Bridal Shower Favors

Shopping For Bridal Shower Favors

By Anna Lynn Sibal

Choosing the right items to give away as bridal shower favors is one of the challenges of planning a bridal shower. Traditionally, the maid of honor is the one in charge of hosting the bridal shower, and maids of honor who have never done this before can find selecting the right bridal shower favors a bit confusing.

The task of choosing and shopping for bridal shower favors does not have to be painful or worrisome for the maid of honor. If you are a maid of honor tasked with the responsibility of throwing a bridal shower for your friend who is going to be married, a few tips like the ones below will go a long way for you.

1. Set a budget and stick to it. The first rule of planning a bridal shower, or any event for that matter, is to have a set budget and to adhere strictly to this budget. The same applies to buying bridal shower favors. Have a budget in mind and work within that budget.

Do not worry about not having allotted enough money for the task. You are always bound to find something nice to give away as bridal shower favors no matter how small your budget is.

2. Choose a bridal shower favor that relates to your theme. The central theme that you have chosen for the bridal shower should be a big consideration for you when you pick out bridal shower favors. Relating your choice of bridal shower favor to your theme helps give your event a unified and coordinated atmosphere.

For example, if you are having a wine-and-cheese theme or a kitchen theme, you can give away, say, cheese graters as bridal shower favors. Along the same vein, personalized flute glasses would also work.

3. Consider your guests. You should also give some thought on what your guests would like when you choose bridal shower favors. There may be a few things that caught your fancy, but if these items are not something that matches what you believe your guests’ tastes to be, they will not really be appreciated.

Say you are thinking of giving away tins of chocolates as bridal shower favors. It would be a bad idea to push through with that if there are a few diabetics among the bride's family.

4. Personalize it. It is very tempting to just pick up a bunch of picture frames, gift-wrap them and give them away on the bridal shower itself. After all, there are so many generic gift items that you can buy and buying something generic can save you a headache. However, it will not speak well for you if you do something as thoughtless as that.

There is nothing stopping you from buying generic items, but try your best to put a little personalized touch to the bridal shower favor. If you are giving away picture frames, print a card with a simple message of thanks for attending the bridal shower, and slip it inside the picture frame. If you are giving away boxes of chocolate, you can tie around the box a few ribbons of the same shade as the thematic colors chosen by the bride and groom for the wedding.

5. Plan ahead. Order your bridal shower favors ahead of time. It takes time to process an order, especially a bulk one. Ordering ahead of time can also save you from possible mishaps involved with shopping items in bulk. How many bridal shower favors should you order? It is always one per guest.