Plan a shower everyone will talk about for a long time.
As the maid of honor, your most important duty is to throw the bride a fabulous wedding shower. If you have been to many wedding showers that were all the same, consider thinking outside the box. Planning a wedding shower that is just a little bit different will make it memorable to the bride and guests alike, and everyone will rave about what a remarkable party planner and hostess you are.
The Housewife
Welcome the new bride into the world of being a housewife with some gag gifts, homemade cooking and handmade decorations. This theme is especially fun for a bride who is not exactly Suzy Homemaker. Start by stating on the invitations that while the bride may be registered for many gifts, you are asking the guests to focus on cleaning and cooking items. If the guests really want to buy something that does not fit this theme, ask them to add a bottle of cleaning product to the gift to keep with the theme. Make sure all the food is homemade, because a perfect housewife would never have food catered or use prepackaged foods. To get the point across that all food is homemade, neatly fill out recipe cards and frame them. Display the recipes on the serving tables. In addition, make all the decorations yourself. Use home or craft magazines to get ideas. Cut out the magazine articles used and display them as well, so everyone knows that these were handmade. Remember to continue to make jabs at the new bride about her new role as the perfect housewife.
My Favorite Things
Create a theme of favorite things for the bride. This theme is fun, but it works best for a smaller group of good friends of the bride, because it does involve the guests making a little extra effort to show the bride some love. This also makes life easier for the hostess because a favorite things wedding shower is a potluck. Each guest should bring either her favorite side dish or dessert--the one that she has found to be a tried-and-true success, the recipe she uses for every party she attends. Along with the invitations, send each guest a matching recipe card and ask her to complete it with the recipe for whatever she is bringing to the wedding shower. For gifts, ask each guest to give the bride a gift that is something on her personal list of favorite things--whether that be supersoft bed sheets, a kitchen gadget that makes life easy or a favorite brand of candle. You could also ask guests to write a brief note with the gift explaining why this gift is a favorite. To make a game of it, you can ask the bride to open each gift without looking at whom it is from and guess which guest would have chosen that item as a favorite thing.
The Helpful Shower
Use the wedding shower as a chance to relieve some stress for the busy bride-to-be. This shower should be scheduled close to the actual wedding, when the bride is starting to get overwhelmed. Before the date of the shower, without giving it away if the shower will be a surprise, ask her to give you a list of all the little things that need to be done before the wedding. This could include packing up boxes to move into a new house, getting passport photos made for the honeymoon, putting together centerpieces or wedding favors or anything else on the bride's pre-wedding to-do list. Look for things on the list that a large group of people could help with, such as putting together gift bags or centerpieces for the wedding day. At the wedding shower, ask the guests to help out by putting things together so the bride can get another chore checked off her list. In addition, make a large chart of other things that the bride needs to get done. Ask the guests, the ones who have the time and who are willing to help, to assist the bride in completing the tasks. Couple each task with a relaxing event. Two items on the to-do list might be: "Drive the bride to get passport photo taken, and take her out for a pedicure;" and "Help the bride paint her new bedroom, and take her out for lunch." The bride will get items checked off her list and stay calm and relaxed in the days leading up to the wedding.
Tags: wedding shower, addition make, centerpieces wedding, checked list, each guest, everyone will