How to Make A Bridal Shower Stress Free for the Bride

I am so excited about today’s post; I’m sharing some of the details of the bridal shower I’m helping host. We’ll get into the nitty gritty with tips for throwing bridal showers as well as some tips for making the process stress free for the bride

This post is sponsored by Minted & contains referral links.  Thank you for your support of What Nicole Wore and the brands I partner with.

Full disclaimer: we did postpone this bridal shower in order to respect our current Healthy at Home orders.  However, I’m excited for when we all can get together to celebrate.

How to Make A Bridal Shower Stress Free for the Bride | Getting Started

My good friend Lindsey is getting married this summer and so I teamed up with two of her other friends to throw her a bridal shower.  Since the shower was scheduled to happen in April, we decided on doing a Derby themed shower.  This was actually my first time helping organize a shower and so I wasn’t entirely sure where to start after picking a date and theme.

I quickly started browsing the Minted Weddings website since I knew it would help me create my own to do list.  When you land on their website, you’re able to find everything you need for bachelorette parties, bridesmaid invitations cards, engagement parties, and beyond.  To get started, I went to their bridal shower planning list.

How to Make A Bridal Shower Stress Free for the Bride | Picking Out Invites

Once we’d decided on a theme, picked a date that worked for our bride to be, and locked in a venue for the shower; I ordered bridal shower invitations and mailed them out.  To me, one of the best things about using Minted for wedding related invitations and cards is that they offer free addressing and envelopes.  Addressing envelopes can take a lot of time so being able to cut out that step at no extra charge saves a ton of time and effort.

How to Make A Bridal Shower Stress Free for the Bride | Party Decorations

Deciding how to decorate doesn’t have to be complicated.  I ended up picking out party decor from Minted including some paper fans that are super easy to transport and assemble on site.  Because these can be reused, you may consider coordinating with the bride so she can reuse these for the reception as well.  These can be hung up or used in front of a dropcloth to create cute photo backdrop!  I ordered seven total and switched between coordinating shades of light pink and a darker berry hue.

These also are easy to hang over tables or your food spread and don’t take up a lot of space.

How to Make A Bridal Shower Stress Free for the Bride | Easy Cleanup

As we’re going to be hosting this event at someone’s home, I wanted to make sure cleanup was super easy and efficient as well.  I was able to order paper straws for the beverages.  We’re planning to have a drink bar with Lilies & Mint Juleps {two of the traditional Derby week cocktails} as well as sweet tea and cucumber water.  I went ahead and ordered cocktail napkins as well; these ones feature a foil-printed design that reads ‘cheers.’

Since we’re hoping that we’ll be able to host the shower this summer, I knew I wanted easy cleanup but also safe cleanup!

How to Make A Bridal Shower Stress Free for the Bride | Thank You Notes & Postage

One of the things I’d definitely recommend doing for any kind of shower you may be throwing, is to make thank you notes easy!  Bride to be’s already have a lot on their plate with different dates to remember, staying in touch with various vendors, and getting to their big day.  Go ahead and order thank you notes for the bridal shower!  Minted has a ton of options both with photos and without.  Ultimately, I chose a design that somewhat ties into the Derby theme of the bridal shower with the red flowers.  You can customize designs to have the bride and groom’s names, change the color of certain design aspects, and even pick out which finish you want for foil details.

During the shower, have one person tasked with writing down each gift and who it’s from to make the process much easier for the bride.  As I mentioned before, Minted offers free addressing so you can take advantage of that or have guests fill out an envelope with their mailing address when they arrive.  Finally, I went in and ordered customized stamps that matches the thank you notes.  Postage definitely adds up so I think it’s a really sweet and thoughtful touch to take care of that when planning the shower!  You are able to choose from different postage amounts {depending on the size of cards}, select from various colors, and even put the bride and groom’s initials on the stamps.