Hi WeddingWire! I finally had my bridal shower yesterday and am so excited to show off the wonderful photos.
A shower wasn't something I really wanted or thought about that much. Shortly after we got engaged, my fiancé's aunt offered to throw me one, but I was quite nervous and hesitant. I'm a person who doesn't like the pressure of receiving, giving, and using gifts, so I preferred something where people could socialize and have fun instead of just watching me open boxes. On top of that, my friends are very unreliable with events (they're either never available or cancel at the last minute) so I was worried no one would show up except my FH's family.
FH's aunt wanted to use the private event room in her building, but it's under construction indefinitely, so she graciously opened up her home instead. Sure enough, we did have three friends cancel at the last minute due to illness/personal emergencies, which had me super discouraged (thanks, COVID). Still, we had about 14 guests come and it was super heartwarming to see my friends and family chatting with each other even though they had never met.
The first half or so of the shower was females only. Plenty of people did bring gifts, while others already had them sent to our apartment ahead of time. Aunt had a yummy lunch catered in, featuring various sushi, salads, pastas, champagne, etc.:
Another thing I was unsure about were shower games, since I often hear that guests dislike them. Fortunately, my FH's sisters and cousins took the lead on this one, and set up a couple basic games that didn't drag on too long. First was a simple "how well do you know your groom" trivia game (they had been texting with him in secret to come up with questions and answers together). Each question I got right, they gave me a stuffed penguin:
Some questions were inside jokes or memories between me and my FH, so I had to explain.
Eventually I realized the penguins themselves were also my FH's idea, another inside joke. By the end, I couldn't hold them all:
After that game, my FH, his dad, and a couple other people's husbands arrived.
The second game was basically the shoe game, but with each of our names on signs. Some of the questions were harder to answer than I expected, so I kinda picked randomly or wanted to change my answer, but it was too late!
After that, there was tea and cookies for dessert. Our friends headed home, and the family stayed behind to take more photos and gossip about the wedding.
If you're a bride/groom couple, I also recommend having your partner there for at least some of it. I've been getting more stressed and busy as the wedding gets closer, but this was actually a great bonding experience for the two of us. 🤍
