Bridal Shower

Being a child of two nations I have always gotten to celebrate both American and British traditions (or, where conflicting, pick the best one!). For example I celebrate July 4th and St. George’s Day although I have learned that the British just aren’t as good at celebrating things as Americans are. I think I probably celebrate the British things in a very American way.

Last weekend was another example of this as my mother threw my an American style bridal shower. Next weekend my maid of honour is throwing me a hen party (I have no idea what style this will be since it is a surprise, all I know is that I need to wear clothes I can bend over in :s concerning).

Last year when we were in the States we were going through a box of pictures and newspaper clippings my Grandma had and found a delightful article talking about a bridal shower she had been to which listed the ladies present, the games played and which lady won which game. It was beautifully quaint. The article also listed when the bride and groom would be honeymooning and their address… where all of their wedding presents would be… unattended. Different era. I think those clippings were from the late 1920s maybe early 30s.

Mom decided to throw a 1950s style bridal shower for me but other than some foods and fashion changes it appears to be very similar. Certainly more civilised and pretty than a British Hen Party (or American Bachelorette party, I told my American aunt I was having a hen do and had to repeat it several times and explain before she stopped giving me a confused look).

The first fun part was of course trying on lots and lots of clothes to find a suitable 1950s outfit. I ended up going with a dress I already had but the trying on is always a must. Chris got me the below a couple of years ago because the shape really suits me.

And here comes Chloe in the background. Isn’t the bunting on the gate cute? This is the closest dress I had to a 1950s shape plus it is just plain cute. From Sohos in Afflecks if you want to know.

My maid of honour Kim came across from Manchester with me and, as a guest in our house for the first time, helped make lunch. She had a genuinely vintage dress which was black lace over a bright pink, very cute. My sister also had pink and black so the three of us were unintentionally co-ordinated.

Also in this picture our friend Annie, who also came as a guest, who also helped make lunch, bless them both!

Kim and my sister, Chloe

The prize for best outfit definitely goes to my Aunt though who went to great efforts with the below:

She also had a scarf in her hair and little bows on her socks, so cute!

The house was decorated with lots of bunting and a pink and grey set of shower things that Mom had bought, it looked great.

We got this bunting at the church Christmas fair. My mother thinks ahead! I had pink cup cake and teapots. I am sure we can use this again.

This took some work to get it to stay up.

Chris had to walk through Grimsby town centre carrying this and a bunch of purple stocks. He got some comments. The plates and cups also had this design.

Mom even co-ordinated the toilet paper.

Overall we had 12 ladies plus my mother and I. Since Mom and I were not allowed to win prizes that left the other 12 potentially lucky women the chance at these:

The lilac are the winners’ prizes with pink booby prizes.

We just about all fit into our front room but I enjoyed the coziness, it meant you could see and speak to everyone.

Mom had arranged several games for us to play, some just fun and others with a wedding theme.

The first game was not bridal specific but fun, we had to match the pseudonym (wow I got the spelling correct first time!) with the real name. I discovered that I am better at men’s names than women’s and we had a laugh trying to pronounce some of the original names, no wonder celebrities change them sometimes!

Next we had a wordsearch of wedding related words. This was ongoing during gaps between the other games. Overall I did ok at this but did manage to find some words that were not on the list but should have been such as ‘Wed’. I also think most brides will agree that ‘Fat’ is something that preoccupies them for months before the wedding!

Next was a game that was definitely biased towards the happily already married as it involved matching wedding anniversaries to the present for it e.g. 1st paper, 25th silver, 50th gold etc… Apparently electrical appliances is now an anniversary thing. I want to know what got bumped off the list to make way for that! As unwed ladies Kim and I were hopelessly confused by this but now I know what Chris needs to be buying me each year!

The next would be a fun game for any party: a list of things such as ‘types of flower’ or ‘cities’ down the left hand side and a name across the top (you may use your own, you don’t have to use mine like we did). People then have to try and think of an example from the left hand column which starts with the letter from the top. So for RACHEL you could have Rhododendron, Apple blossom, Carnations, Heliotrope, Evening primrose and Lilac for flowers. If no one else in the room has the same item in any given box you get a point. Of course I can think of them now, at the time I had a mind blank!

Lastly we had a brief game of Mr and Mrs. Everyone got a number and whoever had the number correlating my final score won. Chris and I got 9/15 which isn’t bad. One question neither of us knew the answer to so I don’t count that one! I got a couple wrong and he got a couple wrong *cough* date he proposed *cough*. He’ll never live that one down! But it was a laugh.

Following the playing of games and the winning of prizes we had a lovely buffet prepared by my Mom, Kim and Annie.

Mom made red velvet cupcakes and lemon cupcakes. The lemon were a trial run for the weddng cake. Both were fantastic!

How cute.

All the food!

One of our guests made some truly delicious bakewell cupcakes, yummy!

The lemon cupcakes are pink, the red velvet are purple.

Egg and cress, ham salad or cheese and mango chutney sandwiches.

Devilled eggs. Apparently a must for this era’s parties.

Celery with cream cheese. Can you tell my foodie best friend had the camera?

Pretzels are of course and American favourite.

I learned that Doritos were the new big thing in the 50s-60s.

Look at that delicious feast. We also had a fruit (non-alcoholic) punch.

After much eating and much chatting I opened my gifts.

Mom displayed my gifts in an umbrella in the entrance hall. A great idea especially when you have run out of table space.

Mom said they used to have three showers, one from the Mother of the Bride, one from the Mother of the Groom and one from the Maid of Honour. There would be different kinds of showers such as personal showers or showers where people bought specifically kitchen or house gifts.

Since Chris and I already have a house which is pretty well equipped I had a personal shower. Gifts are supposed to just be very small, inexpensive things but I have to say that some of our guests did go a little overboard. I’m not complaining, I got some wonderful things. Some designed to help a stressful bride relax such as bubblebath, cream soaks and even a book ‘keep calm for brides’. Also a book ‘don’ts for wives’ which was a very short volume!

I also received some very personal gifts such as night dresses and underwear, I’m sure Chris will enjoy those on the honeymoon as well 😉

Kim gave me a very thoughtful gift of a memory box into which I promptly put some of things from my shower.

All of the gifts had to have a ribbon on it. This had a dual purpose. The idea is that however many ribbons break as I remove them is how many children Chris and I will have. My Mom had wrapped her gifts oddly tightly! In the unwrapping process I ripped one ribbon and one broke completely in half so I guess that is two kids for us. We then took the ribbons and pulled them through a paper plate to make a ‘bouquet’ that I can use for our rehearsal.

I also got the gift of advice. Each lady wrote a piece of advise on a slip of white material which was then attached to a pillow which said ‘love’ via a heart shaped button.

Before everyone left we had a little favour for them as well which my mother had hung on a tree in the hallway.

I want to thank Mom for throwing me such a beautiful and fun bridal shower, you’re the best. I also wish to thank Kim and Annie for helping us pull it off! Also all of the wonderful family and friends who came: thank you for the presents and thank you even more for coming over and making it such a lovely afternoon.

So on a closing note, if you are a bride-to-be, have a shower and a hen do. Two very different entertainments and both very worthwhile having!

P.S. Always say ‘at the shower’ never ‘in the shower’. We learned this the difficult way.