Etiquette is an ever-changing concept that can be a little difficult to follow. When attending a bridal shower specifically, how on earth do you begin to figure out what exactly to gift the bride? This present is completely different than the actual wedding gift that you give to the happy couple on their big day, so what defines a really great and appropriate bridal shower gift? First, let’s take a look at the basic rules of bridal shower gifts.

Tips on Buying the Right Gift

Know what to Spend

First of all, it’s not expected that you break the bank when it comes to the bridal shower gift. The expense of the wedding gift should be more than the shower one, however the good news is that the acceptable price range is big enough for everyone to be able to afford. Stick with a gift between $25-$75.

Keep the Bride in Mind

A wedding gift is for the newlyweds as a couple, while a bridal shower gift is really geared towards the bride. Sometimes brides will have a registry set up just for the bridal shower, but most times, it will be the general wedding registry. While you can gauge this list as to what she would like, you can also wander outside of the registry to find something more suitable to just her.

Follow the Theme

The bridal shower invitation will clue you in on what type of gift is right to bring. For instance, if the bridal shower has a lingerie theme, then obviously you’ll use those details provided in the invitation to get a lingerie gift.

Keep it Classy

Naughty gifts are best saved for the bachelorette party, and a bridal shower is not one in the same. When picking out the right gift for the bride, keep in mind that her mother and elder relatives will also probably be at the shower.

Presentation is Everything

One of the most fun things about bridal shower gifts is all the gift wrapping options available. Wrap up your gift in something especially girly and bridal.

Now that you’ve gotten the basic rules down, it’s time to find the perfect bridal shower gift for the bride-to-be. Below are listed several really amazing gift ideas catered to different preferences to make your shopping an enjoyable experience.

Unique Gift Ideas

Your gift to the bride doesn’t have to be a typical, run of the mill item. In fact, brides really enjoy it when their loved ones put serious thought into a unique gift, as this makes it all the more special.

Stock the…

This is an incredibly unique idea that can be really functional for the bride as well. The idea here is to theme your gift to stock a certain part of the bride’s life, whether that be her bar, kitchen, garden, or powder room. By taking a bunch of little goodies and gathering them in a bridal basket, this becomes a gift that is really personal and pampering.

Handmade

Nothing is more one-of-a-kind than a gift that is homemade. This type of gift is as unique as it is meaningful Great homemade gift ideas can be anything from painted canvases to mugs or dishes to quilts or scarves.

Personalized

Every bride loves a monogrammed gift with her new married name, along with other monikers such as “Mrs.”, “Wifey”, and “Bride”. Shirts, aprons, totes, kitchen accents, or just about anything else you can think of can feature the bride’s new name or a similar bride personalization that’s just for her.

Useful Gift Ideas

One thing is for certain when it comes to bridal shower and wedding gifts—a lot of presents, while beautiful, are not so functional in day to day life. Though it’s great for the bride to receive lots of fun gifts, at the same time, it’s also equally important for her to receive gifts that she can actually frequently use in her new life as a wife.

Gift Cards

Yes, gift cards can have a bad rap for not being a personal enough gift, but don’t be so quick to count them out. Sometimes, gift cards to a bride’s favorite store or even a more generic gift card that can be used anywhere, is the best type of gift you can give. This gives the bride a chance to either go out and pamper herself, or she can use it after the big day to purchase gifts she wished to registered for but didn’t receive.

New Wife Navigation

There’s a lot of paperwork and changes that go into becoming a wife and it can be really overwhelming for the new bride to understand or know just what she has to do after saying “I do”. There are tons of sites and businesses out there now where you can purchase a package in which the bride can do all the necessary changes with ease. The bride simply puts in her information and all the legwork and paperwork is don’t for her. A gift like this takes a big chunk of stress off a bride’s shoulders.

The Big Appliance

Using the wedding registry for this idea can save you some time. There are always a select few big-ticket items that a bride really wants such as a coffee machine, a pasta maker, or a fancy mixer.

Affordable, On the Cheap Gift Ideas

Pampering your favorite bride-to-be doesn’t have to be an extravagant expense to be something special. In fact, sometimes a perfect gift turns out to be an affordable and even cheap one. Don’t cause yourself extra financial strain when shopping for the perfect bridal shower gift, as there are more than enough affordable options out there.

Optimize Your Creativity

Putting your imagination to work when choosing an affordable bridal shower gift is key. Goody baskets themed to the bride are wonderful and cheap ways to give the bride something that has a little bit of everything. Spa, manicure, or wine baskets are all great assortments of creative gifting. Other awesome creative ideas are canvas prints, a container of a first year’s worth of date night ideas, or a newlywed time capsule. DIY photo books, frames, and stemware are also all great options for a cheap, but a beautifully personal gift.

Sentiment over Expensive

The main thing to keep in mind when choosing a less expensive shower gift is to be sure it isn’t as cheap in meaning as it is in price. The bride will remember something more meaningful over a price tag, so make sure your gift is extra special to speak to the bride’s heart. Personalization cannot be stressed enough, as it is what makes everyday things extraordinary purposeful. Coasters with the bride’s new initials, a mini desk canvas with her favorite poem, or pillowcases monogrammed with “Mr. & Mrs” are all really inexpensive gifts that pack a rich meaning.

Appropriate Gift Ideas

Not all bridal shower gifts are created equal, especially when it comes to what is most appropriate for the specific bride. You have to take into account her personality, the theme of the bridal shower, and the general idea of what’s on the wedding registry specifically.

Use Common Sense

Remember that a bridal shower is an event in which all ages can attend, so stay away from erotically themed gifts. You also need to take the bride’s preferences into consideration, so for instance, even if a popular bridal shower gift is a set of wine glasses, this isn’t a great gift if the bride doesn’t enjoy wine. Use basic common sense to steer clear of any possible inappropriate gifting.

Don’t Group the Gifts

A wedding gift is a separate thing from a bridal shower gift, just as a bachelorette gift is separate from a bridal shower gift. It is highly inappropriate to group all events into one gift. Yes, it can get expensive with three separate gifts, but this is a special time in a bride’s life that doesn’t happen again.

Ensuring that your gift for the bride at her bridal shower puts a smile on her face doesn’t have to be a daunting affair. Regardless of your budget or schedule, you don’t have to sacrifice meaning or taste when it comes to the perfect gift. Remember—this gift is as much as a special experience for you in giving it as it is for the bride as she receives it into her life.

• Instant Download Bridal Shower Game Templates

No bridal shower is complete without a fun and interactive activity (or three!), as this is the bride-to-be’s chance to celebrate with her closest family and friends before her big day.

It can seem a bit overwhelming coming up with the perfect activities for a bride’s shower event, especially when you factor in all the party details such as theme, number of guests, location, etc. But the good news is, it actually can be a fun process over a difficult one, and you can incorporate all different types of activities into a bridal shower no matter what your budget! 

Icebreaker Games

When putting together a schedule for bridal shower games and activities, it’s best to start with icebreakers, as chances are not all your guests will know one another. Icebreakers are a great activity to start off the party with—either as guests are arriving or at the beginning of the shower once everyone is there

Who Knows the Bride Best 

Challenge the guests by playing this game with her family and friends by having asking them to answer each question to see how well they know the bride-to-be!

SayIDoPrintables

Don’t Say a Word 

This is an icebreaker game that really gets people into conversations. Each person receives a toy ring, or a clothespin when they arrive and you announce the forbidden words, wedding-related words that guests cannot say (i.e., bride, groom, cake). Each time a guests slips and says a forbidden word, another guest that catches them can grab their ring or clothespin and at the end of the activity, whoever has the most rings or clothespins wins a prize. Guests are going to want to talk and mingle with everyone they can and as much as they can!

Bride and Bows

Guess the Celebrity Bride

For this icebreaker game, each guest should have the name of a famous celebrity bride (Princess Diana, Kim Kardashian, Celine Dion, etc.) taped to their back where they cannot see it. Then, the guests ask other guests yes or no questions to try and figure out what celebrity bride they have.

2 Truths and a Lie

This oldie but goodie is perfect for a bridal shower icebreaker, as it quickly gets everyone talking and acquainted. Take turns having every guest say two truths and one lie about themselves, and have the other guests attempt to guess what is a lie and what is the truth. Another way to play this game is to ask everyone to write down two true things that describe their relationship with the bride-to-be. They could be memories, things they’ve done together, or simply a thought about the bride. Then, ask them to add one lie.

Memory Lane

With the bridal shower invitations, include a request that has each guests write down a favorite memory of the bride and have the guests share these once everyone has arrived to get the party started off on a happy and sentimental note.

Bride and Bows

Popular Bridal Shower Activities

There are some bridal shower games and activities that never lose their popularity and that have become classic staples at every bridal shower event. It’s good to incorporate one or two of these more known games, as guests will usually quickly know how to play.

Guess the Bride’s Dress

This hilarious and entertaining bridal shower game is sure to keep the guests laughing! This perfect Guess the Dress Game by SayIDoPrintables offers both digital file and printed options. Hand out a card each with a white pencil for each of the guests and ask them to draw what they think the bride-to-be will wear on her wedding day! Once finished, you can display them on a wall or string them along a wall like a banner!

Etsy by SayIDoPrintables

Why Do We Do That?

Have the guests match each wedding tradition with its origin! You may be surprised by how some of these wedding traditions began! This game will have your guests discussing how it all started!

SayIDoPrintables

Bridal Bingo

This shower game is played as the typical bingo is played, only with wedding-related words over numbers. And, instead of using normal bingo pieces to mark the cards, opt for something more creative, such as candy hearts, sugarplums, or ring pops.

Bride and Bows

Toilet Paper Dress

This is a classic bridal shower game that always ensures tons of fun and laughter. Put your guests into teams and have them race to make a wedding dress and veil out of rolls of toilet paper.

Pass the Bouquet

In this form of a cross between musical chairs, and hot potato, wedding songs are played as guests continuously pass around a bridal bouquet, being out of the game if they are holding the bouquet when the song is stopped. Last one standing gets a prize!

Wedding Night Talk

This activity is a surprise for the bride that she’ll never see coming. As the bride opens her gifts at the shower, write down phrases she says as she sees her gifts (things like “I’ve always wanted one of these!” and “Where does this go?”) Then, pass around the list and have each guest read out loud to the bride these “Wedding Night Phrases”.

Unique Games

While classic activities like icebreakers and timeless bridal shower games are definitely a necessity to be part of your event, one-of-a-kind games are just as important. You want guests (and the bride) to be talking about this bridal shower for years to come and to walk away with memories they just can’t get anywhere else. Unique and creative party activities are just the way to do this and to really set your bridal shower apart.

Guess the Flavor

This game is heaven for a sweet tooth, as you blindfold the guests and have them taste an assortment of sweets (candies, cupcakes, cakepops, or cookies). The guests have to guess the flavor after tasting and they get to wash it down with refreshing brut champagne.

Celebrity Husband

For lots of blushing and giggles, have your guests enjoy this little activity of fantasy. Have every guest write down their dream celebrity husband and have other guests try and guess who wrote down who.

Name That Chick Flick

There are so many great movies out there full of even greater love stories, so why not round up a bunch of famous chick flick quotes and have the guests attempt to figure out what movies those quotes are from? This game can really go on for hours

Purse Raid

Come up with some popular items that nearly every woman would have in her purse and then call these out for guests to dig through their purses to find. The person with the most items found in her purse by the end of the game wins

How Many Kisses

This game is simple. You would need to prepare a jar full of hershey kisses and ask the guests to guess how many “kisses” there are in a jar. It is like playing ‘how many candy are there in a jar’, but using hershey kisses instead. These kisses then can be used as bridal shower favors later.

Magical Printable

Affordable, on the Cheap

While a bridal shower can cost a bit of money, your activities don’t have to be expensive. There are plenty of free and affordable ways to show your guests a good time with engaging and entertaining activities.

Quiz the Bride 

Have the groom fill out answers to a bunch of questions about the bride (the funnier, the better), and then at the shower, ask the bride those same questions and see just how close her answers match up with the groom’s!

Bridal Bake Off

Take a basic cake recipe and lay all the ingredients and baking tools out in the kitchen. Then, tell the bride to make a cake—without a recipe. This game is such a great one, as it is a fun show for the guests to watch and it also only involves items that are already in your kitchen.

Crazy Wedding Etiquette Game

This is a hilarious activity that includes the guests coming up with “What would you do?” dramatic scenarios for the bride. While this game can go on for hours, it also serves as a fun activity that spawns off into funny and lively conversations.

Printables

There is a printable out on the internet for literally everything, so whether you’re in a bind for a last minute game, activity, or something virtually free, turn to online printables. Think trivia cards, cutout activities, bridal paper dolls, etc. You can find just about anything you’re looking for at just the expense of using your printer.

With so many options to choose from, your bridal shower will undoubtedly be full of fun and lasting memories. Depending on your theme and length of the bridal shower party, you can always let your creativity shine with activities that also pose as party favors for both the guests and bride alike. Pick any kind of arts and crafts and set up stations for guests and the bride to indulge in an artistic activity while they mingle, such as pottery, painting, or even DIY manicures. And of course, no bridal shower is complete without having a guestbook for each person to sign their well wishes for the bride to be.

Bridal showers—just like weddings—come with a certain expectation of etiquette, and it pays to know just what that entails if you want to be the ultimate hostess, honorary bride-to-be, or guest. Today, old customs of etiquette are mixing with new versions of traditions, so it can be extremely confusing when trying to navigate through what is right and wrong. It helps to have a basic set of rules in mind that you can branch off of, no matter what your place is at the bridal shower. Below, we’ve broken down some pretty easy to follow rules of etiquette for a hostess, a bride, and a guest—and these manners never go out of style.

BASIC ETIQUETTE RULES FOR THE BRIDE

Don’t throw your own bridal shower. 

Just don’t, girlfriend. You just need to sit back and enjoy. Whoever is hosting the bridal shower for you, whether it be a maid of honor or a mother, let her do her thing. She knows you well enough to make sure your personality and preferences are merged with the shower, so let her have the spotlight of putting it all together for you. After all, don’t you need a little pampering break after planning a whole wedding?

Be Gracious During and After the Shower.

Be sure to designate someone (like a bridesmaid) to have a notepad in hand to write down specifically what gift each guest at the shower gives you. Thanking the guests for their generous attendance and gifts at the shower is great, but you’ll want to send out a thank you note after the party as well.

BASIC ETIQUETTE RULES FOR THE HOSTESS

Anyone Can Be the Hostess

Though in older days, it was custom for the bridal party hostess to not be a family member, now it’s perfectly acceptable for just about anyone to take the reins.

Communicate

Communication is key to a lot of bridal shower details when you’re the host. It’s extremely common for brides to have more than one shower, so if this is the case, you have to communicate well with guests to ensure you don’t duplicate the guest lists. Another important communication aspect to think about is with the bride herself. Keep talks open with her not to make decisions for the shower, but to make sure that the bride is on the same page with the type of shower you’re throwing her.

Timing

The timing of the bridal shower should be within the window of two months all the way up to two weeks before the wedding. Invitations to the guests should be sent out a month before the bridal shower date.

Invitations

Invitations should be all-inclusive when it comes to information. Party theme, attire, time, place, RSVP options, and where the bride is registered are staples of any good bridal shower invitation.

The Bride is NOT the Host

The bride is the true star and honoree of the party so it can be easy to let her slip into the role of hostess. It is imperative that you not let this happen. While the bride should most certainly be mingling with the guests, you should be the one to greet everyone as they come in, check in to make sure the guests are comfortable and be in charge of rounding up and leading everyone when it comes to games, food, and gift opening.

BASIC ETIQUETTE FOR THE GUESTS

Don’t Come Empty-Handed

Under no circumstances should you as a guest not bring a gift, card, or even a bottle of wine.

Don’t Wear White

Unless specified by the invitation, keep bridal white colors off-limits as far as your shower outfit is concerned.

Do Mingle

It’s a lot of work hosting and gathering with everyone as a hostess and a bride, so don’t expect to be hanging out with just the bride the entire party. Mingle and get to know other guests and truly just enjoy yourself as the hostess intended. You can arrange some ice breaker games to get the mingling started.