If you’re planning a virtual bridal shower, this post is for you!!! I’m going to walk you through step by step on how I threw a super fun online shower!
My best friend’s bridal shower was originally scheduled for Saturday, April 18th. Sadly, we ended up cancelling the event due to Covid-19. However, we decided this couldn’t stop us from celebrating our beautiful bride-to-be!!! We just needed to get creative with how we could still shower our girl from afar with tons of love!! The more I thought about it, the more excited I got about all of the possibilities!!! Not to mention, there were actually some positives! For example, some of her best friends and family originally rsvp’d no because they live far away. But now they could all join because it would be online! So with the bride’s approval, I moved forward with planning a super fun bridal celebration!!!
Here are the exact steps I followed to make sure the day was a success!!
Brainstorm
I knew from the start I really wanted to accomplish two things:
- That the bride would feel like this really was a bridal shower even though it wasn’t traditional or as originally planned!
- She would feel super loved and special all day long!!! I didn’t want her to feel happy during the virtual shower only to it all abruptly end when she logged off.
With those objectives in mind, I decided on a 4 phase bridal shower:
Step 1: Doorstop decor drop off
Step 2: BFF video montage
Step 3: The virtual shower itself
Step 4: Instagram template
Step 1: Doorstep decor drop off!
Why? I think having some tangible decorations can make things feel more “real”!! Plus she utilized all of these items during the virtual shower itself.
How? Luckily, I live close to the bride so I was able to drop off a box full of bridal shower goodies on her front doorstep! But if you don’t, you can always ship them or have another friend or family member help out with this part!
The box included:
- Flowers
- A cork board sign with photos of all her best girls and family pinned on it! Plus some gold sparkly letters that spelled out “Future Mrs.”.
- Bridal sash
- Ingredients for her fave cocktail
- A bottle of rose
- Donuts (her fave dessert!)
Step 2: Homemade video
Why? This is another tangible reminder of all her best friends and how much we love her! Since we wouldn’t be making new memories in person for the shower, I wanted her to remember all the beautiful memories she does have!
How? I reached out to all of her best friends and asked for any video clips they had with the bride! From there, it was actually surprisingly easy to create the video montage in iMovie! I had an opening titled “Alex’s Bridal Shower 2020” and after that I edited all the clips together and set it to some background music. There are also tons of youtube how-to’s!!!
When? I sent this to the bride about an hour before the online bridal shower started to get her pumped as she was putting on her makeup & getting into her dress!!!
Step 3: The bridal shower itself!!!
How? We had about 40 people rsvp “yes” to the virtual bridal shower so I decided to break that into four 30 minute sessions! This way the call didn’t get too chaotic and everyone could actively participate in conversation and in the games! I simply assigned groups based on how everyone knew the bride.
Schedule
Group 1
Time: 11:45am-12:15pm
Who: Best friends from college
Game: “Friends” themed bridal shower game
Group 2
Time: 12:30-1:00pm
Who: Groom’s family
Game: Name that Cake
Group 3
Time: 1:15-1:45pm
Who: Bride’s family
Game: Would the Bride Rather
Group 4
Time: 2:00-2:30pm
Who: Best friends from home
Game: Wedding Shoe Game
Logistics
Video: I used Zoom to host the shower because I think most people are familiar with this video conference platform. Also, you can have up to a 40 minute video meeting for free which helped keep the shower on time while still allowing a little bit of cushion.
Games: I told every guest in advance of the shower to have index cards and a sharpie with them. During the shower, I would ask the bridal shower game question and they wrote down their answers. I would countdown and then we’d all show our index cards at the same time! For example, in Group 3 I asked: “Does the bride prefer ‘sweet’ or ‘salty’?”. The wrote down one of those words and revealed it to the group after my countdown!
Miscellaneous tips and tricks!
- I scheduled 15 minute breaks in-between each session so that we weren’t too tight on time and so the bride had enough time to use the bathroom/grab water etc.
- 30 minutes for each session was the perfect amount of time to play a game and chat a little bit!!!
- I asked that in addition to the index cards and sharpie, guests also have a beverage and dessert of choice with them!
- The bride and groom’s moms joined every session with me!
- For groups that may not personally know the bride well, I recommend playing a more generic bridal shower game that’s focused on wedding traditions rather than knowledge of the bride.
Step 4: Instagram template
Why? Lastly, I wanted her to feel really special after the video calls ended!! So I created a personalized bridal shower template on canva for all of her friends to fill out and post on their instagram stories after they had their bridal shower session! It was a really sweet surprise and kept the love flowing in all day!!!
Overall, It was an INCREDIBLE day and I highly recommend throwing a virtual bridal shower for the bride-to-be in your life instead of cancelling!!! If you found this article helpful, please let me know by sending me an email or message on instagram!!!
Cheers!!!
Photos by Rachel Christopherson, Sacramento Wedding Photographer
