It’s beginning to look a lot like Wedding Season! All of the invitations to bridal showers and weddings you received months ago are fast approaching. You’ve realized you haven’t researched travel, gifts, what your wearing or proper etiquette. Being a guest at a wedding can get expensive quickly – so how can you participate without spending a ton of money? Here are a few ideas on how to save money as a wedding guest when you attend a Bridal Shower.
Save Money on Traveling To The Bridal Shower
If you will need to fly to the bridal shower, consider either aligning another trip with the bridal shower or skipping it. Have you always wanted to go to that same place on vacation or is it close to friends / family you don’t see often? Visit family and friends or plan a vacation for the same weekend as the bridal shower. Is it more important for you to attend the bridal shower or the bachelorette? Weddings add up quickly and flying to a bridal shower, bachelorette and wedding can easily put the cost of being there for one friend up to $5,000. If you have to fly in, look for travel hacks to save you money on your flight and ground transportation.
If you’re within driving distance, carpool with friends and either all chip in for gas or rotate the driving responsibilities across other events.
Bridal Shower Gift Giving Tips
No one really wants to show up with a few tupperware containers that were on the bridal shower registry so how do you buy something nice without spending a lot of money? First, look at their registry and see what’s on sale. The bride and groom put together a registry because that’s what they need. They’ll appreciate something on the registry more so than something not on it.
Do you have a coupon to that store that you can bundle with the sale? Many of the standard registries like Macy’s and Bed, Bath and Beyond frequently have coupons and sales that you can take advantage of. Ask a few of your other friends that are going if they’d be willing to chip in so you could get a nicer gift together. You can also read The Knot for inspiration on gifts if you’re not sure what gift to buy for a bridal shower.
If you don’t have much time to shop it’s always fine to give cash. Weddings are expensive for the bride and groom too and by giving them cash they can decide to put it towards their honeymoon, their future house, or something else they really want.
Lastly, the bridal shower card. Often, greeting cards cost $4-$5. But, did you know Trader Joe’s sells greeting cards for 99 cents? Stock up on bridal shower cards and more the next time you go shopping at Trader Joe’s.
Aren’t sure how much you to spend on a bridal shower gift? The Knot outlines the etiquette on how much money you should spend on a bridal shower gift as well as other tips.
What to Wear To A Bridal Shower
Always have staple pieces that you can get a lot of use out of for bridal showers and other daytime events. As long as you have a pair of black heels and nude heels you won’t need to go out and buy a new pair of shoes. As you start expanding your closet, buy a pair of dressier sandals and open toe nude and black heels. By having a list for your staple wardrobe, you’re able to build your staple wardrobe when pieces are on sale, allowing you to save money.
The same applies to jewelry and purses. As long as you have 1-2 staple necklaces and a purse or clutch that can go with anything you won’t need to buy anything special.
Last, the dress. Buying second hand will save you the most money, but as long as you plan ahead you can find good sales. Since most bridal showers occur in the spring / summer buy a few spring time / summer dresses that will work for a bridal shower, spring holidays, baby showers and more. Wear them multiple times and when you’re over the dress, resell it. Don’t let it sit in your closet.
What tricks do you have to save money attending a bridal shower?
These are great tips! For my wedding, my family decided to drop the traditional bridal shower and do a virtual one instead. We all live in different states across the US, and they were already flying into my state for the wedding in a few months, so it was pretty unreasonable to ask for another gathering. So, they pooled together their gift money (probably via Venmo) and ordered items off of our Amazon registry. They were shipped at various times during our engagement leading up to the wedding, so it was always a really nice surprise when a package would show up at our door. Though this has more to do with the planning of a shower than attending as a regular guest, it saved everyone a ton of money!
That’s awesome and so creative! It must have been great receiving those surprises and I’m sure your guests were happy not to have to fly to another event.