Who Do you Invite to a Bridal Shower?

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A bridal shower gives the bride a moment to enjoy the occasion without having to think about any appointments or to-do lists. It offers a great opportunity for the bride to spend quality time with friends and family. When organizing the bridal shower as a relative or as a friend, you would have to answer a number of questions like "who do you invite to a bridal shower". This article discusses the most commonly asked questions and how you can tackle them properly.

Who Should You Invite to a Bridal Shower?

 The purpose of bridal showers is to enable an intimating gathering of the bride’s family and closest friends. The answer to "who do you invite to a bridal shower" is:

  • Ÿ The attendants of the bride

  • Ÿ All of the bride’s other close friends

  • Ÿ Close family members of the groom and the bride (their mothers, sisters, cousins, grandmothers and aunts)

Normally, you can ask the bride for the guest list. The thing to remember about invitations to bridal showers is that you should only send invitations to people who are already invited to the wedding. You may want to include people who didn’t make the wedding guests list, but it would be pretty rude to basically bound your friends to bring you a gift but don’t allow them to come to your wedding.

The only exception to this golden rule of "who do you invite to a bridal shower" comes with work showers. Friendly coworkers normally throw showers as well and it’s understood in such showers that not everyone would be invited to the wedding. This seems fair since work showers are usually a casual affair with participants normally giving smaller gifts or even opting for a simple gift card.

It’s fine if your friends want to have a shower for you with all your friends and if your aunt wants to have a shower for you with your extended family. You can have a couple of showers but it’s best that you only invite the closest friends and family members to both the showers. It would be also a good idea to let them know that they don’t need to bring two gifts for the two showers.

FAQs About Bridal Shower Guests

Is a co-ed shower possible?

Co-ed showers are basically a personal choice of the groom and bride. Co-ed showers can be great if you have the right theme for both men and women. For instance, a field day competition that pits the bridesmaids against the groomsmen and makes them participate in sack races is an extremely funny idea!

Is the groom allowed to attend the shower even it is ladies only?

Ideally, grooms should not be on the "who do you invite to a bridal shower" list if it is not a co-ed function. This is because the purpose of the bridal shower is to allow the bride to spend some time with her friends and family members. The friends can all gather around and talk about the fiance openly in his non-presence. However, as times have changed, it has become a sort of a tradition for the groom to give the bride flowers just before the shower is drawing to a close. If you do make an appearance as a groom, make sure that you meet the guests as well rather than bolting after giving everyone a sweet wave. This would normally be the only opportunity some guests would have to meet the groom, so make sure that you stick around enough to leave a good first impression.

Can I ask no children for the shower?

Your will is the organizer’s command and if you don’t want kids in your shower, you can simply let the guests know about it beforehand. Kids can be a nuisance sometimes and it’s understandable if you don’t want them around so that you can spend more time with their mothers. However, if you don't want to have children in the shower, you must disallow every child. You can’t let your adorable nephew come while saying no to your friend’s noisy kid.