How to Buy a Gift for a Wedding Shower

Skip the lingerie (yawn) and bubble bath. Let the bride know you care with a thoughtful - and fun - gift.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Scrapbooks
• Waltz: You Can Dance Videos
• Bridal Wreath Plants In Containers

1. Make up your own theme if there isn't one planned. Check out ideas at shower Web sites. For example, if the honeymooners are headed to a tropical destination, you might give them a beach bag stuffed with matching beach towels, paperback books, tanning lotion, an exfoliating mitten and a beach cover-up.
2. Prepare them for the reception with a dance video and CDs.
3. Help the couple to keep track of time with a wedding countdown clock.
4. Make a wedding scrapbook. Include the engagement announcement and have everyone write memories of the couple on cards that can be inserted in the book. Include something that relates to where they met - for example, frame a page in their school colors if they met at school. Get a napkin or menu from the restaurant where he proposed. Leave a blank page for wedding and honeymoon photos.
5. Present the bride with a white wreath that she can fasten her dried bouquet to after the big day.
6. Help relieve the stress of planning a wedding. Treat the couple to dinner and a movie or play, a sporting event, or massages and manicures.

Tips & Warnings

• Stick to the theme if the shower planner had the foresight to choose one.