Bridal Shower

The Basics of the Bridal Shower

By Anna Lynn Sibal

It has become customary for bridal showers to be held in behalf of a woman who is about to get married, at least in the United States and Canada, as well as in other countries that fall under these two's influence. Bridal showers are events that are often looked forward to in the course of preparing for an upcoming wedding.

What is a bridal shower?
A bridal shower, basically, is a gathering of the soon-to-be married couple's female friends and family. The purpose of the bridal shower is to give the bride items that she will need when she enters her new status in life.

The History of the Bridal Shower

It is said that the bridal shower is an offshoot of the old practice of the bride's family providing their daughter with a suitable dowry and trousseau for when she marries. The dowry and trousseau are traditionally comprised not just of money but also of new, grown-up clothes for the bride and of items that she will require when she establishes her household.

There are instances, however, when the bride's family is too poor to produce the required dowry and trousseau. Also, in the olden days, a father could disown his daughter for insisting on marrying a man he does not approve of. When a daughter is disowned, she cannot expect to get anything from her family when she marries.

In times like these, the friends and other relatives of the bride step in to give the bride the things she needs. And so the practice of the bridal shower was born.

The Bridal Shower Today

Today, women no longer have to rely on their fathers to provide for them, and most women do not need their father’s permission to get married at all. Thus, the bridal shower has become simply an excuse for female friends and family to do some female bonding and to celebrate the bride's joy.

Bridal showers today are now commonly hosted by the maid of honor. It is actually the maid of honor's primary responsibility. She is supposed to put together the bridal shower around four to six weeks before the actual date of the wedding.

Putting together the bridal shower means picking out the venue, sending out the invitations, accepting confirmations from guests, getting bridal shower favors, arranging for the food and drinks to be served at the bridal shower, and many others. In short, she needs to do everything that must be done to host a party.

Because the bride may have already have most of the things she would need when she becomes a missus, the gifts given at a bridal shower work mostly around a theme or around the bridal couple's registry. The theme could be anything: a kitchen theme for a bride who needs items for her kitchen, a lingerie theme for a bride who would like to have some new ones, or probably a linens theme.

Bridal showers can take on many forms, shapes or even sizes. But what never changes with a bridal shower is that it is a time of celebration.