Guide to Bridal Shower Ideas: Gifts, Food, & Games for All Seasons!
We’ve noticed that some questions about bridal shower ideas seem to pop up more than others. The most common revolve around how to pair a shower with a themed wedding and/or planning seasonally-focused showers.
So, the L&L team put their brain’showering’ caps on and, voila, here are the best ideas from our session to inspire you! You may not love everything we pick, but it’s all good! The point is to provide you with some solid inspo and ideas for throwing a bridal shower everyone will love- from food to favors and more.
Fall And Winter Bridal Shower Ideas
When is the best time to throw a cold-weather bridal shower? If you’re having a spring or summertime wedding, you may want to get on top of it early. Whether it’s September, October, January, or February (we don’t recommend December), there are plenty of bridal shower ideas for those chilly months.
Keep reading for gift, food, favor, and game inspo!
Gift Ideas
1. Subscription To Crated With Love
We had the good fortune to meet the folks behind Crated With Love, and what they’re doing is fantastic! Need a date night, but bad weather and a pandemic turfing your plans to hit the town?
They’ve carefully selected games and activities in each themed crate to bring lovebirds closer together. So gift her with a cozy evening at home with her sweetheart!
2. Spa Day Gift Card
by SpaFinder
Everyone could use a spa day, especially a stressed bride-to-be. Hook her up with one!
3. Cold Weather Cookbook
by Amazon
This cookbook has all kinds of recipes to warm up her winter evenings, from Crock-Pot recipes to roasts and sautees.
4. Cashmere Set
Luxurious (and warm!) cashmere is always a welcome gift. Give her the full cold-weather set including gloves, a hat and a scarf to stay toasty warm. Comes in navy, black, stone, and grey.
5. Sweater Weather Candle
Bring the crispness of winter inside with this candle’s subtle campfire scent. Made from soy wax, it comes in a glass jar and provides up to 40 hours of burn time!
Hot Food Ideas to Warm Up
Hot Chocolate/Cider/Coffee/Tea Cocktail Bar
Boozy hot chocolate or coffee is one of the great joys of cold-weather months. Create a spread of warm beverages for your guests to enjoy with or without alcohol.
Color-Coordinated Pastries and Donuts
There are two color schemes you’ll usually find in a winter shower- winter whites, silvers, and blues or hunter’s plaid with reds and greens.
Regardless of which you choose, put out a spread of sweet treats with colors to compliment your decor.
Warm Nibbles
Warm finger foods like mini chicken pot pies or quiches are always a nice touch for a winter gathering, but any comfort food will do. We even saw a cool recipe for fancy Boursin pigs in a blanket that would be perfect. And if anyone wants to send samples, we’d be happy to test them out!
Cold Weather Bridal Shower Favor Ideas
1. Snuggly Personalized Blankets
by Etsy: southernmysass
Select your color, personalized message, and message placement, then give these fleece sweater blankets to your guests for a great shower favor.
2. Hand Warmer Favors
by Etsy: Flyingturkey
These are so useful and they’re reusable too! Pop them in the microwave for thirty seconds (give or take a few), and banish cold hands all winter long.
3. Mini Marshmallow Toasting Kit
Cute, cute, cute!!! Stick it in your purse, because you never know when you’ll need a toasted marshmallow on the go.
Bridal Shower Game Ideas
We’ve already written a cool article on shower party games. And why not, bridal shower games can be lots of fun when done right. Here are a few new game ideas for indoor fun:
Toilet Paper Fashion Designer
Split up into teams of three or four (or more if you’ve got the people). Choose one member in each group to be the model, then everyone else on the team designs a toilet-paper gown! When everyone’s happy with their creation, the model gets to work the catwalk, and the bride judges her favorite dress.
For more hilarity, set a time limit on the dress designing stage, and see which team is best under the pressure of the clock!
Mad Libs Vows
We’ve all played Mad Libs (or so we assume!), so we know how goofy they can get. Well, these ones are to the tune of traditional wedding vows! One of the guests asks for suggestions to fill in the blank nouns, adjectives, and verbs on the vows, then the bride reads them out. Get ready for some tears of laughter!
Celebrity Wives – “Who Am I?”
Have the guests write the names of celebrity wives on a piece of paper or an index card, put them in a box, mix them up, and then have each guest draw a name. Each guest will tape her chosen card to her forehead. Everyone else has to give her clues to her identity until she guesses her celebrity.
Destination-Themed Bridal Shower Ideas
From Hawaiian hibiscus to Tuscan lavender, your destination wedding bridal shower ideas can easily mirror where you’re headed. Here are a few cute gift ideas to start you out:
Gift Ideas
1. Travel Journal
by JoyfulCouple
Both a planner and a memory book, this travel book will help the bride record all of the adventures yet to come with her new husband. It has template pages for pictures, keepsakes, mementos, and whatever else she’d like to keep to remember their trips together.
2. Travel Buddy Necklace
Wherever the road leads, let the bride know that she’s in your thoughts. This beautiful airplane pendant represents her love of travel and will draw plenty of compliments along the way.
3. Herschel Trade Carry On Suitcase
by No products found.
No products found.A great, sturdy carry-on bag is always a good gift for the traveler in your life! This one has plenty of storage and compartments to keep her stuff organized, as well as a removable battery with a charging port and charging cable.
4. Universal Travel Adapter
by Dandelion
She’ll be fully charged no matter where she ends up with this travel power adapter. Accommodates more than 150 countries and charges up to 3 devices at a time. It also features 2 USB ports and an 8-hole socket for use anywhere!
5. Slip Silk Beauty Sleep Travel Set
by Slip
This sleep travel set comes with a silk pillowcase, a sleep mask, and a poly-filled pillow. It’ll keep her hair tangle-free, her skin clear, and her eyes rested while she’s traversing the world (or the country). It’s all machine washable, too!
Food Ideas
You’ll probably be serving up some international cuisine inspired by the wedding destination. Aside from that, here are a few party staples that ought to do the trick:
Sangria Station
You can never go wrong with a lovely red and white Sangria station. Include a pitcher or two of cucumber water, too, if you have guests who don’t imbibe in adult libations.
Pickle, Cheeses, and Charcuterie
A nice spread of fancy cheeses and meats is always a hit. Include some pickles, olives, and jardiniere, then add some fancy red pepper jellies, dates, nuts – whatever kinds of nibbles you think everyone would like.
Veggie/Hummus Cups
Pre-cut vegetables in nice disposable cocktail cups filled with hummus will disappear fast.
Favor Ideas
1. Wine Charms
by Etsy
These cute wine charms are great for a destination-themed wedding. You can find pretty much any theme you’re looking for, from tropical paradise to a getaway in Paris.
2. Personalizable Girls Trip Face Masks
by KraftzByKay
You can’t go anywhere without your mask these days, so you might as well do so in style. Select your pattern and give these to the girls to get ‘em prepped and ready for the trip!
3. Luggage Tags
These tags will make it easy to keep track of their luggage, but they’ll also get your guests inspired and ready for their travel adventure! The soft leather tags come in a ton of color and font options, so you can make sure everyone has their own, unique memento of the shower.
Bridal Shower Game Ideas
Telephone Wedding Toast
Make a toast to the bride, then pass it on in this fun game of telephone with a wedding-style twist. Go down the line with each guest whispering their interpretation to the next. When you get to the last guest be sure to record their response because the whole room will be dying with laughter!
Where Were We?
You may have to get a little help with this one from other friends and family for this game. Ask them to gather together a dozen or so pictures of the bride-and-groom to be in different locations together. Number the pictures, hang them up, and have the guests write down where they think each photo was taken. Whoever guesses the most wins. (Prizes optional, but appreciated!)
What’s In Your Cell Phone
This game can get hilariously personal, but it’s well worth the potential embarrassment.
Create a list of things for the guests to find in their phones, like pictures with the bride-to-be, selfies, pics of shopping for the wedding, or whatever you think would be fun to find. Each guest will look through her phone for the things listed, and whoever has the most wins the game. And, again, prizes are always fun to give and to receive!
Rustic Bridal Shower Fun
Luckily, rustic weddings are HUGE right now. There’s a lot of great stuff available o help make your rustic-themed bridal shower a hit!
Gift Ideas
1. Custom Rustic Wedding Dress Hanger
This hanger is such a special gift, she’ll treasure it always! Personalize it with her name, the finish you’d like, and the bow color. It’s just perfect.
2. “Letters To The Bride” Bridal Box
This is one of the neatest keepsakes to put on your gift or guest book table for some martial wisdom and advice. The rustic wooden box is sturdy and beautiful, and you can have it personalized with her name and the date of the wedding.
3. Pre Ceremony Liquid Courage Whiskey Glass
Pair this shot glass with a bottle of her favorite spirit, and she’ll thank you when she’s “backstage” getting ready for the wedding. It gets all kinds of real when you don that dress. She may just need a shot of liquid courage!
4. “If You Can Read This” Socks
by No products found.
No products found.When a woman wants to relax, she wants to relax completely. These cute socks are perfect for any time she needs to kick back, relax, and have someone bring wine!
5. Custom Family Name Pallet Sign
This sign will be perfect for hanging up in the new couple’s home when the dust settles, and they settle in as newlyweds. It’s so beautiful, and the grain of the wood makes each piece unique. Available in small, medium, and large sizes.
Food Ideas
Lots of options here, but we went with a couple of country themes.
Sweet Tea And Lemonade Punch
Lemonade, sweet tea flavored vodka, ice, and a lemon wedge. So. Good.
Build Your Own Biscuit Bar
Arrange some biscuits, salty country ham, pimento cheese spread, and an assortment of jellies and jams, and let your guests load ‘em up with whatever they want! Oh, and don’t forget the butter and honey.
Cheese Straws/Candied Bacon
Country charcuterie, y’all. You can add whatever you want to the nibbles table, of course. But come on. Candied bacon and cheese straws?? Yes, please. Deviled eggs are also an excellent addition to this spread.
Crudites
Because vegetables, people. Unfortunately, women cannot live on candied bacon alone.
Favor Ideas
1. Rustic Tealight Holder
by Etsy: aecreativedesignsCo
Each of these cute wooden tealight holders wears a little bouquet of flowers and a tag personalized with your guest’s name.
2. Honey Favor
Pretty little jars of 100% organic honey are always a hit! Your shower guests will love them. More honey favor ideas here.
3. Rustic Leather Keepsake Box
by Etsy: NandorDesigns
Choose a color and have the names of your guests engraved onto these beautiful faux leather keepsake boxes. They’re a luxurious favor for a rustic wedding shower.
Game Ideas
Cold Feet
Fill a large bowl or bucket with ice water, throw some toy rings in it, then torture your guests in the funniest way ever! Each guest has to pull as many rings out of the ice water as possible within two minutes. With their feet only, of course
Pin The Moustache On The Groom
Put an enlarged picture of the groom on a wall that you won’t mind potential holes in, then blindfold your guests and give each of them a big ol’ mustache. Spin her around, and get out of the way! The one who gets the mustache closest to where it’s supposed to be wins.
Find The Guest
Present each guest with a checklist of features. Little personal details of interest like “volunteers at an animal shelter” or “collects stamps in her spare time,” stuff like that. Each guest works the room to find the others with any of the listed characteristics. It’s a great way to get everyone to mingle and introduce them to each other!
Party Like You MEAN It!
Bridal showers are so much fun! It’s a great way to kick back, relax, and let the bride know she’s loved. A respite from the stress of planning a wedding goes a long way. Your bride will appreciate it immensely. Happy planning!
