Ornament Shower or Holiday Shower Theme


Since the holidays just past, I was reminded of one of my favorite shower themes: The Holiday Shower. This could be done at any time of year. Here is how it works - your guests are issued an invitation that has some really cute wording. Something like this:



Each and every holiday is special for different reasons
Let's shower Angie with gifts to celebrate the seasons

Please join us for a
Holiday Shower
in honor of
Angie Willis
Sunday, March 17, 2008
2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Amy Cox's Home
129 Woodland Cove Drive
Monticello, Florida

Please bring a gift for __________.

(Fill in the blank with different holidays that the honoree recognizes -- Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July, etc).


If you really want to go the extra mile, you could go to a stationery shop that has a good selection of invitations and pick out a couple of each holiday and coordinate the paper you use with the holiday they have been assigned.




Another idea is the ornament shower. This shower has been incresingly popular in my little town of Elba, Alabama in the past couple of years and is always held in November or December. Since we do live in a tiny town, one of the local shopkeepers will decorate a tree with selections that the bride picked out to decorate "her" tree. The invitation reads something like this:


Please join us for a
Christmas Ornament Shower
in honor of
Miss Meredith Lowery
on Sunday, November 21, 2010
at the home of Amy Cox
129 Woodland Cove Drive
Monticello, Florida

~ Hostesses ~
Christina Hopkins, Pamela Smith, Susan Miller,
Valerie Moorehead and Lynn Robbins

~ Registry ~
The Lowery-Jones Tree is on display at the Strawberry Patch.

How to Word a Traditional Wedding Invitation




Invitations and announcements are usually issued by the parents of the bride, or the surviving parent. If the bride is without parents, invitations may be issued by the closest relative. The accepted order of kinship is as follows:
1. Elder brother
2. Elder sister
3. Both grandparents or surviving grandparent
4. Uncle and aunt
5. Guardian
6. Bride and Groom issue invitations themselves
7. Groom's family

Generally, the parents of the groom are not mentioned unless they are splitting the expense of the wedding.



If the bride's father and mother are issuing the invitations, the conventional form is:

Mr. and Mrs. Larry Dean Cliett
request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter
Laurie Anne
to
Mr. James Walter Chapman, Jr.
on Saturday, the twenty-first of March
Two thousand and ten
at six o'clock in the evening
Fellowship Presbyterian Church
Tallahassee, Florida



If the father or mother is deceased and the surviving parent issues the invitation:

Mrs. (or Mr.) Larry Dean Cliett
requests the honour of your presence
at the marriage of her (his) daughter
Laurie Anne
to
Mr. James Walter Chapman, Jr.
on Saturday, the twenty-first of March
Two thousand and ten
at six o'clock in the evening
Fellowship Presbyterian Church
Tallahassee, Florida



If the father or mother is deceased and the surviving parent has remarried, the remarried mother would use her present husband's name, but the remarried father would use the conventional form:

Mrs. David Lee Carson
requests the honour of your presence
at the marriage of her daughter
Laurie Anne Cliett
(etc...)



If the bride's parents are deceased and the invitation is issued by an older, unmarried sister or brother:

Mr. Thomas Allen Harper
requests the honour of your presence
at the marriage of his sister
(etc...)



If the bride's parents are deceased and the invitation is issued by an older married brother or sister:

Mr. and Mrs. Robert David Thornton
request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of his sister
(etc...)



If the bride and groom issue their own invitations, the conventional wording would be:

Miss Laurie Anne Cliett
and
Mr. James Walter Chapman, Jr.
request the honour of your presence
at their marriage
(etc...)



The proper way to word an invitation when the bride's parents are divorced is to list the names of the bride's parents at the top of the invitation. Her mother's name is on the first line and her father's name is on the line beneath it. The lines are not separated by "and". If the bride's mother has not remarried, she uses "Mrs." followed by her first name, maiden name, and married name.

Mrs. Sally Jones Harper



A divorced father who issues the invitation uses the conventional form:

Mr. Matthew Ellis Harper



If the groom's family issues the invitations:

Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Allen Lee
request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of
Miss Anne Haley Harper
to their son
Mr. Michael Samuel Lee
(etc...)