding involves an incredible amount of work. And it’s easy to forget that when you’re planning for your wedding, you’re rarely just planning for your big day. The bridal shower, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and reception all involve their own planning. While usually the maid of honor and/or close family members take charge of the planning, the engaged couple inevitably has to provide some help and feedback, not to mention attend the actual event.

Consequently, this post is for all those who are involved in planning a bridal shower. I go over fun theme ideas, bridal shower games, money-saving tips and provide a wedding shower checklist to keep track of it all. By the end of this post, I hope you feel much more equipped to plan a bridal shower. Indeed, as a maid of honor myself I found writing this post super helpful for my own planning. So let’s get started!

Confab with the Bride

I highly recommend that your first step is chatting with the bride if you are the maid of honor or a close friend/family member. Weddings are very personal. A successful bridal shower should reflect the bride (and potentially the groom) and what she wants. You don’t want to get deep into planning a big wedding shower, for example, only to find out that she wants something small and intimate.

Use this meeting to figure out her big picture preferences. These should include:

• The rough number of guests she would like to attend. In other words, would she like the shower to be large or intimate? And will she write the guest list or does she want you to take a first pass at that?
• If she wants an exclusively female or co-ed bridal shower. In recent years, co-ed bride and groom showers have become more popular. If the bride likes this idea, this will likely influence themes, activities, and, of course, the guest list.
• Shower date options that work for her, the mother of the bride, and other key guests.
• How she wants to delegate tasks (i.e. whether she wants to be super involved, hands-off, or somewhere in between).
• If there are any themes she definitely wants or doesn’t want.
• And how she feels about wedding shower games. For example, I’m not a fan of most wedding shower games. There are a few that I include below that I enjoy, but I would rather hang out with my friends than participate in icebreakers. Consequently, you don’t want to spend time planning games only to find out that the bride is not a fan.

Once you have the answers to these questions, planning becomes much easier.

Set a Budget

According to a study by CostHelper, a simple wedding shower costs, on average, $15-$40 a person. A more elaborate shower costs $40-$150+ per person! Consequently, your budget will help determine the number of guests you can invite and whether you can consider options like a venue rental or should pick a free or low cost locale.

When evaluating your budget, make sure to consider the cost of food, beverages, decorations, activities, and, if so desired, a venue, entertainment, and party favors and/or prizes.

Wedding Shower Guest List

Your next step is putting together a guest list. If you plan to invite just a few of close friends, for example, you’ll likely consider different theme and activity options than if you invite a big group. To help busy brides, wedding shower planners may want to put together a tentative guest list and let the bride review and add to it. Alternatively, if you’re very unsure who the bride would want to invite, you’ll want to delegate this task to her.

Bridal Shower Theme Options

Next, you can assess bridal shower party theme options. You might want to take inspiration from the actual wedding. For example, your theme could be based off the wedding’s color scheme. Similarly, if their wedding is in a barn, you might go for a rustic theme. Or if they are having a wedding in a garden, you might try a garden party.

Alternatively, you can plan a fun party that targets the bride’s interests. If she has a favorite TV show, movie, place, or even book, you might design a bridal shower around that. The obvious example that comes to mind is a Parisian themed shower for the bride who loves Paris. Alternatively, I love the show The Office. While this theme certainly wouldn’t be everyone’s taste for a bridal shower, there are lots of decoration and activity options you could do for an Office themed shower. I list more ideas in detail below.

Color Scheme Theme

As noted above, you can make a theme based on the color scheme of the wedding or the bride’s favorite colors. This theme, of course, makes decorating pretty easy. You can also ice cookies or cake in the color of the theme, serve color-themed snacks, and have everyone wear the theme’s color(s). Using a color scheme as the theme also gives you a blank slate for game and activity options, which can be handy.

Rustic Bridal Shower Theme

For the bride who has a rustic themed wedding, you might recreate that in the bridal shower. This theme is great for the decoration possibilities. You can put tea candles or fairy lights in mason jars, hang globe string lights, and use natural greenery and wood accents. You can also use linen or jute table runners. Copper goes great with this theme so serving Moscow mules (or similar drinks) in copper cups can elevate this theme further.

Plus, a rustic theme offers great food options. You might consider serving BBQ, for example. Alternatively, a potluck fits well with this theme.

Garden Party / Tea Party Bridal Shower

A green, white, and pink color palette often works especially well for a garden or tea party theme. If you have teacups you can also use those as color inspiration. Lace, crystal, nice tablecloths, fresh roses, and anything with old-time elegance fit nicely with this theme. You might also encourage guests to dress formal or semi-formal.

Tea, finger sandwiches, and scones go excellently with a garden/tea party as well.

Paris Theme

This is another great theme for the bride who loves a little elegance. Pink, black and white work evoke a classic, Parisian flare. If you have vintage travel posters, they are excellent to hang up as a backdrop. Twinkle lights look great at a Paris-themed party as well.

You might consider serving macarons and champagne to fit the theme as well.

Tropical or Beach Bridal Shower Theme

Blue and green are the traditional tropical themed colors. However, I also love using turquoise, light purple, light green, and metallics for a mermaid twist. Aside from the color scheme, you can twist streamers to look like seaweed and set out seashells guests have collected. Jute table runners and white candles look great in this theme as well.

For food, there are tons of fun options. I love serving snickerdoodles with slivered almonds to look like a sand dollar. You can serve fresh fruit, kabobs, and margaritas with this theme or any other colorful food options you like!

Brunch / BBQ or Other Food Theme

You can also base the theme around the food or meal you’re serving. For example, if you want to do a brunch wedding shower, that can be the theme. Likewise, a BBQ theme can be a fun option and works well for co-ed or female-only bridal showers. A brunch theme tends to work well with sunrise colors or light yellow and green. In contrast, you can decorate for a BBQ theme similar to how you would for a rustic wedding shower.

Spa Day

Building a shower around an activity is a great option as well. It can take off some of the pressure to decorate at your or someone else’s home. Plus, having activities built in can ease awkwardness among groups who don’t know each other well. A spa day is an especially great option for smaller bridal showers with a small group of friends and/or family members. Attendees might exchange gifts at the spa’s restaurant if they have one or a nearby restaurant.

Paint and Sip Bridal Shower

Similar to the idea above, the great thing about this theme is it takes some pressure off of hosting and breaking the ice among partygoers. With this idea, you don’t have to worry about decorating and can exchange gifts at the activity venue or go to a restaurant afterwards.

Adventure or Nature Themed

For the bride who loves travel and/or outdoor adventure, you might pick a theme that capitalizes on that. For example, you could go hiking or engage in another adventure activity. Or you could bring the adventure to your party by printing pictures of the bride adventuring and stringing them around the room with twine and wooden clips. A map of places the bride has visited would also fit well. You could then serve food from places the bride has traveled to.

Nautical Themed

A blue and white color scheme looks great with a nautical theme. Blue and white stripes work especially well and, of course, it’s important to sprinkle sailboat imagery throughout to make this theme clear. Alternatively, you might go sailing together or rent a small boat.

For this theme, you could consider serving seafood, Cobb salad, fresh fruit, anything that speaks to coastal living.

Old Hollywood Glamor

You can convey old Hollywood glamor with red, black, gold, vintage elements, and formal dress. You might even set up a photo booth if you’re feeling extra. Putting on a classic movie in the background and serving an elegant dinner with, of course, a popcorn appetizer, can really bring this theme home.

Great Gatsby Bridal Shower

Similar to the theme above, a Great Gatsby bridal shower is steeped in elegance. Have guests dress up in Roaring 20s-style clothes. You can decorate with a black and gold color scheme, vintage items (especially if they have an Art Deco vibe), and twinkling lights,  For true Gatsby aficionados, you might set up a green light as well.

Bookworm Bridal Shower Theme

This theme could go a couple of different ways. You could decorate based on a particular book. For example, a Harry Potter themed bridal shower offers tons of decoration and food options. However, for brides who just love reading in general, you might go with a bookworm themed bridal shower. For this theme, you can stack books as part of the decor and decorate with candles and warm tones like red, brown, and gold. You might even set up cozy reading corners throughout. Guests could bring traditional wedding shower gifts or book-themed gifts.

Gift Themed

Finally, you might pick a theme related to a gift category you want guests to bring. I mentioned this with the above idea about guests bringing book-themed presents. Other popular options are for guests to bring cooking-themed presents, lingerie-themed presents, or donations. Depending on the gift you choose, you can decorate around that idea. Before proceeding with this option, you’ll want to chat with the bride. You don’t want to assume that she wants all cooking-themed gifts if it turns out she has plenty of cooking supplies already or doesn’t love cooking. She may also prefer a variety of gifts rather than a ton of one category.

If none of these ideas appeal to you, I highly recommend taking a look at Bridal Shower Pinterest boards. They’re full of tons of great theme ideas.

Bridal Shower Game Options

Once you have your theme, you can plan activities! Depending on the group, you might want to just mingle. You could also host a movie night, cook a meal together, do a fun craft like flower arranging, or another activity option that can serve as a main focal point. If you prefer more traditional bridal shower games, you might consider the following list.

• Hide the Ring: You can create a scavenger hunt for a ring. Alternatively, hide a ring and make it a contest of who can find it first. Or hide a number of plastic rings and have guests try to find the most throughout the party.
• Wedding ring toss: Toss oversized rings onto bottles.
• Pair up and make wedding dresses out of toilet paper. One person is the designer and the other is the model!
• Wedding bingo. Create your own game boards or purchase printable ones from Etsy.
• Know Ya Boo (for Parks and Rec fans), also known as the Matchmaker Game. Ask the bride (and groom if it’s co-ed) questions about their partner. They try to guess the correct answer. This can be fun, but a little high pressure for the bride and groom.
• Ask guests trivia questions about the bride and/or groom.
• Guests write down their best relationship advice and put it in a mason jar. At the end, read out the advice!
• Similarly, write down your favorite date ideas or memories with the bride and/or groom and put them in a jar.
• Play love songs. Guests name the song and/or artist. You could similarly do this with clips or quotes from romantic movies.
• Set out cards, traditional board games, lawn games, etc. Cornhole, darts, Yahtzee, rummy, and Jenga, are all fun options that are familiar to many guests. 

How to Save Money on the Wedding Shower

It already costs a ton of money to be in a wedding. Consequently, you likely want to preserve valuable resources and save money where you can on the bridal shower, while still keeping all the fun parts in place. Towards that end, you might consider the following money-saving ideas:

• Forego the party favors. Instead, you could offer a couple of game prizes. Many people don’t make use of party favors anyway.
• Split the cost of the bridal shower with the bride’s closest friends and/or family members.
• Plan a brunch or potluck-themed bridal shower. These usually involve lower-cost food options.
• Serve mocktails instead of alcohol.
• DIY invitations and games. You can check out my guide on DIY and environmentally-friendly Christmas cards, which can provide inspiration for DIY bridal shower invitations. Similarly, you can design cute game boards on Canva or even in Powerpoint. It’s easier to position pictures and text wherever you want in Powerpoint compared to many other applications.
• Similarly, send e-invites and/or use online game options.
• Keep it small. Fewer guests means less food, drinks, and planning required.
• Use decorations you already have. You can use pictures of the bride and groom and meaningful items to decorate. Similarly, you and the other guests may already have items that fit a particular theme, like shells you’ve collected (beach or nautical), candles or fairy lights (variety of themes), or teacups (garden/tea party). You might check out your local thrift or dollar store for decoration finds as well.

Wedding Shower Checklist

To help make planning easier, I’ve provided a free bridal shower checklist template. This detailed checklist is a great way to help with time management. Alternatively, you might create a to-do list in Google docs if you’re planning with a group of people.

Final Thoughts

I hope this foolproof bridal shower guide has helped take out some of the hard work from planning a special day for the bride. In the end, the key to a good bridal shower is making sure the bride has a good time with her close friends and family members. A bridal shower is also about showering the bride in love and showing you care. Everything else is just the cherry on top.

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Looking for other information on wedding planning? You can check out my guides to planning the wedding of your dreams, micro weddings and elopements, wedding money-saving tips, and wedding diet and workout plans on this blog. You can also find my Ultimate Wedding Planning Bundle (with wedding checklist) on Etsy.