Bridal showers originally served as a way to help a bride set up housekeeping. With her shower, she was able to receive the pots, linens and delicate underthings she’d need to stock her home and better begin her new life as a wife.

While it may seem as though bridal showers are a long-standing tradition time can’t touch, bridal showers have only been around since the 1890s. Today’s brides often shirk the formal traditions for more personal touches.

Ladies Who Lunch

Pretty little foods you could eat with your fingers used to be the lay of the bridal shower land. With a bridal shower’s traditional lunchtime setting, it was a natural fit for generations. Nowadays, couples are ditching the female-only, lunchtime gift-unwrapping bonanza for something a little less formal and more inclusive. These gatherings not only include the groom, but also male family members and friends, too.

Gender-neutral wedding showers aren’t all that uncommon. Where these female-centred events once took place at a home or restaurant, those sometimes stuffy locales have been replaced with something a bit more laid-back, like casual venues or backyard barbecues that include both genders.

Bridal Gifts

The bridal shower started during the Victorian Era when a father didn’t approve of a marriage. So, the bride’s friends came to her aid, “showering” her with the items she would need to make up her dowry. Today’s brides marry later or already have established households. They choose to bypass the gifts altogether. Some brides ask for a charitable donation to their favourite cause, while others steer attendees toward a home improvement or honeymoon fund.

Bridal Shower Games

There seems to be no end to the embarrassing and hokey bridal shower games played at bridal showers. Generations of women have giggled over the toilet paper wedding dress game and newlywed trivia for years.

But these groan-inducing games are part of every bridal shower. Or are they? Many brides now ditch that tradition and request that their bridal shower be a time of conversation or group activities, like bowling or wine and canvas events, not embarrassing games.

Shower Invitations

It’s safe to say that the only thing that has stayed the same throughout generations is the bridal shower invitations. While brides may no longer devote time to perfecting their careful calligraphy, they do still send them out, just maybe to all the members of the wedding guest list (and not just the women). That’s where printed bridal shower invitations come into play.

Foil-pressed printing and elegant script is a fun nod back to the practices of those fancy Victorian Era ladies. Today’s brides have it much easier, with a range of custom options available, from colour and font to the type of paper used, at the click of a button. Minted’s bridal shower invitations are the perfect place to drop a note helping guests know when a shower will be anything but predictable.

Bridal Shower Tradition

Whether a couple decides to follow in the steps of a not-so-aged tradition, or create one all their own, there’s no wrong answer. The only rule to follow is sending a beautiful bridal shower invitation to let everyone know about the impending big day. Whatever happens at that shower is up to the bride.