Personalizing Bridal Showers with Small Details

Hosting a bridal shower for a beloved friend or relative can be a fun event. But, it’s important to remember that it is also a great opportunity to add meaningful, personalized touches that can take your bridal shower from average to outstanding without breaking the bank.

 Personalized doesn’t have to mean expensive.

There are a lot of small ways to add personal touches while working within a budget.  This may seem like a storyline from a Mission Impossible movie, but it isn’t.   One easy DIY way is to create memorable favors for the guests.  When I recently hosted a bridal shower, I purchased four beautiful and budget friendly, machine embroidery favor bag designs from an online retailer.  I then ordered embroidery thread in the wedding color, blush pink. Creating the bags took a considerable amount of time, but by setting a small goal of making 5-10 bags a weekend, I finished them quickly.  A few days before the shower, I filled each of the bags with a small amount of personalized bridal shower themed candy.  To make sure that the candy didn’t spill, I tied each bag with a small ivory ribbon.

Think outside the box for centerpieces

Centerpieces are a great way to display your theme.  You can incorporate the wedding colors, the bride’s favorite flowers, photos of the couple, or small, personal mementos.  Fresh flowers are beautiful, but they can be expensive.  I needed flowers, but with a limited budget, I had to get creative.  For my table centerpieces, I used tall glass hurricanes with LED candles in blush pink.  I then accented with simple potted primroses that were wrapped in pink paper that I purchased at a local home and garden center.  To give the tiny flowers character and fullness, I embroidered lace style butterflies and attached each to a floral stick. Once the glue dried, I then strategically placed 1 butterfly per plant.  Since the table linens were white, I made flower shaped pink satin doilies to add a pop of color and anchor the hurricanes.

For the gift, dessert, and hors d’oeuvres tables, we decorated with LED candles, glass floral gems, and photos of the bride and groom.   These small items created conversation topics and encouraged guests to move around the room.

Don’t overlook small, but important details

There are other ways to personalize your shower that will make a statement.

Personalize your invitations.  There are many websites that offer affordable printing and professionally designed templates.  Pricing varies depending on the selected layout, number of invitations, paper selection, and size.  Some sites will offer bundle packages with even better pricing.  Some of the items they bundle include personalize napkins, paper plates, signage, thank-you notes, coasters, and favor bags.

Consider adding a Welcome Sign to the main entrance.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s important.  Don’t assume guests will know where the entrance is, especially people who are not familiar with the venue.  Also, a Welcome sign decorated with a bouquet of balloons or garland creates a great photo prop!

Inside, balloons are a great way to attract the guests attention to important areas such as the head table, gift table, or sign-in sheet.  It allows them to easily locate items without asking the bride or hostesses for information.

Don’t have the budget for a fancy cake?  Serve cupcakes!  They are easy to make and fun to decorate.  Don’t have a baker’s touch?  No worries, you can decorate cupcakes with pre-made cupcake decorations or buy an assortment of cupcakes at your local bakery.

When all is said and done, personalized touches really make a difference.  Not only do they elevate your shower, they also create meaningful memories that will last a lifetime!