Not opening gifts at shower?

I love the idea of gifts being unwrapped and having the bride-to-be greet guests as they come in and leave them on the table for others to view. I am rather introverted, and would much rather spend time hanging out/eating/dancing/laughing. Unfortunately, there were some guests who grew impatient and wanted me to open gifts so that they could go home. We tried to pick the mood back up with a salsa dancing lesson, but once the gifts were opened, everyone scattered as it was about 5pm on a Sunday and some out-of-town family members had to drive two hours home.

Side note: for those not 100% sold on the idea of a bridal shower, the after-party after the bridal shower with the bridesmaids, groomsmen, friends, my mom and her friends, was a blast and everyone had an amazing time - we agreed that the shower was the "warm-up" for the party later lol.

I do not plan on opening any gifts at my shower. my shower will be a party, not a traditional bridal shower.

I love to see brides or mothers to be opening up gifts at their shower. it's my favorite part! but I'm also not someone who finds showers to be boring. I enjoy going and celebrating with the bride or mother to be

I opened mine, but I only had 35 guests. My sister had 80, so they were displayed. She did read the names out of each gift and each gift giver and held them up. Around here, everyone buys gifts off the registry, so if guests are familiar with the items on the registry, it's not that exciting seeing them opened, anyway.

I had 2 cousins do the display shower (gifts not wrapped) with a card stating who got what.

I, personally, do enjoy seeing the unwrapping of gifts.

The point of a shower is to "shower" the bride with gifts. It might be perceived as rude if you invite all these people to bring you presents, and then you stuff them in a corner and take them home without opening any of them. If you want more time to talk to people, have a smaller shower.

I'd be miffed if I went to a shower and the bride just took the gift and whisked it away without opening it. That's the whole point of the shower is to shower her with gifts. I like the idea of a display shower, though I've never been to one. If you just think gift opening is boring, then play bridal bingo so that people have a game to play associated with it.

I think you should do what you want! Everyone feels so differently. I bet half of the people attending wouldn't even care if you didn't open gifts--they might even appreciate you not opening them, because it takes sooo long.

You're going to send thank you notes, and that should be enough. Some people might expect or want you to open gifts at the shower, but that doesn't mean you should. I've seen/heard way too many people tell others what to do for their weddings and showers. Do what feels right to you.

I think it's rude when people don't open gifts at parties or showers. I get that a lot of people dread attending showers for this reason but as a gift giver I want to see a reaction. I've been to a shower and a birthday party where gifts weren't opened and I felt a little annoyed. I love the idea of just setting them up without them being wrapped. And for my sister in laws shower we had a prize for the most creative wrap job. People really enjoyed that.