Amazing Bridal Showers

Yes, the Around The Clock bridal shower is a shower theme that your grandmother may have had as a bride, and it’s such a fun shower theme, that today’s brides love it too! This shower theme is a great way to help avoid getting many gifts that are the same, like five mixers or piles of handtowels. The shower highlights different times of day, and guests bring gifts suitable for that time of day. The hostess or hostesses designate a time on the clock of each invitation, and the guest purchases a gift relating to her assigned time of day.

Here’s how it works: Cousin Amy is assigned 8:00 am or morning on her invitation, she may choose to bring a waffle maker. Or espresso beans and syrups. Or a subscription to the local newspaper. You get the idea! Each guest is assigned a different time on the clock. By the end of the shower, the bride will have received gifts that are not only useful, but also very varied in form and function!

You’ll want to get a guest list from the bride. As with any shower, it should be manageable in size, but you want enough attendees to cover various times of the day! Consider hosting the shower with another friend or bridesmaid to cut down on costs. Take the list and marry it up to a listing of the hours in a day. 8:00 am all the way through 9:00 pm tend to be the most popular times as far as gift-giving go…you can imagine what someone assigned the 2:00 am slot might come up with! That could be fun and maybe even another shower theme, like - Up All Night!

Invitations

Now that you have the guest list, you need invitations! If you are a traditionalist and want to make your own invitations, include a cute insert detailing the specifics of the Around The Clock shower. Here are some bridal shower poems to consider that have around for years and passed around from friend to friend. They do a great job conveying to your guests what an Around-The-Clock shower is!

Around The Clock Shower Poem #1

We’re having a party! And won’t it be fun
Many cheers and best wishes before we are done
A shower for (bride’s name), our esteemed bride-to-be
A reason to revel, we know you’ll agree

“The times of our life” is the theme for this day
To help the new couple get on their way
Breakfast at home, lunch in the park
Playtime and fun time from morning til dark

Filling each second, each minute, each hour
That is our challenge for this bridal shower
We hope you can join us, we hope you’ll agree
(Hostess’s address) is the place to be!

YOUR TIME OF DAY IS_______________

Around The Clock Shower Poem #2

A shower we’re giving
For the new husband and wife
For the things they may need
As they begin their new life.

A ‘Round the Clock Shower
To help them get set,
The clock above shows the hour
For the gift you should get

(For this invitation, make either a drawing or paper craft of a clock, with the dial pointing to the appropriate hour. You could also take a picture of a clock, and attach it to the invitation!)

Around The Clock Shower Poem #3

Please join us for an
Around the Clock Shower
Look below and you’ll discover your hour.
As Jane and Matthew approach the big day
We’d like to celebrate in a most timely way.
For a shower and supper, hope you’ll be there
As we celebrate the life they will share.
Please bring a gift they can use at
____ o’clock

Around The Clock Shower Poem #4

Tic Toc, Tic Toc
Their love goes ’round the clock
Your gift for the shower
Should be something right for the hour
We have written it here for you to see
So be creative for the bride and groom-to-be

Include “Your hour is ____ ” at the bottom of your invitation similar to RSVP placement

As far as filling in the Time of Day blank that assigns each guest their time, you can put specific times, like 8:00 a.m., or you can put general times such as “breakfast time” or “cocktail hour”. Some other ideas for ‘times’ include: dessert time, bath time, exercise time, yard work time and even bedtime! You might indicate on the invitations that you’d like guests to mark on the OUTSIDE of the gift what ‘time’ their gift is for…that way, the bride-to-be can easily open gifts in order, from morning til night!

If you’re interested in ordering custom invitations online, try one of the cute designs from Paper Style. This M. Middleton design showing a die-cut clock, where you can position the hands on a pretty clock, is so adorable! It’s available at Invitationbox.com.

Gift Ideas To Help Shower Guests

It may be helpful to provide a few ideas with your invitation for guests who will be attending your Around the Clock bridal shower, to help stimulate their thinking and show that there are many good selections to choose from for each time of day. Here are some ideas to get you started, that can be added to an insert noting where the bride has registered.

For guests assigned an early morning hour, gifts like coffee makers, toaster, waffle makers, omelet or crepe pans, blenders, coffee cups, and breakfast food cookbooks are all great ideas based on the kitchen, as are things like towels, bathroom accessories, luxury soaps centered around getting ready in the morning.

Guests with mid-morning hours can purchase things like gourmet coffee or teas, teacups, coffee pots, newspaper or magazine subscriptions, things that you may use on a commute to work, etc.

Afternoon items could include gifts that you would use for a luncheon, like salad plates from the bride’s selected china pattern, sandwich makers, dessert plates, cake plates, bakeware and servingware.

Dinner hours are probably the easiest to shop for when you’re attending an Around the Clock shower. Guests could give china, pans, cooking utensils, a cute apron, wine, wine glasses or other wine related accessories – the list for dinner hour ideas is practically endless!

The evening hours are fun to be assigned, and you can select bed linens, lingerie, bath items, a subscription TV service like TiVo or movies the couple might like and don’t forget the more flirty choices.

With invitations in the mail, it’s time to think about FOOD!

The Menu For An Around The Clock Shower

This is a fun shower to have around the time for brunch, and incorporate a few food stations, featuring dishes that represent the various meals associated throughout the day. The stations could include Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Tea, Dessert and Late Night Snack.

Another fun idea for serving food at the event is to present the buffet on a large round table, with dishes arranged to match the face of a clock. The food in the dishes correspond to different times of the day, like quiche and mixed fruit for breakfast, small sandwiches and salads for lunch, crudites for snack times, favorite dinner foods served in bite sized portions for the dinner hours and dessert and late night treats for the evening hours.

Or you could keep it simple and serve food that you normally would for the time of day you are having the shower. Here’s a sample brunch menu, including an awesome recipe for French Toast that can be made ahead the night before and popped into the oven the next day! I always get compliments on this whenever I make it.

Baked Orange French Toast
o 8 slices French bread, cut ¾ to 1” thick
o 6 eggs
o grated rind of 1 large orange
o 2/3 cup orange juice
o 1/3 cup orange liqueur
o 1 C half-and-half
o 3 T sugar
o 4 T butter
o powdered sugar for dusting

Butter a 9-inch square pan. Lay bread slices evenly in pan. Combine next six ingredients and pour over bread. Dot with butter. Refrigerate. In the morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until puffed and set. Dust with powdered sugar. **Especially good served with a topping of butter and orange marmalade melted together in the microwave!

Other serving suggestions for the bridal shower bunch are:
• Fresh Fruit
• Bacon or Sausage Links
• Orange Juice (have champagne available for Mimosas!)
• For an easy mimosa, fill half a champagne flute with chilled champagne and top off with chilled orange juice.
• Hot Tea and Coffee

Hosting The Party

As the guests arrive, take the gifts and place them in chronological order, starting whenever you decide – like early morning or at midnight – really whatever you want! If you’re planning a large shower, you can have guests sit at tables that correspond to their time of day. For example, you could have a morning table, an afternoon table, evening and late night table. This is a fun way to mix up the seating arrangements to encourage mingling.

As for decorations, you could go with the clock theme or even use kitchen timers as a centerpiece, but sometimes a clean house and several vases of fresh, seasonal flowers will be more than enough. If you’re going with the clock theme, pick up some inexpensive clocks at the craft store, or make some out of cardboard. They can be used as table cards, if you’re using the “table by time of day” seating arrangement.

Around The Clock Shower Games

It’s easy to customize tradition bridal shower games and activities for the Around The Clock theme. Here are a few examples to get you started.

Treasure Hunt Game
Guests hunt for items related to getting married or the bride-to-be. The items are hidden throughout the room, and the clues for guests are time-of-day based, like for a glass of orange juice, the clue could be “This refreshing item is consumed during the hours of 7 – 10am”, or for a fork, the clue could be “This handy item is often used 3 times a day, every day”.

Bridal Shower Bingo
Adapting this party staple to your Around The Clock theme is easy, and will give your guests something to do while the bride-to-be is opening presents. Give each guest a piece of paper with a blank clock face on it – make it two sided if you assigned the entire 24 hours as gift giving opportunities!

Have each guest write their best guess of what gift will be given to the bride at the appropriate time – your guest will at least get one correct, as she knows the gift she brought! Have them complete this part before the bride begins opening presents. Then, as the bride opens her presents, guests keep track of how many they answered correctly. The guest who has the most correct answers, wins!

Favors and Goodbyes

Lastly, you’ll want to provide a favor for each guest to take home. A kitchen timer or other kitchen gadget is always thoughtful…or, you could do small calendars or day planners to go along with the theme. Have fun with these traditional, tried-but-true bridal shower ideas!