Wedding Shower Budgeting

I think it ultimately comes down to how grand of an affair you want. Is your dad pitching in? Maybe price it out the same as the engagement party that your mom threw you so they feel like they contributed equally.


I will say, spend some money on the food and drink. Have something substantial, even if you're not doing a full meal. I've had friends gone to showers held at 1pm and the registry included gifts in the $50-$70 range that each person brought. They were served cheap wine (think bargain bin from the local Wine Rack) with cheese, crackers, and grocery store cake. They still talk about that (not in a positive way) and it definitely made everyone rethink their wedding gift and expectations for the wedding reception.

View quoted message I had my engagement party with my moms family and now going to have my wedding shower with my dads family, but other than my dad who wouldn’t know the first thing about planning a wedding shower we aren’t all super close. But my bridal party is helping with the planning. My bridal party has been hit by the pandemic harder than me so I want to make sure they don’t have to worry about those costs so although I will have help with planning the budgeting still comes to me.

From what I understand - or at least where I’m from - a shower is something your family/bridal party/friends throw for you, not something you plan for yourself. Everyone’s situation is different but maybe check with your family and bridal party on what they might be planning or wanting to contribute too

I agree with Genevieve, deciding what kind of shower you want will help steer your budget.


Otherwise it'll depend on people, more people means more tables to decorate and potentially a larger space to rent, more food, more game cards etc. and that will effect your spending.

A good place to start is to ask the question: what sort of bridal shower do you want? There’s bridal showers that your mom throws you at home, there’s bridal showers at venues where they take care of everything, laser tag bridal showers, winery hopping bridal showers, and everything in between. Once you pick a shower that you want, you can start to plan the budget.