Your best friend from college is getting married. You’re the maid of honor. You’re thinking there is no way you’re going to get her a toaster or blender. Why not make her a bridal shower scrapbook?

Once the invitations are chosen, save one, completely filled out to put at the beginning of the scrapbook. When you send out the invitations, ask each guest to mail you one photo of the bride with the guest, along with a few sentences about how they know the bride, or a special moment they’ve shared with the bride. Another option is to have paper and pens available at the shower and have all of the guests write their thoughts while at the shower. For those guests who can not attend, it’s wonderful to have their photos and thoughts also. Since you want the paper to be acid free and lignin free, consider mailing the paper with the invitations.

Did the bride register at a particular store? Go to the store and take photos of the store, from the outside. If the bride goes with you, take photos of the bride standing outside of the store. If the store has a catalog, take a photo of the store catalog.

If the shower is held in a reception room, take several pictures before your guests arrive. If the shower is held in someone’s home, take photos of the outside of the house. Then take some photos of the decorated room prior to everyone arriving.

Are you serving food? If it’s prepared ahead of time, take photos of the table with all of the food on it. Did guests bring the food? If so, provide them with paper to write down the recipe, which you can then include in the scrapbook you are making.

When the bride begins opening her gifts, try to take one photo of each gift. Jot down who gave her the gift and try to include a photo of the guest on the same page as the gift photo from that person. Make a point of getting at least one photo of each guest in attendance.

If you play any type of games that involve writing, try to use acid free, lignin free paper so that you can include the game sheets in the scrapbook.

If the bride has thank you notes, include a blank thank you note in the scrapbook, so that she’ll have the memory of what notes she used.

Using all of the above suggestions, you can create a very special memory for the bride to be and I guarantee that the bride will appreciate this scrapbook much more than a toaster or blender.

Audrey Okaneko has been scrapbooking for several years. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at http://www.scrapping-made-simple.com

In case you are new to bridal things, find out that bridal shower is a party organized before the wedding, in the bride’s honour. The purpose of the bridal shower is that the bride receives gifts from the guests. The party is organized by the bridesmaids, and its etiquette has changed over time, and varies with the zone.

Amongst most common bridal shower activities there are the so called society games, like Truth or Dare, or Consequences, or lots of other great games which are a lot of fun.

If you are the maid of honor, and you need ideas for the bridal shower, you can consider organizing it in a different location, not in the future bride’s house. For example, you can invite everybody to a striptease show, or to a fancy restaurant, or to a club.

Whatever variant you may choose, when it comes to putting together the guests list, it would be wise to ask the bride to approve it in the first place. This will help you avoid unpleasant surprises that may spoil your party, and will keep your bride happy. Make sure that you do at least a RSVP after you send out the invitations, because people are so busy that they may forget.