Photo: Picotte Weddings
There’s nothing a mother of the bride and her friends love more than doling out their marriage tips to the bride and her friends. And we’re pretty sure you have your own advice for the bride, too! If you’re planning a bridal shower and looking for a cute memento the bride can use for a lifetime of happily-ever-after — and an alternative to those overdone bridal shower games — consider incorporating these ideas into her bridal shower.
A Recipe Box
Along with the invitation, send every guest a blank recipe card to fill out. To avoid repeats as best you can, assign each guest a category: Appetizers, Mains, Desserts, Snacks. Ask everyone to put their favorite recipe on the card and bring it with them to the bridal shower. Then, buy a cute recipe box and have everyone drop their cards inside. Present the box as the last gift of the shower! Pro Tip: Not everyone will remember to fill out their card ahead of time — or some might want to include more than one recipe! — so bring extras to the party.
The Date Night Jar
Ideas can run dry after a lifetime of marriage, so get a jumpstart on their future and help them outsource some great date ideas. Buy an oversized mason jar and hand out slips of paper to each guest as they walk in the door. Have them write their best date night (or day) idea on that paper — encourage them to be creative or pull from the best date they’ve ever been on. Once they’re done writing, fold the paper up and throw it in the jar. Offer it to the bride as inspiration, with one caveat: Whatever paper they pull out of the jar they have to give it a try that night!
Family Advice Book
If you’re a mom, aunt, or grandmother putting together a shower, create a book that will make the whole party cry. Assign a page of a scrapbook to all of the married women in your family — reach out to the groom’s side too if you can! Tell each woman to decorate the page, but most importantly, include three things: their best marriage advice for the bride; their wishes for the bride and groom; and their favorite memory of the bride or groom. This one will bring a lot of laughs — and tears — for sure!
The Anniversary Wishes
Buy enough envelopes and blank cards for every guest at the party, then label each envelope with a number 1 through however many guests you’re having. Shuffle the pile and hand them out at random. You guessed it, that number represents an anniversary. Have each guest write a wish to the bride and groom on that anniversary (trust us, by year 5, there will be a lot of “we hope you’ve had a baby by now!”). Have everyone seal their envelopes when they’re done and collect them in an album or box. Tell the bride she can only open each when they reach that anniversary!
See More: 25 Pieces of the Best Marriage Advice EVER (Collected Over 13 Years)