How to Plan a Bridal Shower

Remember my best friend I made the bento for? Her wedding is coming up in a few weeks and that means bridal shower time! (or is it just a wedding shower when the groom is also coming?) The shower is my job as the maid of honor and I have to admit, while I love hosting and cooking and inviting people over... I'm really bad at planning actual parties. I'm going to be real with you and admit I'm afraid I won't throw a cool party... and then I won't be cool and then cool people will be all like, wow, she's not cool. Sigh. The depth of my fear is powerful, right? HOWEVER. This is my best friend, gosh darn it, and I want to do a good job. So! Here's what I have so far:

Ask the bride what she wants
Super casual? Tea party elegance? A couples shower, so invite the groom and his guy friends too? Kids or no kids? Honestly, I didn't ask too many questions because the point here is that she doesn't have to plan anything. But getting a general feel is a good idea. When I realized the groom was coming, it changed my menu slightly to include a few more filling items.

Involve the moms
I decided to involve the mothers of the bride and groom. They are both great and wanted to help with food and such. One of them is letting us have it at her house, which is great because Patty's Place (my house) is waaaaaaay too small to host! I also put all three of us down as hosting the event.

Guest list and invitations
This was the tricky one since the bride is so doggone busy. I asked her to start with her wedding invite list and pare it down to our desired head count (around 30). That way I had all the addresses since she had already gathered them. Easy peasy. Try to mail out invitations around 2 weeks in advance... mine went out just over 1 week out and I'm a little stressed about RSVPs. Oops. Don't forget to include a note in your invitations about where the couple is registered.

Menu and Decorations
Here I have two pieces of advice. First, if you don't know things like how much food to prepare, what's easy AND good, etc... ASK SOMEBODY WHO DOES. Don't stress and just hope you get it right. Talk to some one, like your mom. Or the bride's mom. Or that guy who's always hosting dinner parties. Even the wealth of knowledge on the internet is no substitute for being able to pick their brains in person.

I enjoy the irony behind my second piece of advice: use Pinterest. Yes, I know what I just said. If you have an army of super creative and clever people in your life who can give you extensive menu and decorating ideas in person, ask them. Otherwise, use ideas like the little gems below from my Wedding Shower Snippets board.

I'll post a recap after the shower on Sunday. Hopefully the final pieces of advice will include Just Relax And Enjoy Yourself, It's Going Great!