Recipe: Bridal Shower Ideas for Mona

BRIDAL SHOWER IDEAS
by Lee Asher

The bridal shower is an opportunity for the women in the future brides life to honor her with a simple luncheon or get together filled with good food, fun and games. Many bridal showers feature a series of games that are not only a great deal of fun but also allow a bonding opportunity for all of the women at the party and sometimes serve the purpose of completing a task for the bride to be.

A game that encourages the participants to get to know each other is always a fun game with which to start the party. One game you can play is known as the Name Tag Game which encourages guest to mingle with the other guests. In this game, the hostess writes the name of each of the guests along with a word related to weddings such as veil, favors, groom, etc on a name tag. The rules of the game are that you are not allowed to say the word on your name tag or else you lose your name tag to the person who got you to say the word. If you acquire one or more additional name tags you are tasked with not saying any of the words on either your name tag or any of the other tags. If you say the word on your tag, you have to relinquish it to the person who got you to say the word and if you say the word on one of the other tags, you also have to give that person the tag plus you have to introduce them to the person from whom you had acquired the tag. There is usually a pre-determined time limit for this game and the person with the most tags when time runs out is the winner.

The Purse Game is another popular bridal shower idea. This is a simple game where the hostess draws up a list of items likely to appear in a womans purse and assigns a point value to each item ranging from 1-5 depending on how unusual the item is. For example car keys might be a 1 on the scale, a mirror a 3 and an eye lash curler a 5. The hostess might also choose to allow 10 bonus points for the woman who can produce the most outrageous item from her purse. The woman with the most points wins the game. Another variation of this game is to have a list of items and call out the items one at a time. The first woman to find each item and hand it to the person judging the game wins one point. After the entire list has been completed, the woman with the most points is proclaimed the winner.

Another common bridal shower game is the Television Couple Game. In this game the hostess will read out the first names of a television couple and the guests try to guess the last name of the couple. A few examples clues along with the answers are George and Jane Jetson, Al and Peg Bundy, Ward and June Cleaver. One point could be awarded for each correct answer or a point system could be established to award more points to more obscure references. This game is also sometimes called the Famous Couple Game and includes references to celebrities or political figures and their real spouses such as Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Bridal Shower Bingo is another simple bridal shower game. This game is played just like regular bingo except that instead of using letters and numbers for the spaces, each space is filled with a word or words that relate to weddings, love or marriage such as wedding dress, favors, eternal, true, rings, etc. The host makes up the bingo cards ahead of time and puts a piece of paper with each word used on the cards into a large bowl. During the game, the hostess will draw out a word and read it allowed and each participant will mark that square on their card. The first person to complete an entire row, column or diagonal wins the game.

One bridal shower game that can be a real benefit to the bride to be is a simple drawing. The hostess may purchase a few inexpensive gifts for the drawing and ask each participant to fill out an envelope with their name and address to enter the drawing. The hostess then picks out a name for each prize. This is a fun game because it offers the participants a chance to win a prize plus it really helps out the guest of honor because she can use the envelopes to send out her thank you cards after the party.

The Who Am I Game is another bridal shower game that encourages guests to interact with each other. In this game, the host prints out pictures of characters from romantic books or movies and tapes one character to the back of each guests so that other guests can see the picture but the person wearing the picture cannot. The point of the game is to ask other guests questions where the answer is either yes or no to try to determine who is on the picture on your back. At the end of the party, each guest takes a guess at who is depicted in the photo on their back.

The Wedding Jumble is another fun bridal shower game. For this game the hostess will prepare a list of words related to a wedding day such as toast, limousine, receptions, and vows. Next the hostess will scramble each word so that the letters are out of order and provide each guest with a copy of the scrambled words. The guest will be given a set amount of time to unscramble the words and the person who unscrambles the most words wins. If more than one person gets all of the words correct then the person who did so in the fastest time is the winner.

The Wedding Day Obstacle Course is another game that can really help out the bride. In this amusing game each guest is timed individually on how fast they can complete a series of tasks such as wrapping a wedding favor, addressing envelopes, filling out a place card, assembling a centerpiece, or whatever other projects the bride has in progress that can be incorporated into the game. Not only is this a game that is both fun to watch and participate in but it also helps the bride to complete some of the tasks on her list.

The Bridal Shower Memory Game is also very popular. The typical way to play this game is to have a tray filled with various household items. Bring out the tray and allow the guests to study the items for a few minutes and then take the tray away and ask questions about the items such as, where the spoon was and what color was the spatula. This game could also be modified to have one of the guests bring the tray out and then leave the room to take the tray away. You could then catch the guests by surprise by asking questions about the person who carried the tray such as what color shirt were they wearing or on which finger was she wearing a ring instead of asking questions about the contents of the tray.

The Price is Right Game can also be a great deal of fun at bridal showers and can serve to benefit the bride as well. For this game the hostess will purchase about 10 different items that will be useful for the couple such as towels, soap dispensers, household cleaners, etc. and have the guests try to guess the price of either all the items combined or each item individually. This is not only a fun game but the bride also gets to keep the items which makes it useful for her.

All of these games are a lot of fun to play at a bridal shower and they encourage the guests to get to know each other in a casual atmosphere. Some of these games even serve the purpose of helping to complete some of the brides last minute projects. The fun of these games is that they help people to get to know each other better which is helpful especially if the bride and grooms families don't know each other well.

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FOOD SUGGESTIONS FOR A BRIDAL SHOWER:

Food Suggestions:
Teas - French Vanilla, Darjeeling, Constant Comment
Do not use cream in teas.
Finger sandwiches (keep dainty - don't overstuff) - cucumber and olives with cream cheese, stilton cheese
Canapes
Fruit (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, star anise slices, melons in season, kiwi, mango)
Iced tea (use ice cubes made of iced tea)
Punch (place a piece of fruit or edible flower in each ice cube to float in punch)
Scones
Shortbreads
Muffins
Petitfors (brush with a little liqueur before frosting with white chocolate glaze or fondant frosting)
Fruit tarts
Cookies
Madeleines
Flavored honey and butter spreads
Mini quiches
Tart shells for chicken, egg or tuna salad
Clotted cream
Jams (Black Currant an excellent choice)
Bon Bons
Lemon slices studded with cloves

Salads are great also, but in that case you must add some meat or baked ham, served in thin slices with the salads.