No gift-opening at the bridal shower

Which leads me to my point: we're planning a shower for my friend and the guest list is over 40 people. So, not only is it ~1.5 hours of gift opening, we have to have a seat for every person which we just don't have room for. Is it OK to skip this part? Please don't suggest breaking it up with games. That just makes the gift-opening take even longer (and I've seen it fail more times than not).

I am on the fence about this... I think it's a cool idea to not bore ppl with opening gifts but most of the showers I've been too this is what ppl do they open gifts and eat and maybe play some games.

I love the idea. I would actually attend a shower if they didn't open the gifts. I usually send a gift and skip the shower. They bore me to tears.

I guess if we can be really strict about the time frame it might work out better...I just feel like I've been to a ton of showers where the gift opening is the last thing to get done and I always feel like I'm itching to go. Maybe if we start off with that, it won't be so bad? Hmm...

I see both pros and cons, but a "thing" is to have the gifts unwrapped or wrapped in cellophane. Might be an option for y'all!

Thanks @GameCox. We've already sent out invites, so that's not really an option for us at this point!

Oh. Bummer!

I went to a baby shower/cocktail party where they asked that the gifts were brought to the party unwrapped. It was totally fine. I liked this so much better than the bridal shower I went to last Sunday where I sat through the boring gift opening.

If someone throws me a shower, I am going to ask that gifts do NOT be opened. The last shower I was at was for my FSIL's baby shower - which happened about a month after the baby was born. 30 guests - everyone oohed and ahhed over the baby for well over an hour as people came in, then we ate, then there were a few not really involved games - but then we had to take feeding breaks for the baby and she was pooping every 30 minutes so we were there for over 4 hours since she had so many gifts to open and the baby was really fussy. People wanted to leave so bad, so I am all for having food and games and opening stuff later.

My shower is going to be a presentation shower/display shower. At least we are trying to make it that way! We'll see if everyone complies! LOL

I disagree with not opening gifts. Not everyone finds it boring. In fact, people LIKE seeing the bride open their gift - they have spent a lot of time and money choosing it and it's nice to see the receiver's reaction when it is opened. I think opening gifts is the very least the bride can do considering people have taken time to choose a gift and attend the shower. It's actually my favorite part. I find the silly games and mingling with people I don't know to be the boring parts.

I bet there will be more disappointed people than not at a shower in which gifts aren't opened.

I like the idea of not opening gifts because I don't want everybody to know what I got but Ill probably open gifts anyway.

I'm not opening gifts.

we are having an all-gender drop in shower. there won't be cheesy games or gift opening - just food, drinks and mingling. i don't understand the tradition at all - frankly, i think it's rude to open gifts in front of a group of people. if someone wants me to open their gift in front of them, then we will go off to a side room to do it.

i would ask the bride her thoughts.

I like it. No one thinks that's fun except possibly the bride, and from what you're all saying, not even her.....(or him if there are two grooms...)

Okay, thanks. I'm so conflicted because there has been a lot of drama with the bride's mom--she's old fashioned and that's the reason the shower is so huge. She insisted that every woman who is invited to the wedding be invited to the shower (and gave us a whopping $100!). She has been putting the bride through hell throughout the planning, and I'm almost positive she will want the gifts to be opened. She even said that she wanted to invite people to the wedding for the specific reason that she had to go to their kid's wedding and give them a gift, so they should have to come to X's wedding and give her a gift. It's INSANE.

Also the bride has said that she doesn't want to know anything about the shower and I don't want to create more drama and strife by including her in this decision and her mom getting pissed at her...UGH.

Umm, even if gifts are opened at a shower and thank yous are said then, you still send a thank you card...

In my culture brides don't open gifts at the shower. It's done privately with close family afterwords. The time at the shower is spent with playing games, eating, & dancing. Towards the end of the shower the groom comes with a bouquet of red roses & the best man accompanies him. It was actually kinda funny when FMIL & I were talking about this. She said she's never been to a shower where gifts aren't opened & I told her I've never been to a shower where gifts are opened lol.

I'm so on the fence about this (I'm thinking about it too). On one hand, it saves guests from having to sit for a long time watching gifts be opened. One the other hand, I LOVE seeing people open their gift that I give. When I find the perfect gift and I don't see the person open it, I will I hadn't spent so much time choosing out the right card/gift combo.

I'm contemplating making stickers that guests can put on their gifts:

1) sticker that says 'open me today!'

2) another sticker that says 'open me at your leisure'

That way those who want to see their gifts opened can see it, but those who don't care to see don't have to, and thus will limit the gift opening time.

It is just an idea though so I'm not sure how it would work in practise...

I think showers are boring because of the gifts, the games, the pretentiousness of it all. I do not think I will go to the next one, unless I am in the wedding party. That being said, if I did enjoy going to showers, it would be for the gift opening.

I actually enjoy going to showers! Love to see the opening of the gifts, the games, the food, but especially being with fun people and making new memories. Maybe it comes with getting older that you enjoy these kind of things.