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Bridal showers are meant to celebrate the bride-to-be and shower her with gifts but the expenses can add up quickly and drain the hostess’ purse. Bridal showers can still be fun without draining the hostess’ budget.
If you are hosting a bridal shower, here’s how to host a bridal shower on a budget.
Bridal Shower on a Budget – Ideas and Tips
1. Location
Fancy restaurants and venues can be expensive why not avoid this cost and host the party in your home.
If you have a spacious backyard you can also decide to have the party in your backyard.
If your home isn’t big enough to accommodate the guest, ask the bride’s mother or sister or bridesmaids if you can host the event at their place.
No matter the location you use make sure you have fun.
2. Send Evites
Invites are used to communicate the date, time and theme of the bridal shower with guests and these are very important.
Save some money by opting to send guests Evites instead of formal Invites. You can buy or design PDF/JPEG invites and mail to each guest.
This way you can cut down cost and still personalize each invite.
3. Timing is Important
Timing is very important when it comes to hosting a bridal shower on budget. You can opt to host the bridal shower in the morning (10-12am) or in the afternoon after lunch (2-4pm).
If the bridal shower is held at these times you can skip a meal and have light appetizers finger foods, fruits and juice/tea/mimosa instead.
If you decide to host the party in the evening, guests would expect a full menu be served.
Fix the bridal shower around a time where a meal won’t be served especially if you are making the food yourself.
4. Co-host the Shower
Co-hosting a bridal shower is a great way to cut down on costs as the budget is split evenly between the co-hosts. You can decide to co-host the party with other bridesmaids or the bride’s sisters.
Co-hosting not only helps you throw a budget bridal shower it also helps make the planning process easier as planning a party can be stressful especially when you are planning it alone.
Do remember to designate tasks and not the budget alone to each co-host.
5. Simple Menu Choices
Keep the menu simple if you want to throw a bridal shower on budget. Avoid a full meal, instead opt for light appetizers, finger foods, desserts, fruits and juice if you want to cut down on costs.
The essence of a bridal shower is to celebrate the bride and have fun while doing that. Serving light appetizers and finger foods lets the guests get to mingle, have fun and know each other, rather than sitting for a formal meal.
Avoid the full sit down meal as this helps cut costs.
6. Cut Down on Guest List
Cutting down guest list is an easy way to cut costs for a bridal shower party. The bridal shower isn’t the wedding so you are not required to invite everyone.
Host a shower with the brides closest friends and relatives and not everyone the bride has ever met.
The bigger the guest list the more your budget.
Keep in mind not to invite those not invited to the wedding as whoever you invite to the bridal shower must be invited to the wedding.
7. Keep the Decoration Simple
Decorations light up a venue, therefore we tend to spend so much on decoration.
If you are trying to host a wedding shower on a budget skip spending a huge amount of money on tablecloths, centerpieces, lighting etc.
Opt instead for a simple decor using bunting banner, balloons, bridal shower signs, photo props and the bride-to-be pictures.
8. Keep Favors Simple
Bridal shower favor is a way of showing your appreciation to guests for attending the party. Favors don’t have to be expensive.
Instead of splurging on favors you can make some cupcakes and cookies and give these as favors.
If cooking isn’t your thing, you can decide to give out bracelets, hair ties with a personalized thank you note as these are cost-effective.
You can also decide to give out the flowers used for decoration as favors since you won’t be need the flowers after the shower is over.
9. Go easy with the Entertainment
Bridal shower equals fun. The fact that we want to have fun doesn’t mean we can’t have a cost-effective bridal shower.
For music of hiring a DJ or a musician you can create a playlist on your phone or device and connect it to a speaker.
You can also incorporate games into the activities of the day. Bridal shower games are fun and can help break up the ice as you would have a group of people who have never met before so throwing in some games into the shower will help break up the day and let people have fun and interact.
There are many fun and affordable games such as Bridal Shower Pictionary, He Said She Said and many more.
Showers are a way of celebrating the bride and not meant to be a financial burden to the hostess.
Help the bride-to-be and guests have a fun shower by hosting a bridal shower you can afford with the tips we’ve shared.
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