Recipe Shower

A tablespoon of laughter, a dash of memories, a teaspoon of fun and multiple servings of all the special ladies in your life—these are the ingredients that make up a fabulous recipe shower. Getting married calls for a celebration so celebrate the bride-to-be and her future husband by throwing a recipe bridal shower!

Bridal recipe shower ideas include:

• Invitations: Raise the level of excitement about the recipe shower by sending spectacular recipe bridal shower invitations to guests. Choose from Punchbowl's variety of fantastic invitations and include recipe shower wording such as, "Sugar and spice and everything nice! Join us for a recipe bridal shower honoring..." Be sure to include the date, time, and location of the event and provide some direction about the recipes like, "Bring a special dish or baked good to enter into the best recipe contest!"

• Decorations: For the bridal recipe shower centerpieces, display a recipe on an easel on each table. Begin by gathering recipes found online or from your own personal collection. Remember that the recipes will be displayed for everyone at the shower to view so if you have a secret family recipe that you do not wish to reveal, it is best not to use it for a centerpiece. Once you have selected as many recipes as there are tables, print them out in large text so that guests are able to read them from their seats around the table. Glue the recipes to large pieces of cardstock, leaving a small border to show the color of the card stock, and place them on the easels. Label small bags as flour, sugar, salt, and other ingredients, and place them around the easels.

• Favors: Purchase sets of small measuring spoons online or at a party store. Look for measuring spoons shaped as hearts with special sayings written on the handle. String a tag on the end of the set of measuring spoons that says the name of the bride and groom and their future wedding date, and place at each table setting.

• Activity: On the invitation, request that each guest bring a dish or baked good to the bridal shower made from her own special recipe. Ask the guests to bring the recipe written out as a gift to the bride-to-be. When guests RSVP for the shower keep a list of the items that each person plans to bring so that you will not end up with ten plates of brownies and five cheesecakes! On the day of the shower, line up all of the dishes and baked goods on a table and assign a number to each one. Have the guests taste-test all of the special recipes and vote for the one they like the best (with no self-nominations). Award a prize for the one with the most votes!

A bridal shower is the perfect place to celebrate friendships and family. Take all the recipes gathered at the shower and arrange in a keepsake box for the bride-to-be to keep forever!