Wedding Shower Reception etiquette

It seems that when you start planning a wedding, you find there is a set of etiquette for every event leading up to the actual ceremony. Wedding showers are no exception. Wedding shower etiquette rules who is supposed to host the shower, who should be invited, and when it should be held.

Wedding shower etiquette says that neither the mother of the bride nor or sisters are allowed to host the wedding shower. This is probably the most often broken etiquette rule in the South. However, the proper persons to host the wedding shower should be the bridesmaids.

This doesn’t mean that other people who are close to the bride can’t also host a shower. Many times there will be several wedding showers to accommodate different groups of people that know the bride but not each other.

The wedding shower should be held anytime four to eight weeks before the wedding. This will largely depend on if guests have to travel and if the bride is available.

Any closer to the wedding date will interfere with details that have to wait until the last month to be finalized and this will only put more stress on the bride instead of allowing her to enjoy the shower, which definitely not be proper wedding shower etiquette.

If the bridesmaids are hosting the event, wedding shower etiquette has suggestions as to who should be invited. Of course the mothers of the couple should be there. If there are stepmothers, they should be invited as well.

Other females that must be included are the sisters of the bride and groom. You can invite anyone else that might include co-workers, other friends, other family members, etc. The only people that should not be invited are those that were not invited to the wedding.

Wedding shower etiquette insists that thank you notes be written promptly after the shower. The whole purpose of the shower is to shower the bride with gifts to help her celebrate.

It is a good idea for the hostesses to keep a record of who brought each gift so that it will be easy for the bride to fulfill her duty in sending out prompt thank you notes to show her appreciation for each gift.

Wedding shower invitations should be addressed in the same manner as wedding invitations. According to wedding shower etiquette, each should be hand addressed and use the formal format.

Each guest should receive her own invitation even if she lives with another person who is also invited (i.e. a mother and a daughter who live together). The invitations should arrive four weeks before the shower and should include a response card for guests to RSVP.

The shower invitation is the proper place to include any registry information since this is not allowed on the wedding invitation. Gifts are expected at a shower, so you are following proper wedding shower etiquette to include it.