When to send bridal shower invitations
Four to six weeks before the shower. The harder question is where the shower itself should sit.
Convention puts the shower somewhere between three months and three weeks before the wedding, and the middle of that range is where it works best. Too early and it feels disconnected from the wedding. Too late and it collides with the final fortnight, when the couple has a seating chart to finish and no appetite for another event.
The invitation goes out four to six weeks before the shower itself, six if guests are travelling. What that means in practice is that the shower date needs to be settled about two months before the wedding, which is exactly when everybody involved is also dealing with the wedding invitations. Deciding the shower date early, before that crunch, is the single thing that keeps it calm.
One dependency people miss: the registry has to be live before the invitation mails, because the invitation carries it. A shower invitation with a registry line pointing at an empty registry produces thirty guests buying whatever they like, which is precisely what a registry exists to prevent.
When to send bridal shower invitations: the timeline, working backwards
Pick the shower date and the host
Before the wedding invitation crunch, not during it. Everything else here depends on this being settled.
Registry live, guest list final
The invitation carries the registry, so it has to exist and be stocked before anything mails.
Invitations go out
Six if guests are travelling. Showers are usually weekend daytime events and those weekends fill up.
Reply deadline
Enough time to order food and count seats, and to chase the people who have not answered.
The shower itself
The middle of that range is the sweet spot. The last fortnight before a wedding belongs to the wedding.
The mistakes worth avoiding
- Holding the shower in the two weeks before the wedding, when nobody has capacity for it.
- Mailing the invitation before the registry is live and stocked.
- Inviting somebody to the shower who is not on the wedding list.
- Leaving the date until the wedding invitations are already being addressed.
- A reply deadline one week out, which is too late to order food.
Questions people ask
Who is supposed to host the shower?
Traditionally somebody outside the immediate family, but that convention has effectively gone. In most families now a mother or sister hosts, and nobody thinks anything of it.
Can the shower be after the wedding?
Rarely, and only when the wedding was abroad or sudden. At that point it is closer to a celebration than a shower, and the wording should reflect that.
What if there are two showers?
Common when families are in different cities. Nobody should be invited to both unless they are close family, and the couple should not receive two rounds of gifts from the same people.
How does this interact with the bachelorette party?
Different events, different lists, different clocks. Do not put them on the same weekend unless guests are travelling for both, and say so if they are.
Want the wording set properly?
Wording is included in anything designed here. Tell me who is hosting and anything delicate about it, and I will set it and show you two versions to choose between. $45 for a First Look concept, back in three days, and it comes off whatever you book.
Bridal shower invitations
Garden-leaning, generous with white space, easy to read across a room.
CollectionEngagement party invitations
The first piece of wedding stationery, whether it means to be or not.
ServiceCustom invitation design
Designed from nothing for one event. No template underneath.
From $285
ServiceDigital and paperless invitations
Designed to be texted, emailed or posted. Not an Evite template.
From $225