Ideas for a Summer Bridal Shower
Now is not the time to be intimidated if you’ve been chosen as the maid of honor for your friend’s, sister or cousin’s wedding.
Your greatest fear may not be planning the bridal shower itself, but the cost therein! 
There are plenty easy wedding shower ideas to get you started and make the whole process go smoothly.
The most popular wedding shower idea is the kitchen shower, and it’s really the most practical as well, even if the bride doesn’t really cook.
After all, no one can have too many kitchen utensils or appliances, and there is also a host of nice little gourmet treats that the bride would love to be gifted with.
A personal shower is always nice too, with everyone giving the bride a gift of lingerie or accessories such as inexpensive jewelry.
She might also like something like a skin treatment gift set, cosmetics, or bath powder and perfume.
When most people think of wedding showers, they do tend to think of tradition – a group of ladies getting together in someones home or at a restaurant or tea room.
Lots of decorations, some games and gifts. This is a wonderful concept, but if you’re busy it can be hard to pull off.
That’s why there’s a new trend in easy wedding shower ideas – activity based showers.
No, we don’t mean rock-climbing (unless you really want to) – we
mean a girl’s day out.
Contact a local day spa and ask if you can book an afternoon for pedicures and manicures for the whole crew. Asking for a set menu of prices, for mani-pedi’s and one facial treatment of the wedding attendants choosing is manageable.
This is especially nice if you are having a small shower for close friends and it also gives you a better idea of what to expect price-wise.
You can all talk and giggle and feel spoiled, then duck out for a drink and open gifts afterward. No muss, no fuss, no clean-up or decorating for you.
And every guest leaves feeling special and very relaxed!
You can do the same with a cosmetics counter at a fine department store – call ahead and explain that you have several women who want makeovers and do a day of bonding over shopping afterwards.
In some cases, the makeup company will even throw in some free gifts for the wedding party or bride.
It’s fun and inexpensive, and again you can follow up with dinner or drinks.
Even better, if you have a friend or relative that sells Mary Kay (or something similar) whose been after you to have a party – the bridal shower is a perfect opportunity. You can serve up a pitcher of blended margaritas, place jasmine scented candles and fluffy white towels all around your home and …viola.. instant spa! Not to mention everyone gets a new look for the wedding day and you cousin might even make a few sales.
Keeping the spa theme going, you can contact a massage college and bring in a masseuse in training at a fraction of the cost. The ladies can dawn spa robes that you can easily buy on eBay or on closeout (since most will likely take them home after the party anyway) and begin to relax while enjoying libations of your choosing.
Martinis always work out well. Appetizers of light sandwiches and salads will complete the affair.
But what if you need to throw a party for say…50 women? A spa treatment can easily become overwhelming in expense. For large gatherings, stick to a theme.
The more organized you are the better. Serve food items that guest can build themselves. A taco bar does not have to be tacky. Shredded beef or chicken, flour or corn tortillas, black beans or re-fried pinto beans followed by three very different Salsas makes a great summer menu.
Paper lanterns hanging from trees look great lit or unlit. A monochromatic theme, like all white or all light blue with splashes of a pop of accent color will make decorating easy and fast.
Settle on two drinks… (you hear me what I say!) two drinks – one alcohol and one non-alcohol. Pink or raspberry lemonade and a white sangria or fizzy traditional lemonade and cosmopolitans will keep the drinkers happy and the non-drinkers hydrated and your wallet smiling.
Giving too many choices just opens the host up to the “why didn’t yous” – why didn’t you buy coke instead of Pepsi…why didn’t you get coleslaw instead of salad and so on.
Simple decorations of one base color and a simplified menu, at the spa or at your home, keeps things under control and in budget. You’ll know what to expect even if there are additional and unexpected guests.
A menu of spa treatments that don’t exceed $20 is easy to calculate when you know there will be 8-10 guests. A few extra pounds of meat is a no brain-er when guest serve themselves. One or two additional guest for your cousin to sell her Mary Kay products to…”duh winning”! (thanks Charlie).
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