Bachelorette party

These pre-ceremony parties are all optional. The showers and bachelorette parties are conventionally initiated by the bridal party to celebrate and anticipate your wedding. If any of these are not to your liking, you can skip doing them. Other folks here have mentioned how various parties are overrepresented in movies as big and wild events. Instead, any of the activity should fit your taste (or maybe pushed a little beyond by friends).

Family gatherings certainly would be fine at any point in the time leading up to the wedding. It is the family life that is celebrated in weddings anyhow.

You can always just do dinner if you want to just meet up with some family and friends. I ended up doing a mosaic class and had Thai food at a restaurant nearby for my bachelorette party. Actually, most people couldn't even make the event. I didn't have a bridal shower at all.

Don't feel obligated to do anything fancy. If you don't want to have a party, you don't have to have one. The pre-wedding parties are not mandatory.