A bridal shower is traditionally hosted a few months prior to the wedding as a way for female friends and family to gather and celebrate the bride's upcoming nuptials with gifts, games, and food. Invitations play a vital role in planning bridal showers and weddings, both functionally and aesthetically.

Bridal Shower Invitation Tips and Ideas

Get creative and have fun when choosing bridal shower invitations, as they are generally more creative and relaxed than wedding invitations. Unless you're planning a very formal shower, these invitations can be casual, colorful, even amusing to reflect the bride's personality. Shower invitations don't need to reflect the wedding invitation at all, so even if the bride expresses concern about deviating, you can assure her that the bridal shower is a completely separate event (invitation-wise).

As long as your bridal shower invitations detail the date, location, time, name of the bride and name of the host(s), then you can choose any design, however creative or restrained, that will complement the bride. If you are applying a theme to the shower, then you should try and incorporate the theme into the invitations, whether it's through a color scheme, pattern, place, or object. For example, if you are throwing a shower with an ocean theme because the bride loves the beach (or is going to a tropical destination on her honeymoon), consider invitations that either picture a beach scene or are an ocean blue.

There are so many options for bridal shower invitations that you don't need to break your budget buying the most expensive ones. If you take care choosing the right invitation, whether it's a budget-friendly printable or fill-in invitation, or more moderately-priced photo invitation with the bride's smiling face, guests will appreciate the token and the bride will frame it as a keepsake.

Wedding Invitation Tips and Ideas

Although wedding invitations have expanded to include ultra-casual to ultra-formal and everything in-between, you still need to spend more time thinking about your wedding invitations. These invitations will not only represent what type of wedding you'll have, but will serve as a keepsake that you will want to enjoy later. It's important to match the tone of your invitation, whether you want modern or traditional, colorful or black and white, to the tone of your wedding.

Once you decide what type of wedding you want, whether it's a casual afternoon affair, a semi-formal afternoon affair, or black tie evening event, then you can more easily move on to choosing an wedding invitation. Try not to reverse these steps since you risk buying on impulse an invitation that locks you into a certain type of wedding.

Overall, choosing your wedding invitations should be exciting, not stressful. If your favorite color is red and you want red roses or tulips to be abundant, consider extending this to your invitations. You could do something simple like a red foil liner for your envelopes, incorporate a red monogram, or be dramatic with scarlet paper and white lettering.

Whether you choose a subtle or dramatic style for your wedding invitations, as long as they reflect your personality and the tone of your wedding, then you'll know you've made the right choice. However, feel free to be creative in a more casual, fun, and spunky bridal shower invitation!