"Open Showcase" Bridal Shower

You are the host, not the bride. So while she can make requests, she doesn't get to dictate every detail! As a guest, I would feel extremely weird just bringing an unwrapped gift. I would probably ignore the request and wrap it anyway.

I would love to attend an open showcase shower. I may be the odd man out, but there is nothing more mindnumbingly dull for me than watch someone open gifts for two hours. I would rather get to socialize with the bride-to-be.

I also think it's weird (I love opening gifts) but if that's what the bride wants, it's what she wants. Maybe take a little bit of time to announce who gave what?

I have to agree with OriginalKD! I think open showcase showers will eventually be the new norm. I love my bride friends and want to show-up and show my love and support, but I am a BUSY person and spending an entire afternoon watching someone opening gifts is just not something I want to do (or can do, really). PLUS - I already saw everything while I was browsing the registry. Stop the torture LOL

It is very in now to do this because it's considered to be "green"...no wasting paper and killing trees. I have seen it a lot lately for that reason.

I've never heard of this before, personally - sounds really weird to me. But if that's what she wants, I say give it to her. You can still surprise her with all sorts of elements - theme, location, cake, etc. As far as filling the time, the one bridal shower I hosted, there was enough hen chatter that that wasn't even an issue, so I wouldn't worry too much about that!

Thank you so much everyone! Your feedback has been great! I actually feel a lot better hearing from you all. I think the request will definitely be ignored by some, but that's better than nothing! I have to say, I was really reallly excited for my bridal shower, but when the day came I felt extremely overwhelmed and uncomfortable, and I could honestly tell a lot of my friends were bored and uncomfortable watching me open gifts, but had fun chatting and socializing! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

FH and I just went to a coed baby shower with the same idea and it was a total flop. We decided just to have the gifts shipped to the house since they weren't bothering with opening there which I had left up to FH to order. Of course that means the morning of the shower we were ordering. Hardly anything was bought off the registry. They had two registries. Target had maybe half a dozen things purchased and Babies R Us probably didn't break 20 items. That's with I think 80 or 90 people invited. I don't know if people decided to do cash/gift cards instead or what but the father did mention how pissed a lot of the guests were (mostly family). They also started clearing out after 45 minutes. Pretty much came in, dropped off a card/gift, ate and left. Maybe mention this reaction to her?

I read somewhere, maybe here, where the hosts turned gift opening into a game. They set a timer and whoever's gift the bride was opening when it went off got a prize. I love that idea to keep people interested and involved and turn it into a kind of game.

I don't understand this. My shower last almost 2 hours but only like 15 mins was opening gifts. It wasn't the whole party. I've never seen opening gifts take a long time and I had 50 guest at my shower. We played a couple games but most of the time was spent chatting. The concept of opened gifts just seems rude to me.

I'm not crazy about that idea either, especially as that is the point. If you can't be bothered opening someone's gift to you then you shouldn't have a shower at all.

I've never heard of this, but the KDs make a good point. I went to a baby shower recently and though I love my friend, watching her open gifts for like an hour was soooo boring. I know a bridal shower is different, but the idea is the same. I'd rather play games and socialize. Or maybe it was so boring because there was no booze at that thing.

I like the idea Carrie suggested with turning the gift opening into a game, as well; just something to keep people engaged.

I opened my gifts in maybe 15-20 minutes. It went through them pretty fast and read each card that was given but we were on a time frame and needed to be out of the building by 7 and it was 6 when I started opening gifts. But I did make sure I sent out handwritten thank you cards the very next day to everyone who I received a gift from.

This is the party everyone hates. Except the bride (or the pregnant woman). Nothing will make it more fun except not having it.

Sorry.