Every lady has always had a great dream of having a perfect wedding. All pre and post-wedding events are part of the journey to her big day and are very important to her. One of such events is the bridal shower. For most ladies, it is a big deal and part of what they look forward to; others could care less. Lots of ladies have attended bridal showers but are totally unaware of the planning and the rules of engagement for such small parties.

So, what are bridal showers? Many people confuse bridal showers with bachelorette parties. A quick survey will confirm this assumption. Bridal showers are small intimate parties thrown for the bride before the major event.

It is a semi-formal party where the bride is showered with gifts and love by her best buddies before the wedding. The party is usually planned by the bride’s friends or family members. They are tasked with selecting the appropriate type of party and the number of guests.

Now if your best friend/closest relative was getting married, and you were to throw the bridal shower; how do you choose who to send an invite?

A best/close friend will choose to invite friends for obvious reasons. A close relative, on the other hand, would choose family. The argument for choosing family will be, nobody can show love like family which has always been there for the bride through thick and thin.

Friends

There are century-long friendships; friends that have turned family over time. Some people enjoy amazing experiences in friendship. If the bride you are hosting the shower for has such close friends, by all means, fill the guest list with these friends. However, things can take a wrong turn if you invite friends turned enemies. You also do not want to invite friends who are currently going through one crisis or the other.

They might come and react to the bride out of the frustration of their current predicament. It is also important to invite best friends that will willingly shower the bride with gifts. Yes, love is good, but gift shows another level of love. Another point that can stand against an all friends bridal shower is that bridal showers are meant to be limited to just female attendees. What if the bride has no friends or has just male close/best friends? What happens then?

Family

The family is everything for most people. For such brides, family members should be top-priority guests for the bridal shower. Opposition to this will state that family will be at the wedding and will celebrate with the bride there. The celebration could start at the shower. Tonnes of people have their siblings as best friends and have been around family all through their life; they want family and family alone at the shower.

Now the downside to having only family members at the shower is that it might just seem like another family meeting. They might begin to catch up forgetting the purpose of the gathering. This will infuriate the bride, and as the host, you do not want an upset bride since this is supposed to be a gathering to show her love. Aside from catching up, the matriarchs could take over the event, they will either be too subtle or extreme in getting gifts from guests and might just embarrass the bride and make her uncomfortable in the process.

Here are some tips to consider when choosing your bridal party

• Choose people who have been in your life for a long time: It is important to pick people who have played a crucial role in your life and those that will remain there for you in future. Pick people you consider to be your close friends and not just an ordinary acquaintance and those that have made impact in your life. Remember that people you choose will stay in your wedding photo for a long time.

• Exclude those that will cause drama on your bid day: Whenever women are involved in an occasion, there is always room for drama. Try not to choose someone whether friends or family members who disapprove of your marriage. A saboteur should never be part of your bridal party.

• Consider those who are close to your wedding location – Most times you will also have to consider family members or friends who reside close to the location of your wedding. If you will be required to transport people from a distant location to your wedding venue, then it is better to use maybe your close schoolmates who live close to your wedding location.

• Pick few family members: The presence of most of your family members will be of more importance at your wedding. If you have a large family, you may consider including just a few of your siblings and avoid just singling out one person, so that others won’t get hurt. Also, since it is now common to choose siblings as maids of honor, then you may consider having two maids of honor if you have two sisters. Or use your brother if you have no sister at all.

Wrap Up!

Finally, if you are from a large family or you have a lot of friends, you may be tempted to include everyone in your bridal party. Avoid being pressurized to do something you are not happy with instead try to look for others ways to engage them.

For instance, if you have someone that is musically inclined you can ask them to sing for you. Remember that it is your big day and you have the right to choose who gets involved in your bridal party, don’t strive to please everyone at the same time because it wont work.