Bridal Shower Gifts

What to Give as Bridal Shower Gifts

By Anna Lynn Sibal

Although the bridal shower is an affair where everyone is supposed to have fun and to celebrate the joy of the bride's upcoming wedding, the traditional purpose of the bridal shower is to give gifts to the bride. These gifts are customarily things that the bride can use in setting up her household as a newly married woman.

These days, however, a lot of women already have their own households before they marry, and so the gifts given at a bridal shower could be anything that the bride may like. But how would you know what gift to bring with you to a bridal shower?

Check Out the Theme

To avoid confusion, the person who organized the bridal shower - usually the maid of honor - sets a theme for the bridal shower. You can use the theme as your starting point for ideas on what gift to give the bride. Here are examples of bridal shower themes and the usual gifts that go with them.

1. Book showers. Bridal showers with books as the theme are perfect for couples who love to read. Typically, books brought by guests here have something to do with relationship advice, homemaking, raising children, self-help, sex, and cooking.

2. Kitchen. Going to a bridal shower with a kitchen theme means bringing the bride things she could use for her kitchen. Examples are skillets, a set of knives, a tea kettle, sampler bottles of spices, cookbooks and other such items.

3. Linens. The linen theme is one of the traditional bridal shower themes, just like the kitchen theme. Linen gifts can be tablecloths, bedsheets, quilts, blankets, pillow cases, table napkins, towels, and the like.

Check Out the Registry

Most invitations to bridal showers would indicate the name of the store where the bridal couple is registered. The bridal registry is actually very helpful in selecting a gift for either the bridal shower or the wedding itself. It tells people what the bridal couple would like to receive as gifts, and it is updated regularly to show which gifts were already bought for the bridal couple.

If the bridal shower does not have a particular theme, you should take a look at the invitation to see where the bridal couple is registered. And then, pay a visit to the store, pick out an item, check against the gift registry for duplications, and make the purchase.

No-Gifts Bridal Showers

There are some instances where the bride and groom prefer not to receive gifts on the bridal shower. The reasons behind this are many. It could be that the bridal couple prefers to receive cash rather than a gift. It could mean that the bridal couple does not want relatives and friends to spend for a bridal shower gift and a wedding gift. It could also be that the bride and/or the groom would rather have their bridal shower guests donate to the bridal couple's favorite charity in lieu of gifts.

If you are having trouble with what gift to give the bride on her bridal shower, you can always get your ideas by looking at the bridal shower invitation. If not, you can always ask the person who organized the affair for gift ideas.