Bridal Shower/ Batchlorette Party HELP!

[Kayakqueen83]

Well, I''m the maid of honor for my best friend''s wedding. I''m throwing her a shower and would love some of your suggestions. What kind of things would you enjoy at your shower?

I am combining both the Wedding Shower and the Batchlorette Party, as I live very far away from her and will only be able to see her once before the wedding. The guest list is all of her young girl friends, so I don''t have to worry about offending her grandmother (or someone similar) during the batchorette party time of the evening. The theme is going to be "Sex and the City" with all of the girls dressing up in their hottest attire for a night on the town.

The shower will be at my mothers house. It will be elegant with a buffet of hors’douvres and a cosmopolitain/martini bar area. Do any of you have any good game ideas for the shower? After a the Bridal shower portion of the party, I plan on breaking out some batchorette items (I''m not quite sure what yet...or how to make the transition from eligant affar to "party-time"- Any suggestions?) Then a limo will be picking us up for a night on the town.

Do you all have any ideas? Am I leaving anything out? What are some things that I will want to prepare for?

Also, I have never met the majority of her bridesmaids. I am writing them an email to ask for their oppionions and help, if they would like. This may sound tacky but I was hopeing you all would know.... Is it customary for the other bridesmaids to chip in on the cost of a shower/batchorette party? If so, how much? I am going all out for this party and I wouldn''t ask them to pay for anything that is excess (like the limo) but financial help would be appreciated. Should I just wait until they offer? If they do offer help with the cost shoud I just tell them to pay whatever they can? Ehhh, it''s an uncomfortable situation.

Also, how early in advance of the shower/batchlorette party should I send out the invitations. Is a month ok?

Thanks so much for your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CrownJewel]

Hey KQ, your party sounds like it''s going to be a blast! I''ve only been to one bachelorette party, and it was a rather low key one, so I''ll just share what I know in terms of paying. I read somewhere that the MOH and BMs help to pay for the party. The bachelorette party that I went to was just bar-hopping with the bride''s friends. We started out at one bar and ordered a bunch of food, and then we split the bill. Then we went on to a few other bars and we all paid for our own drinks and split a bottle of champagne. It was great fun because we all got to share stories about the bride and hear from her sister about what she was like as a child.

As for the bridal shower, a fun game would be "How well do you know the couple?" One of my friends did this and it was such a good idea! It was like bingo, except the MOH would ask a question like "where did they go on their first date?" and someone would answer. That person would get a little "prize" and everyone who had that tile on their bingo board would mark it. First person to get bingo won a bigger "prize" like one of the centerpieces. You could do all kinds of questions like "on what day did they get engaged?" or "What is the bride''s favorite candy?"

And if the guests at the party offer to pay, I don''t see anything wrong with saying "just chip in whatever you can."

 

[Sabine]

It definitely sounds like a fun party! As for transitioning to the bachelorette part, how about having the bride open gifts, and have them get progressively racey, like lingerie, and then some toys...etc.

The payment issue is definitely sticky. If they haven''t offered, I would possibly ask the bride whether she told her bridesmaids that part of their duty would be paying for the shower. If they do plan on helping, I would ask them to contribute a set amount that would help cover the party for you, but not break their budget depending on their age/job situation.

 

[happilyeverafter]

My shower/stagette was just this last Saturday, so I have some ideas! I didn''t plan it at all, it was all a secret, my sisters planned it. We played four games
1. know your groom - a list of 20-some questions about the groom that the bride has to answer. For every one she gets wrong, she has to add a piece of Hubba Bubba to her mouth.
2. toilet paper bride - guests pair up and each pair gets a roll of toilet paper. Design the ultimate bridal gown in 5 minutes or less.
3. pin the man part on the man - my sisters couldn''t find a racy poster so we made do with a Pirates of the Carribean Orlando Bloom poster. But the man parts were from other pictures and didn''t match (ie his "package" was actually a cutout of a wrapped present), it was hilarious. Oh and I was blindfolded of course.
4. ?? - not sure of the name but every guest brought a pair of nice sexy underwear that was "supposed to" represent them - or be something that they''d wear, and they were all strung up on a clothesline, and I had to guess who brought each pair, and then I kept the undies.
5. then they gave me all the things i had to wear for the evening out, which i put on.

Then after that it was off to the bar for drinks and dancing. Although if that''s not the bride''s style there is always a movie night, spa treatments, dinner/drinks at a nice restaurant, any type of sports, etc. HTH

 

[Sabine]

Wow, I LOVE the underwear game!

 

[partyjewels]

The underwear games sounds great!! I'll have to suggest it to my sisters because they've been asking me and I don't know what to tell them!

ETA: I suppose I forgot to answer the questions! hehe. As I mentioned above, I'm not even sure what I want at my own party, but if I come up with any I think would be good for someone else, I'll be sure to come back. As far as having them help you, I think waiting until they offer is good, especially if they didn't have much say in planning it. I think the best way to get financial help is to plan it all together because it can be brought up right away before anything is planned, and also because people are generally more willing to chip in for something they helped with, ya know? I'll try and think of some games for you

 

[Kayakqueen83]

Thanks for the advice everyone! And if you think of anything else let me know. That underware game is awesome! I think I''m going to do the pin the package on the guy game and use a poster of Mr. Big from Sex and the city as it fits the theme. Thanks again for the help!

 

[Harleigh]

Hi Kayakqueen,

I am also going to be having a bridal shower & bachelorette party on the same day and am trying to figure out the logistics of it all as my Matron and Maid of Honor are not local. One is within driving distance and the other will be flying in for the weekend. Our dilemma is how to get all of the people here for the bridal shower and then not have too much time in between for the bachelorette party for those who may be going to both if need be.

I told my girls I would be perfectly content to have a shower earlier in the day, then have time for a little nap and then just a very small handful of us go out dancing. Since we all love country dancing, I would like to go out to my friends new country place, dance the night away and have a great time, which many of the people who would be coming to the shower would have no interest in doing, and I don''t think they would want to do both on the same day, so that is what I struggle with.

I think your post mentioned you were going to be combining the two events...how are you working that out in a time-frame? Are you just doing an evening shower that then progresses into the bachelorette party?

BTW, I love the idea of the underwear game...a friend of mine had a different game at her shower, but it''s only fun if you have a large group and a lot of room. We wrapped several gifts in SEVERAL (and I do mean a ton!) different layers of wrapping paper and did a sort of "Musical Chairs" game, except the guests stayed seated and were the recipients of the prizes. Some layers held a nail kit, some body lotion, some undies (which were thongs and only the old ladies seemed to get!) and other cute little Dollar Tree-like items. Every so often the music would start and you had to pass the package around. Wherever it stopped, that gal got to open a layer of the present. Sometimes there was a prize inside, and others not. These packages started out huge and were in the butt-ugliest wrapping paper I think I''ve ever seen...all sorts of holiday paper, tissue paper, etc..., and in the worst wrap job known to mankind! It was by far the favorite game of the party! There were about 40-50 people at the party and we had 3 giant "balls" to pass around throughout the day. Each one probably had about 8-10 "prizes" in them, and everyone thought it was a lot of fun.

I''m usually not a fan of shower games, but this one got everyone involved and was a lot of fun. HTH!

 

[Kayakqueen83]

Harleigh- That wrapping paper musical chairs sounds like a lot of fun. Maybe I'll do something like that.

Re: the party timeline: Yes, I'm combining the two events. The way I've decided to do it have everyone that is invited to the shower be invited to go to the batchorette party. I didn't want to have the shower with all of the bride's great aunts and older relatives only to look at them after all of the "bridal shower activities" were done and tell them it was time for them to go. "Sorry you're not fun enough... so see-ya!"

So I talked to the Bride about it and because she was already having another shower thrown for her by someone else she didn't mind having this one be a more "comfortable" crowd.

The "shower" will begin at 7-ish with games, eating and mingleing. I think I may, as someone suggested, use the gift time to transition into the Batchlorette party portion. Maybe having the last gift she opens be the viel, bride sash, and candy necklace that she will be wearing as we go out that night?

Hopefullly that helps. For awhile I was thinking of seperating the two events with the shower being a brunch and the batchorette party being that night. But I think as I will be paying for the majority of the party on my own, I figured it would be more expensive to do this.

Hope that helps Harleigh!