Wedding showers. Man, they can be a lot. What with the wedding planning, your Bach parties, engagement party and just general life stuff going on it can feel like a lot to navigate this piece! This post is dedicated to a few ways to alleviate the stress and outsource some of this planning!
Who gets invited to this? Who is in charge of planning? Check these two things off first! Are you having a friend shower or is this for everyone? If you want to keep the parties at a minimum then throw everyone into the mix! And this means EVERYONE. Make sure to add your in-laws-to-be to this list. Ask your parents who they want to include! Invite your sis-in-law to be and that cousin that is super close to your partner but you may not know super well. Including everyone starts this process off on the right foot and even though a lot of folks may not be able to make it, everyone will remember that you extended the invite.
Then tackle who is planning this thing. Is this for your Mom? Joint effort between parents and friends? Designate one point person to take on most of the planning, and then talk to other support folks about offering support there. Friends may want to take the lead on planning Bach celebrations so this is a great opportunity to give family a chance to be involved in the planning and party process! Once you have figured out who the lead planner is, then you can start to assign folks jobs. Who is hosting? Who will help with food? Who will come up with the games and favors? Are those all the same person or does it make more sense to spread the labor out?
Chat about gifts next. Are you having a no gift party? Will you be asking people to just pull from your wedding registry? Will you be creating another registry just for the shower? All three are totally great, just make sure you include that info on your invite. People will always ask so it's best to answer that question right away. :)
Next! Tackle the food. You don't have to go all out here. An awesome charcuterie and veggie tray can totally be enough if you are wanting to send the signal to guests that this is an open house style party. White Pepper makes rad charcuterie for you to order and pick up if you want to go fancy or just go to Costco and load up on the essentials. Nice cutting boards also make an awesome gift for your pal getting married, in case you're a pal planning and need some gift ideas.
If you want people to stay and hang out for a while think of having something more substantial. Family may even want to style this like a pot luck and have a little bit of everything. My advice though is save your money here for other parts of wedding planning. This party is meant to be an added moment to come together and celebrate you, not spend lots of money feeding your guests. Remember to always have GF and Vegan options for folks too just to make sure you continue to include everyone!
Lastly, a few notes on games! Make sure when you are choosing activities you don't alienate any of your guests. I am a major fan of the who knows the person getting married best quizzes, but you may have invited people who are not super close to you. We want to make sure we include everyone to it's best to steer clear of those games and save them for another time when it's just you and your besties. It's also a good idea to steer clear of games that make all of the guests have to talk to each other like a person scavenger hunt. Those end up reminding people of a job interview and no one likes those haha!
Remember to have fun with all of this!