My name is Laurie and I joined the group just a week ago. I have
been enjoying reading all the e-mails.
A little about me... ) We live in Texas. I am a proud mother of
2 yo & a 15 yo (both girls). I have been married for almost 17 yo,
to an AWESOME guy!!
I joined the group because I will be taking over handling the
finances next month. So I am trying to look for ways to cut our
spending as much as possible. Trying to get our of "crisis mode
finances", which is where we are right now.
Now to my question, my sister asked me to be her maid of honor last
year and I was excited therefore quickly said yes....well we were
financial hit hard through several events...My sisters wedding is at
the end of next month I need to (1.)buy 2 dresses 1 for my daughter
and 1 for me (2.) I am responsible for throwing her a shower in 2
1/2 weeks.
Question: Does anyone have any advise on how to throw a inexpensive
bridal shower? Decor..food..invitations..locations..games.. "party
gifts"..
I am looking forward to receiving any wisdom you may have...
Many Thanks,
Laurie
The Following User Says Thank You to MissDaisy For This Useful Post:
A slow cooker full of sloppy joes with buns and cheese on the side. Chopped veggies and dip, individual decorated cupcakes or cookies cut in bell shapes (for wedding bells).
Hot wings in a slow cooker (stays hot on a buffet so guests can go back for more as they like).
Individual pizzas made on english muffin halves.
Turkey & cheese; ham & cheese wrapped in pitas. Add a tossed salad on the side. Let people top with tomatoes, cheese, cucumbers, croutons, sunnflower seeds, etc.
Order a part sub (one of those 5 foot things) and add your own side dishes.
Homemade nachoes with ground turkey, ground beef, shredded chicken, shredded beef, salsa, jalepenos, refried beans, cheese, sour cream and plenty of chips. (We do this for dinner sometimes.) Great! Economical, quick and easy. You can do the meat in a slow cooker so the seasoning is in ther all day and you don't have to watch it so much.
A inexpensive shower for a new bride is to invite guest to bring a
dish with the recipe taped to the dish. The guest eat the food and the
bride gets the dishes and recipes.
Another inexpensive way to toss a shower is to buy cheese, crackers
and thin sliced lunch meats. Have your kids roll the lunch meats, cut
the cheeses plain or into shapes. Have crackers, tea, coffee and soda.
To decorate the shower use pictures of her and her future husband when
they were growing up.
My neice was married last November, it seemed everytime I turned
around someone was having some sort of a shower for her. I was going
broke buying her gifts. So I ended up printing out recipes and budget
tips. Saved me money and hopefully someday she will learn from the
budget tips.
For a shower, first, ask if the other bridesmaids would be willing
to pitch in towards it, even just $10 from 3 or 4 bridesmaids will
help cover the cost. Tell them it's not neccessary, but that you are
financhially tight at the moment, and any help would be appreciated.
For food, just do a few finger foods, and a couple of desserts.
Cakes are popular, obviously, but they don't need to be a bakery
cake to be eaten.
Make up a batch of brownies, two small cakes, and maybe something
like a pudding pie. I'll post a recipe for a CHEAP, EASY pudding pie.
For finger foods, have some chips, pretzals, crackers, and maybe a
small veggie tray with things like carrots (baby carrots are about
$1.99 a bag, two bags should be fine for 30 people. Buy a pack of
celery, cut it into baby carrot size sections, and provide some
veggie dip to dip them in.
Here's the pudding pie recipe:
1 graham cracker crust ($.99 at Save-A-Lot)
2 packages pudding or 1 large package pudding ($.29 at save-a-lot
for a small pack, so $.58 total)
1 tub of whipped cream ($.99 at Save-A-Lot)
1 package sandwhich cookies ($1.29 at save-a-lot)
I use chocolate pudding and chocolate sandwhich cookies- Save-a-Lot
has some identical to Oreo's that work perfectly.
Mix the pudding up with only HALF the milk required in 2 seperate
bowls. Mix 1/2 the whipped cream in 1 bowl of pudding. Pour the NON
whipped topping pudding into the pie crust.
Next, break about 10 cookies into 4's, and mix them into the whipped
topping/pudding mix, and pour that over top of the plain pudding in
the crust.
Lastly, smooth the left over whipped topping onto the whipped
topping/pudding/cookie mix, and put it in the fridge. If you use
canned whipped topping for the top, do NOT put it on until serving-
it WILL melt. Before serving, break some more cookies in half, and
insert on the top in a circle. Total cost? $3.85- this goes over
GREAT with chocolate lovers!
For party gifts, go to the dollar store. Get some pretty candle
holders and candles, things like dish towels & pot holders, etc. Use
those for gifts both to the bride and the prize winners. Some people
do parties where the gift goes to the bride no matter what, others
do it so that the winner & the bride get a gift. That's up to you to
decide.
Do something like gift bingo. Give the people each a blank bingo
grid, and tell them to write in the boxes different gifts you think
the bride will get. First bingo gets a prize. You run this
simultaneously as the bride opens her gifts. You can also just do
this for the only game, since it takes up no time outside of gift
opening, and several people can win.
Another game which works for both baby showers and bridal showers is
to get baby pictures of both the bride and the groom, and mix them
in with baby pictures of other people (yourself, other bridal party
members, etc, and post them on a peice of poster board. Have at
least 3 baby pictures of both the bride and groom, and scatter them
all around the board, then fill in the space with baby pictures of
other people (use boys and girls!). Number each picture, and have it
set up through out the entire shower. Then, after people have had a
chance to look at it (maybe pass it around?), have them write down
the numbers they think are the bride & groom. Whoever guesses the
most numbers correct gets a prize.
You might want to make certain to have enough prizes on hand for at
least 2 winners per game, just to be safe.
Also- for the dress issue, does she have a specific bridal party
dress picked for your daughter? If not, ask if you can buy a nice
party dress off the rack at a clothing store. You can find them
cheaper usually, and most often match the bridal party color.
I have seen several successful showers in a park that were potluck.
everyone brings a dish &(hopefully) they would consult with you, and
you can coordinate to ensure you don't have 3 potato salads, or
whatever. You have some great advice I have already read.
As for games I have a few suggestions, one being real simple;
in a small bowl fill with one cup of white rice and 1 pack of
the "VERY" small saftey pins (Usually gold in color) and while
blindfolded, see who can pick out the most safety pins. Much harder
than it sounds! Another would be to interview the bride and groom
with the same questions (Like what first attracted you? What is his
favorite movie, song, etc) and then ask the bride and see how many
she can answer correctly. For every wrong answer she has to chew a
piece of bubble gum (hopefully she only has one or two pieces total)
and for every answer she gets right you could do something as simple
as let her open a gift. (last time I saw it, the bride got a dollar
for every correct answer). I imagine you can change it to suite...
AND there is always the clothespins or safety pins every guest gets
and cannot say a certain word, or cannot do something such as cross
her legs...Very common game.
The Dollar store has come along ways and also Target has a Dollar
section now if you have one close by. Gifts can be as simple as
cookies in a plastic bag and tied with ribbon, the guests are not
there for the prizes, they are there for the bride. Focus on her!
As for the decorations, if you have it at a park, you could go as
simple as a few balloons. Especially if you are in a windy area, it
would not be wise to do much more (thinking of past disasters at
windy outdoor parties...ugh)
As for invitations, you can do them nowadays on the printer and have
them look very nice. Remember this is the shower and not the wedding!
Good luck to you and hope you will come back and let us know how it
went!
Kimberlee
Wedding Question
) We live in Texas. I am a proud mother of
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