Time Saving Bridal Shower Timeline Template That's Expert Approved

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Right in the thick of wedding planning, bridal showers swoop in to provide everyone with a break before the time crunch in the final month before the wedding day.

Most bridal showers feature gift opening, playing themed games, and enjoying food together. There’s lots of time to celebrate the bride and allow family members to connect.

Creating the perfect bridal shower timeline template is critical. As a seasoned event planner, I know firsthand that a detailed, thought-out timeline can make or break any event – especially a bridal shower.

In this post, you’ll learn how to create a bridal shower template that even experts approve of.

Bridal Shower Timeline: Three Months Out

Although it may seem like overkill, the best timeline starts well in advance.

For a bridal shower, start planning everything three months in advance. This will give you room for setbacks and changes along the way.

Start by determining your budget. It’s best practice to give yourself a range, like $700-$1,000, rather than setting a hard limit. On average, bridal showers cost $50-$100 per guest. Once you have determined your guest list, you can work off of that to create your budget. If you invite 12 people to the shower, you can expect the event to cost $600-$1,200.

After creating your budget, explore different venue options. Check-in with the bride to see what they have in mind – should this be at a family member’s house, restaurant, or perhaps a unique bridal shower venue?

Typically, bridal showers take place about two months before the actual wedding. When you reach out to venues or family members to find a location to host, ask if they’re available a few different weekends following this timeline. This flexibility will allow you to cater to as many guests as possible.

Depending on the venue you choose, consider a few different food options. If food is available at the venue, price it out to see if it’s within budget. If the shower is being hosted at someone’s house, consider who will make the food or if you’ll need catering.

Then, design or purchase paper invitations. They should include the venue, date, link to the wedding website (that includes the registry!), and an RSVP deadline.

Finally, check in with the couple getting married to get their input on major decisions. You need to discuss the theme (if applicable), major dos and don’ts, finalize a guest list, and give them homework of ensuring the wedding registry is complete.

Three Months Out Checklist:

Decide on a date two months out from the wedding day
Determine your budget range
Pick a venue that’s within budget and available on the date you need
Think through food options and begin pricing them out
Design/purchase paper invitations
Touch base with the couple to discuss the following:
- theme, if there is one
- major do’s and don’ts
- final guest list
- deadline to ensure the wedding registry is complete

Two Months Out

Between months two and three of planning, you’ll be prepping the most time-intensive items. Once you’re two months out from the shower, you’ll focus on coordinating all the major pieces.

Start by sending out paper invitations to everyone on the guest list. You did most of the work designing and/or purchasing these last month, so they should be a breeze to put in an envelope and address.

Next, check the wedding website to make sure additional details about the bridal shower are included and easy to navigate. Then, double-check with the couple that they updated their registry in full and that there’s a good price range included. Bridal shower guests will likely purchase a lower-ticket item from the registry to gift the bride at the bridal shower.

You’ve already thought through the different options for food, and now it’s time to solidify them. Whether you are hiring caterers, ordering at the venue the shower is at, or making food on your own, it’s critical that you build out a menu and clarify the steps that are needed to bring the food together. Complete as many of these steps as you can.

Finally, think through equipment that may need to be rented and order it. This step is critical if you’re hosting the bridal shower at someone’s house. Aside from tables and chairs, you may need to rent smaller items, like crock pots or hot plates.

Two Months Out Checklist:

Send out paper invitations
Check the wedding website and add bridal shower details if needed
Ensure the registry is complete and has a wide range of prices
Finalize your plan for food and complete as many items as you can
Order items that you need to rent

One Month Out

Once you’re a month out from the bridal shower, you’ll start putting the details into place.

Over the last two months, you did a lot of work to put the big pieces into place. The party space is already booked, the plan for food is in place, and guests are RSVPing.

Whether or not you have a theme, you should order some decorations. Making the space look festive with balloons, a photo booth, and other decorations helps set the event’s tone. If you have a theme, the only thing determining it is your decorations and activities – this is your chance to go all out!

Highly-Rated General Bridal Shower Decorations:

A successful bridal shower is both structured and unstructured. This allows guests to mingle as much as they would like while keeping everyone entertained with a few structured activities and a loose itinerary. To pull this off, create a few “stations” that will remain set up throughout the party. Popular stations include a photo booth, party favors, and various activities that can be completed anytime. At the very least, you’ll need a place for people to set gifts – convey this with a cute sign and some decorations.

While not all showers have them, some games or light activities are common. Ask the bride if she would like any, and then gather a few for them to choose from. There are tons of pre-made bridal shower games on Etsy if you’re short on time or can set up an activity on your own. Just make sure you do plenty of research!

If the bride would like, order favors for the guests. Bridal shower favors should be something that the bride enjoys, but they should also be useful for the guests. Favors are meant to show your guests thanks for celebrating the bride and purchasing a gift. Giving guests bridal shower-themed junk sends the opposite message!

Further Reading: 17 Bridal Shower Decoration Ideas for an Unbelievably Gorgeous Party

One Month Out Checklist:

Order decorations that emphasize the bridal shower theme
Determine stations you’ll want throughout the party and make a plan for each; order necessary supplies
Decide on games and activities, make a plan for each, and order supplies
Order bridal shower favors

Two Weeks Out

When you’re two weeks out, it’s crunch time!

You should have purchased the majority of items earlier in your planning process. This was to leave you plenty of time to put all the pieces together as the event approaches.

Start this phase by assembling as much as you can in advance. If it needs to be put together or grouped with like items, take the time to do that now! Take decor out of packages, assemble it, unwrap favors, and put signs in stands.

Then, create a day-of timeline as detailed as you need it to be. At the very least, it should include the itinerary but also detail load-in and load-out times, checklists, and, depending on how complex your setup is, a map. The goal here is to make setup on the shower day as simple as possible. Every party will have bumps that you need to handle – making your setup as simple as possible makes it so the inevitable hiccups aren’t so stressful.

Two Weeks Out Checklist

Assemble decor, favors, signs, or anything else that you can prep in advance
Create a very detailed timeline and checklist for the day of the shower

The Week of

When you’re a week out from your event, there shouldn’t be much to do. This is on purpose – you’ll likely have to make a last-minute shopping trip and be busy verifying times with vendors and anyone helping with the shower.

Week Of Checklist

Verify times with vendors and any helpers
Last shopping trip, if needed

The Day Before

Depending on how complex your bridal shower is, you’ll want to carve out plenty of time to get everything organized.

The key to ensuring you aren’t overwhelmed on the day of the shower is in the prep work you do the day before. Organize all the items you’ve assembled into piles that they’ll be displayed in. Packing the items in piles like this makes setting up the space much easier.

Next, confirm the arrival of all the key players, including vendors, people helping, or people bringing anything. If the shower is at a venue, you’ll want to call and double-check your arrival/unload time and the time that guests will be arriving.

Depending on how you provide food, you must carve out plenty of time in your bridal shower timeline to allow for prep. This is especially important if you’re cooking food yourself.

Finally, my most important tip as a professional event planner is to complete a mental walk-through of the entire event. Think through each piece, from loading up the car to unloading it afterward. There should be a clear plan for every single party activity.

The Day Before Checklist

Prep everything you can to be packed with their like items
Confirm the arrival time of key players
Finalize the food plan, prep if necessary
Complete a mental walk-through of every moving part

Bridal Shower Timeline: Day of

On the day of the shower, you get to watch all of your hard work pay off!

Arrive at the venue two hours early to allow for plenty of time to set up and troubleshoot. Arriving that early may seem excessive, but the worst thing that happens is you have some time to yourself before guests arrive. As the host, it’s best to over-prepare.

Assume that guests will arrive earlier than the party’s listed start time. Make sure you account for this, and be ready to go 15-20 minutes in advance.

Basic Bridal Shower Timeline Template

Assuming an 11:00 am start time and 3 hour shower

11:00 – guests arrive

11:15 – food and drink, mingle

12:15 – activities

1:00 – gift opening

1:45 – distribute party favors, everyone says goodbye

Bridal Shower FAQ

Bridal shower timeline for the day of the shower:

15 minutes – guests arrive
1 hour – eat and drink, guests mingle
45 minutes – gift opening
15 minutes – party favors, guests say goodbye

Bridal shower planning timeline

Three months out – finalize guest list, decide on the date, budget, theme, activities, menu, and venue
Two months out – send out invitations, order items, make sure registry is complete and wedding website is up to date with shower details
One month out – complete as much prep work as possible, order favors, determine shower “stations”
Two weeks out – assemble all decor, create detailed timeline for the day of the shower
One week out – verify times with vendors and key players, last-minute shopping
The day before – Prep items to be packed together, finalize arrival times, finish food prep, complete a mental walk-through
The day of – arrive two hours early and follow your day-of timeline

The order of activities at a bridal shower is up to the bride and host. Typically, it’ll start with greeting guests, eating and mingling, then a few activities, and then a gift opening.

Bridal showers take place 2 months before the wedding day.

The typical bridal shower lasts 2-3 hours. Two hours isn’t automatically considered too short, but make sure you don’t need the extra time of a two-and-a-half or three-hour shower.

Time Saving Bridal Shower Timeline Template That’s Expert Approved