Cynthia Keeley is author of Cyn’s Spin and a member of the Mother of the Bride Group on Facebook

After Quinn’s wedding, we had four family birthdays and two major Holidays over the summer, so my plan to have her postponed shower was finally scheduled for closer to the end of September. We were inviting just family members and a few of her friends, so I thought it would be nice to forego having it at home, and booked a private room in a restaurant. The guest list was around 35 people, so Brooke and I went to a few places for tastings before we decided where to have it. Because people were driving from many different areas, we decided to pick a place where everyone could find it easily.

I know the traditional shower etiquette is that it’s rude for the MOB or close family members to host it, but times seem to be changing in many areas. With a very small bridal party, I felt it was unfair of me to burden the girls with the total expense, so under those circumstances, I don’t find anything wrong with the Mothers (from either side) to be involved financially. With the average cost to be a bridesmaid today (in excess of $1500.), it was an honor for me to able to help remove some of the burden from them.

While scouring the internet looking for some ideas and invitations, I came upon one that I thought sounded great. It was called an “Around the Clock’ shower, and evidently used to be a pretty popular theme. The more I researched it, the more excited I got. I’m not much for ‘themes’ per se, but this one sounded like fun and it would challenge people’s imaginations. We decided, tho, that rather than assign people actual times of the day for which to shop (like 2pm or 8am), it might be easier for them to get their gifts around a particular event (like Bed Time or Breakfast Time). Quinn and Graham needed many things still, as the custom in our circle of family and friends is to give cash for the wedding, and buy the shower gifts from the registry. They had a whole house to fill as they started out with many of my extra pieces to furnish their rooms.

We also have our showers as surprises, and go to great lengths to keep them that way.

The invitations were mailed along with registry information, but I also included a note to the guests to use the registry as simply a ‘guide’, but to feel free to shop elsewhere. Also included with the invitations were seperate cards to each guest with their randomly assigned Times. We actually put all the times in a bag and drew them along with names.

There’s a recent bridal shower phenomina called a ‘display shower’. Guests bring their unwrapped gifts, and they are set up on tables, so, if they are interested, people can walk over and see the gifts. (Sort of like walking around a department store,I suppose.) We, however, had never heard of this new kind of shower until much later. When Quinn was a BM in my neice’s wedding several years ago and her gift opening took 5 hours, she asked me about the possibility of having people bring their gifts and just covering them with ‘something’. I told her it was a horrible idea! People take a lot of time to shop for and wrap their gifts, and what fun is that to have no kind of unwrapping the day of?! I told her people would probably not only be upset, but also insulted.

I tucked that idea away for the future, and now here was my chance to use it!

We also asked guests to bring their gifts unwrapped, but to please use gift bags if they wanted, and to embellish with whatever they wanted. We still wanted bows!

Believe it or not, people were actually happy about it, and were quite creative with how they brought their gifts!

What we did, tho, was to use the tables surrounding the guest tables to place everything, and I covered them all with fuschia organza overlays from her wedding. She still sat in the center of the room, and she still ‘opened’ all her gifts, and it still took several hours to do it all, but it was so much fun when she realized I remembered her idea.

It was definitely different to have a bridal shower after the wedding, and because of that, several people decided not to come. My feelings and Quinn’s were hurt by it, but most people have very definite ideas about ‘how things should be’ and we weren’t going to change that. They missed out on a great time, so BOO on them!

There are many links on the internet that provide some great ideas for bridal showers, so look around when planning yours. I found the internet an invaluable resource, once again.

If anyone might be interested in planning an ‘Around the Clock’ shower as we did, here’s the Times we used. Make up your own as you know your bride and groom better than anyone else.

Our Times:

Bath Time

Have a Party Time

Yard Work Time

Dinner Time

Bed Time

Entertainment Time

Snack Time

Baking Time

Halloween Time

Romance Time

Travel Time

BBQ Time

Beach Time

Game Time

Thanksgiving Time

Picnic in the Park Time

Quiet Time

Breakfast in Bed Time

Deck the Halls Time

Stock the Bar Time

Decorating Time

Any Time

Some of these were assigned to 2 different people, so there was quite a variety! We really had fun with this, so I hope it will give some of you some ideas.