56 THE QUEENS COURIER • BRIDAL • JUNE 21, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
bridal
COUPLE SHOWERS
Celebrating the bride and groom
BY TAWNY MAYA MCCRAY
Gone are the days of bridal showers and
only celebrating the bride before she gets
married. Today’s couples are changing
it up to celebrate both the bride and the
groom before the big day.
A couple shower is more like a cocktail
or dinner party than a bridal shower,
according to an article on theknot.
com. Female and male relatives and
friends are invited. Gift s are still given,
but they’re for both the bride and groom,
so they’re generally a mix of home goods
and guy-friendly gadgets.
“Overall, it’s going to be geared to items
they can both use for the home,” says
wedding journalist Stephanie Cain, a former
editor at Th e Knot.
Cain says that because many couples
now live together before getting married
and already have the basics -- such
as toasters and towels -- many couples are
choosing themes for their showers. One
popular theme is “stock your bar.”
“It’s a way to get new interesting barware,
like glassware, jiggers and shakers,”
she says. “Or guests can bring special bottles
that might be meaningful to you, so
you can end up with some higher-end
Champagnes or some single-malt scotches,
not your typical well liquors that you’re
just going to buy at the liquor store.”
Cain says that another theme is travel,
where the couple is gift ed with highend
luggage and things of that sort to prepare
them for their travel adventures as
a couple.
Other themes, according to Th e Knot,
include an entertainment shower, where
guests dress up as famous characters and
bring such gift s as videos, CDs and theater
tickets; a sports shower, where guests
play basketball, tennis, Frisbee, volleyball
or football and gift the couple with tennis
rackets, snorkeling gear or skates; a pool
party shower, where you set up relay races
and diving board contests, cook hamburgers
by the pool, and give gift s such as
portable grills and plastic serving items,
e.g., trays and martini glasses; or a games
shower, where you play your own version
of “Th e Newlywed Game” or “Jeopardy!”
or host an “Iron Chef” cook-off and present
the couple with board games or kitchenware.
“People are looking for ways to personalize
their wedding experience,” Cain
says. “Picking the traditions that make
sense to them and making it feel authentic
to them as a couple.”
Bridal showers were originally a gift -giving
party held for the bride-to-be in anticipation
of her wedding. “Traditionally, the
bride was going to live with the husband’s
family and she needed to take things with
her, and so it was her friends and family
giving her all the things she would need
to take with her,” Cain says. “Th at’s where
the idea of a bridal shower came from,
which is pretty old-school.”
Th is new trend of couple showers is
more with the times and represents a
more accurate view of modern couples.
“Couples that have lived together for a
while and have a lot of the same friends
want to incorporate everybody into this
party as opposed to it just being a bride
thing,” Cain says. “And with the legalization
of same-sex marriage, those couples
also feel like they want to participate
in some of these traditions but also make
them their own.”
Some celebrities have jumped on the
trend. Boy bander Nick Lachey and his
bride, Vanessa Minnillo, had a joint
wedding shower in West Hollywood,
California, back in the summer of 2011.
Th e couple hosted 140 guests with a glamorous
cocktail party on the rooft op of the
London Hotel. People magazine covered
the event and divulged that guests enjoyed
food prepared in chef Gordon Ramsay’s
kitchen, which included sliders, spring
rolls and ahi tuna. Th ey capped off the
night with monogrammed cupcakes.
Talk show host Adrienne Bailon celebrated
a coed Parisian wedding shower
with her groom-to-be Israel Houghton in
the fall of 2016. Again, People magazine
covered the event, which took place at Fig
& Olive in West Hollywood. Th e event
featured Eiff el towers as part of the place
settings, along with framed pictures of the
happy couple. Bailon told the magazine
she and Houghton got engaged in Paris,
“so it made picking a theme easy.”
Couple showers can range from a cocktail
party at your favorite restaurant or
bar to a backyard barbecue. “Th ere aren’t
a ton of strict rules around things you can
or cannot do with a shower,” Cain says.
“Th ere can be a little more thought put
into it, feeling like it has an identity and a
personality as an event.”
Courtesy Creators.com