Easy Wedding Shower Ideas to Spoil the Bride-to-Be
A wedding shower is a wonderful time to gather with family and friends. Making the day perfect should be fun and easy, so here are some ideas to make your preparation simple. You'll find inspiration for simple decorating and crowd-pleasing recipes, from individual wedding-style miniature cakes to the beverage bar. Having bridal shower dishes like an appetizer platter, dainty pick-up foods, and grilled pizzas means that your wedding shower guests will enjoy sampling a range of beautiful dishes throughout the day. And what could be more Southern than delicious frosted sandwiches? These triple-decker delights of egg salad, chicken salad, and pimiento cheese frosted with a delicious cream-cheese spread are sure to please. To celebrate it all, invite your bridal shower guests to leave their messages of sweet inspiration in our Memory Jar. The lucky couple will have their words of love, hope, and joy for years to come. Find ideas for food, drinks, and decorations that the bride and guests are sure to love.
Monogrammed Bars
Recipe: Coconut Cheesecake Squares
Recipe: Cakey Lemon Brownies
Recipe: Best-Ever Brownies
Recipe: Pecan Pie Bars
Add a personal touch to bars by piping on the couple's monogram. Just fill a zip-top plastic bag with store-bought frosting and pipe.
Monogram How-To: Snip a corner of the filled bag (not too big, not too small), and squeeze. Practice first on a piece of paper. Use lowercase letters for a modern look, or get fancy with cursive.
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Make a Cheese "Cake"
This pretty centerpiece made of wheels of cheese is drop-dead easy. Choose pretty flowers and herbs in season—lavender would be perfect. Serve with your favorite crackers or French bread rounds.
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Cool Beverages
Recipe: Sparkling Punch
Recipe: Blackberry Mint Sparkler
Recipe: Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade
No shower is complete without a refreshing drink. Sparkling Punch (pictured) is a pretty—but easy—combination of frozen pink lemonade, white cranberry juice, and club soda.
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Simple Decorating Tips
For your bridal wedding shower, tuck colorful flowers inside napkin rings to brighten up neutral linens. You can also use greenery and other elements, such as tassels or beads to liven up the look.
Start with white or off-white serving pieces and linens. White is versatile no matter the color scheme or theme of the shower. Play with different color palettes that would best fit the bride's personality while also keeping it elegant and sophisticated. Experiment with the flower types as well; for a more traditional shower try roses or calla lilies, but for a more playful theme consider sunflowers or zinnias.
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Chilled Soups
Recipe: Chilled Cucumber Soup
Recipe: Sweet Pea-Avocado Soup
Recipe: Sweet Corn-Bell Pepper Soup
These chilled soups come in dazzling colors and are ideal for a late spring or early summer shower. Serve them in tiny demitasse cups for an elegant touch or in clear plastic tumblers, available at party stores, for easy cleanup.
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Memory Jar
Let partygoers fill a memory jar instead of signing a guest book to leave special notes for the bride and groom.
Visit your local crafts store to find card stock, ribbons, and pens. Pull out any other scrapbooking supplies you have at home, and make a few samples for guests ahead of time.
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Grilled Pizzas
Recipe: Grilled Pizza with Summer Veggies and Smoked Chicken
Recipe: Sausage-and-Shrimp Pizzas with Spinach-Basil Pesto
Recipe: Caesar Salad with Garlicky Croutons
Anchor your party menu with personal pizzas from a grill. Guests will gather around the grill once they catch the irresistible scent of fire-baked flatbread and fresh toppings.
You can easily prepare pizza toppings and salad such as Caesar Salad with Garlicky Croutons ahead of time, leaving you plenty of time to mingle with guests and celebrate with the lucky couple.
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Simple Appetizer Platter
Recipe: Old Bay Remoulade with Crudités and Shrimp
Recipe: Sweet Onion and Bacon Dip
For a simple yet impressive starter, arrange a colorful appetizer platter. Chop some radishes, carrots, and cucumbers to go along with succulent shrimp and creamy remoulade. For variety, you can add other dipping sauces, like our Sweet Onion and Bacon Dip.
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Chalkboard-Style Glasses
Recipe: Raspberry Beer Cocktail
Serve a beverage such as our Raspberry Beer Cocktail in chalkboard-style glasses with each guest's name.
Make your own glasses with chalkboard spray paint and painter's tape. They can double as a special gift for the bride and groom after the shower.
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Dainty Pick-up Foods
Recipe: Deviled Egg Salad and Asparagus Tartines
Recipe: Mini Quiche with Asparagus and Goat Cheese
Recipe: Creamy Spinach-Ricotta Crostini
Recipe: Peach-Ricotta-Prosciutto Toasts
Impress guests with dainty pick-up foods, such as our Mini Quiche with Asparagus and Goat Cheese and Peach-Ricotta-Prosciutto Toasts. These recipes work well for both late-morning and afternoon showers.
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Frosted Sandwiches
Recipe: Old-Fashioned Chicken Salad
Recipe: Easy Egg Salad
Recipe: Basic Pimiento Cheese
Frosted party sandwiches create a unique presentation for our favorite classic cold spreads: egg salad, chicken salad, and pimiento cheese.
The preparation is simple. Make a triple-decker crustless sandwich and spread a cream cheese mixture over the top and sides. Garnish with celery leaves, paprika, or Cheddar cheese.
Make the sandwiches the night before and chill. To save time, use a serrated knife to cut the sandwiches into slices at party time.
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Finger Sandwiches
Recipe: Tomato Tea Sandwiches
Recipe: Kentucky Benedictine Sandwiches
Recipe: Mini Tomato Sandwiches with Bacon Mayonnaise
Recipe: Dainty Cucumber Sandwiches
Recipe: Ham Biscuits
Endless varieties of finger sandwiches are classic shower fare. Serve them on cake plates alongside fresh fruit for an elegant presentation. Try one of our favorite recipes or improvise with your own.
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Decorative Ice Tray
Serve cold foods outdoors on a flower-filled ice tray. Here's how to make one easily:
Fill a 13-by-9-inch pan with water. Cover top of pan with self-sealing plastic wrap. Place 2 strips of tape about ½ inch apart on the plastic wrap ½ inch from inside edge on each short side of pan. Using the paring knife, evenly cut Xs, smaller than the diameter of the carrots, in between strips of tape on each side. Fit carrots into Xs; secure with tape, if necessary.
Place pan on level rack in freezer and freeze at least 24 hours. Remove plastic wrap, carrots, and, if necessary, tape. Run tap water over ice block to remove from pan. The frozen carrots will be soft and easy to dig out of the ice with a small spoon, if necessary. Place your choice of flowers in ice cavities.
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Cookie Cutouts
Recipe: Conversation Heart White Chocolate Bark
Recipe: Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Recipe: Easy Sugar Cookies
Recipe: Chocolate Marshmallow Linzer Heart Cookies
Prepare heart-shaped cookies or bars ahead of time. Our Conversation Heart White Chocolate Bark will put everyone in a flirty mood—and it looks great without icing.
You can also use heart-shaped or letter cookie cutters (for the couple's initials) to cut out homemade or refrigerated sugar cookie dough. Set out different colored icing and candies for guests to decorate the cookies. For a fun game, let the bride judge a cookie-decorating contest.
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Precious Little Cakes
Recipe: Buttermilk-Lime Mini Cakes with Vanilla-Mascarpone Buttercream
Guests will love having their own personal wedding-like tiered cake. These little cakes come in at just under three inches and are perfect for an intimate party.
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Beverage Bar
Let guests at your bridal shower help themselves to their beverage of choice. Simply display small carafes—filled with iced tea, water, lemonade, or juice—nestled in ice in a large serving bowl. Look for carafes at kitchen shops or restaurant supply stores.
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Bite-Sized Desserts
Recipe: Chocolate Pecan Tassies
Recipe: Mini Triple Chocolate Buttermilk Pound Cakes
Recipe: Mini Chocolate Chess Tarts
Bite-size desserts are fun and convenient. Whip up a few options, including these Mini Triple-Chocolate Buttermilk Pound Cakes, that are sure to delight. Plus, it keeps things neat and tidy.
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Simple Side Salads and Veggies
Recipe: Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus
Recipe: Lemon Vinaigrette Pasta Salad with Field Peas
Recipe: Radish, Avocado, and Citrus Salad
Simple does not meant tasteless and boring. We're betting the Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus will be one of the first things gone off the buffet table.
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Fun Cocktails
Recipe: Grapefruit Gin Slush Cocktail
Recipe: Bourbon-Peach Iced Tea
What's any party without a cocktail or two? If you want to make it extra fun, do a cocktail bar where guests can mix their own creations. Write out recipes and flavor pairings on chalkboards for those who need a little inspiration.
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Chicken Salad Bar
Recipe: Chicken Salad Swiss Cheese Puffs
Recipe: Homemade Chicken Salad
It's not really a Southern gathering without some form of chicken salad. Whether you want it in sandwich form or on its own, just make sure it has a place on the menu. Lay out the chicken salad, bread or rolls, and other fixings to allow the guests to assemble it just the way they like.