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How To Have A Long Distance Bridal Shower
If you need to have a bridal shower, but can't get everyone together in one physical location before the wedding, there are many, many options for arranging a long-distance or virtual bridal shower. As with planning any type of party, you need to think about your budget. But, with a long distance bridal shower, you also need to think about whether your guests have Internet access and their level of computer and technology saviness. Once you have a good grasp on those two factors, here are a list of suggestions for hosting a virtual bridal shower:
- Blog It: you can set up a "home page" for your long distance bridal shower at any free (or even paid) blogging services. Most are very simple to set up and use. Snowboard Mommy Suggests Google's Blogspot, WordPress or even TypePad.com
- If most or all of your guests already have a Facebook account, you can also set up a Group or Page for the bride-to-be and her bridal shower
- You can use almost any free "wedding website" service such as TheKnot.com. There are many others; use your favorite search engine to find "free wedding website"
- All of the above options should allow you to upload photos, videos, link to the bride's online registries and leave any instructions for any "interactive" parties you plan to host.
- If you would like to use more interactive features the following paid and free services are available. You can use them individually or in combination:
- FreeConferenceCall.com
- Skype.com
- Oovoo.com
- Ustream.com
- YouTube.com
- Gifts
How you want to handle gifts for your long distance bridal shower really depends on you and the bride-to-be and how much time and effort you both can and want to put into it. You can leave it up to your guests to send a gift whenever they like (very hands off). If the bride-to-be already has online gift registries set up, you can arrange for your guests to send a gift by a certain date, ask the bride-to-be to not open anything, and then have her open them during your live chat or webcam broadcast. Some hosts even go so far as to having guests send the gifts to them and then send them all together to the bride to be. It's really up to you and what makes sense for your situation.
- Invitations
Once you have set up your long distance shower you can tell your guests about it by mail, email or eVite.com. There are many online services that will send email invitations or even printed invitations, or you can DIY print or email invitations.
- Favors
Some hosts skip this part; others go all out and mail gift certificates/gift cards or even actual shower favors to their guests. It really depends on you and how much time and budget you have!
- Games
You can use a service such as bridalshowergamesAtoZ.com to print out games and parcel out the questions during a live chat or conference call. Prizes would be entirely up to you. Most long distance bridal shower hosts seem to choose the "satisfaction of knowing you won" prize!
- Bridal Shower Etiqutte
Even in the 2010's, we still can't escape good old Miss Manners, especially when it comes to weddings. Please make sure that you only invite guests who will also be invited to the wedding itself; if you use an online invitation service, make sure that you restrict the guest list.
- Thank You Cards
Make sure you thank your guests for joining your virtual bridal shower and also make sure the bride-to-be sends thank you notes for any gifts. Again, it is up to you and the bride-to-be to decide whether printed, mailed cards are needed or whether an online postcard thank you would be appropriate since it was an online party after all!
I hope you find these suggestions useful! Best wishes for your bridal shower and for the new couple!
~Snowboard Mommy
Bridal Shower Planning
If you are planning a bridal shower, please see the Bridal Shower Planning Guide in the Web Baby Shower Resource Directory.
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