Bridal Shower Gift Opening

I really like this.

Just curious if you have had your shower yet? I would love to know how this played out and what your experience with this was.

As much as it felt awkward, I opened my gifts with everyone there- and everyone had stories about the gifts they bought me (that they have one, or they got one when they got married, etc) and wanted to share them. Also, my aunts played a game where they would write down my responses as I opened everything- and added "In the bedroom" after each quote.

After all the gifts were opened, they read it back and everyone almost peed themselves laughing. That game helped remove some of the awkward feelings post gift opening and moved the shower forward.

Game wise, all of the women had to write down their favourite/ first memory of me and then I had to guess who's story was who's (....there was a lot of laughter at this shower!)

I think people like having their gifts opened- partly because showers were traditionally a way for women to share knowledge with the bride-to-be, and the gifts are a way of setting the Bride up materially and mentally for marriage.

I opened all my presents with everyone there. My guests all wanted to see what I got - especially my reaction when I opened their own gift. I know it's a bit awkward (I didn't LOVE it and I don't have problems being the centre of attention), but it is what it is, how it goes, and what people want. If you want to do it a different way, though, that's totally your call! You have to do what you're comfortable with! Find a compromise with your mom.

I completely agree with you on that! I am the type of person who would hate to open gifts in-front of everyone.

If you are doing a shower with gifts that would be harder as you will have lots of gifts to open. Personally I am doing a monetary shower, so I will only be receiving envelops which of course I would not open in front of anyone.

I would suggest to try and get your Mom to understand because if you feel uncomfortable for your guest, that means you will feel uncomfortable opening the gifts as well.

I hope it all works out none the less!!

As a guest to MANY bridal showers i hate sitting there watching people open gifts..... i feel like the older people want that but the younger people (and im talking like 40 and less) want fun interactive shower games. i just hate sitting there for 2 hours watching someone open more plates and pretending theyre so excited. however this is just my opinion. do what YOU want to do and no one else. its your shower and your gonna be the only one who remembers it. you cant please everyone!

We did a gift card bridal shower - meaning everyone got gift cards in lieu of actual gifts since I had to fly to and from my shower in my hometown. I ended up opening all the cards in front of people and kept the gift card with the greeting card so didn't have to track. The hosts (my mom and her friend) got my a physical gift each, so I had 2 gifts to open along with the gift cards.

That being said, it felt awkward on my end to just be opening envelopes in front of people and most people just talked amongst themselves as I did. I feel like in my situation, it would've been better to open them later so there could be more me mingling with guests, but other than that, the day went smoothly.

As a guest to bridal showers, I find the gift opening part the most boring IMO and I'm glad people at my shower continued mingling as I opened gifts. I'm definitely "pro-open gifts later" which I think is a generational issue, but maybe explain to your mom you want to spend more time with your guests at the shower over opening gifts then.

I've never heard of a charity shower before! What a super cool concept! Thats an amazing idea Caitlyn!!

We won't be opening gifts at my shower as I'm having a charity showerso if people want to give they will either donate ahead of time or give money in a card that I will pass along to the charity.

I honestly find it boring to just sit around and watch someone open gifts, and as a gift giver it can be anxiety inducing when the bride opens one gift which is an expensive Dyson vacuum and then they open your's and it's say $25 worth of baking pans.

One option I've heard of is a display shower. if you don't want to open gifts in front of everyone then ask each person to bring their gift unwrapped and they are placed on a table for people to see. That allows the gifts to be seen, but you don't take up time opening them and have everyone watching you.

I have seen it done both ways. As a guest it is pretty boring watching gifts/envelopes getting opened over and over.

I suppose it could depend on how big your bridal shower is. A smaller guest count it might be more practical but if it's a large shower I would wait and do it after.

People can also choose to stay around after to watch you open gifts if that's something they would like and or enjoy and then others can leave without feeling guilty like they left too soon.

We never open gifts at bridal showers since most people usually bring an envelope. What we did was just games, food, and wine, and that kept people entertained plenty!

I have seen it done both ways. My cousin opened all her gifts, where as I just went to a baby shower (obv not the same as a bridal shower, but close enough) and she didn't open anything. There were 2 games and food and we left.

So it really depends. Many people are used to everyone opening gifts and sitting through that. It's cool to see what the bride gets.

I do not have a registry, so most likely the gifts are just going to be cards. I am leaving it up to the hosts what they want me to do, as for me opening money is more difficult than physical gifts!

I opened the gifts as well - it may be the older generation that wants to see them opened in front of everybody, but in the end majority of your guests WILL be old.

Nobody complained and we made sure to split up the activities so that people could sneak out if they had to. In the end it really won't be any different than a birthday party and you open gifts in front of everybody there too.

Had we not done the opening of gifts we just would have cut the shower short and only had the 3 activities with food. (He said, she said & how well do you know the bride. Oh, and guess the # of hershey kisses in he vase)

I opened the gifts in front of people- unfortunately due to loud children and them blocking me it was basically pointless. People couldn't see or hear anything so people didn't know who gave me what. We also did a few games- they had one with questions I had to answer about the groom infront of people and also they got a quiz about me- pick answers people should now about you. Most people didn't know any of my answers... which didn't realize. We also did the game of whats in your purse.