I had to share this with you all. My friend Lisa is getting married in the fall, and I can’t wait for her shower. Bet you never thought I’d be this excited for a shower right? Well Lisa is having my all-time favorite kind of shower… the DISPLAY SHOWER! No wrapping of gifts and more importantly no unwrapping of gifts! Just a nice fun afternoon with friends to celebrate your engagement with oversize boxes of stemless wine glasses, ice cream makers and Tupperware looking on naked from the corner.
Fabulous.
If you remember awhile back, I told you about how display showers are my favorite kind of bridal showers. They take the “stuffiness” out of the shower and make the day about the bride rather than the gifts and the three hours it takes to open them all. It’s a tricky thing to word on an invite without offending the more old-fashioned women folk, but if you can do it right, it’s a great alternative to tradition.
Here’s how Lisa’s shower invite was worded:
” At the request of the bride, this will be a casual “display” shower. Please bring your gifts unwrapped, so that Lisa has more time to enjoy your company.”
Wonderful. Can’t wait!
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this wording for a display shower. I create custom invitations and was asked by my client for wording advice for a display shower. Yours is the best wording I have found. To the point, but not rude. Thanks for sharing.
You’re so welcome! Glad we could help! Thanks to Lisa and her bridal-shower planning committee too!
My daughter is the “display” shower queen — For her Bridal shower we said : “So our time can be spent with the Bride-to-Be, Please bring gifts wrapped to see. Clear paper works fine – Or wrap it in twine. We’ll put them on display in a most classy way!” And this year for her Baby Shower – we are using: “The adorable baby gifts will be put on display – So no need to wrap in any way- a ribbon or twine will do just fine, leaving us free to visit and dine! ” . Our guests LOVED the display Bridal Shower and we are excited to do it again for the baby shower!
How adorable is this. It’s amazing how much sweeter something can sound with just the right set of words strung together. I LOVE this! Thanks for sharing Joanne, and congratulations to you and your daughter! Best! *The Wedding Belles*
Hi- I’ve been asked to assist with the “staging” of the baby shower gifts @ my niece’s shower next weekend. Any great unusual staging tips?
Stacie,
Display showers are really what you make of them. You could make a card for each gift as it comes in, and place it (place card style) in front of the gift so guests know who brought what, or just tape the card right to the gift. For a baby shower, you could always string up a clothes line somewhere, and hang any clothing on the line. In my experience there are a lot of outfits at baby showers. If you think they’ll be a lot of books, try getting a few different sized cartons and placing them around the room to display the books, or any other gifts on. Good luck, and have fun! *WBO
I just attended my first “display” shower (baby, though, not wedding), and it is definitely an interesting idea. Part of me missed the “oohing” and “ahhing,” but overall it certainly makes for a more relaxed and enjoyable shower.
Thanks to your suggestions I came up with a verse for our environmentally conscience mom to be…she had expressed that she would rather her guests refrain from the waste leftover from wrapped gifts.
“Green is the theme for the mama-to-be…please bring your gifts wrapped organically”.
We will be doing a bridal shower display table. If you make a card for each gift that comes in, should the card have something like “Given by” or just the guests name. If one of the guests bring 4 place settings of dishes, for example, do all four place settings need to be displayed or can we display one set and under their name add “4 place settings” . If gifts were set to the brides home, should they be brought to the shower to add to the display table? The shower is fast approaching and we are getting nervous about making sure we do not offend anyone. Thanks:-)
Hi Marlene,
There are a few things you can do. You can simply stick the actual card from the guest on the gift, or you can make your own. Either way it’s nice to display what the guest brings. If they bring 4 place settings, you can stack them, and open one on top to display. There’s no need to open all of them. If gifts have been sent to the bride’s house, presumably it is because they guest is unable to make it to the shower. While it’s a nice gesture to bring those gifts to display at the shower, it isn’t necessary. Unless of course those guest will be at the shower. A good rule, is to try and display the gifts of those attending the shower. You can always mention that there were some people who weren’t able to make it to the shower in a quick thank- you toast to guests, simply saying the bride and her family appreciate the sweet thoughts and gifts that have been sent. Good luck and happy shower day!
WBO
I attended a baby shower last year and it was my first “display” shower. I was very impressed with how the set up was done. I will be duplicating this same set up this year with my best friend’s baby shower. The gifts were arranged by theme (e.g. bath time, sleepy time, feeding time, etc) on separate tables arranged in one section of the room. Guests were given tags to write their name and attach to their unwrapped gifts so if there are multiple gifts given by a single person, they are easily identified. In addition, guests were given envelopes to write their mailing addresses on, this way the mom-to-be can easily write thank you notes without searching around for the mailing list. I hope this helps others out there!
I just attended my first “display” shower, and I can say that there are advantages and disadvantages. It definitely saves a ton of time, but then people just kind of drifted off home after lunch. The idea of a display is nice, but most people just left their gift in the mostly crate & barrel cartons, so you couldn’t see what anything was. I couldn’t figure out how to display a set of glasses without them breaking in transport, so I just printed out a pic of the items and glued them on the carton. I needn’t have bothered, as most people didn’t really even look at the display anyway. So, overall, my vote is for the old fashioned type of shower.
I was thinking of having a display shower but how do you display monetary or giftcard gifts?