Howdy & Wedding Question

For a shower, first, ask if the other bridesmaids would be willing
to pitch in towards it, even just $10 from 3 or 4 bridesmaids will
help cover the cost. Tell them it’s not neccessary, but that you are
financhially tight at the moment, and any help would be appreciated.

For food, just do a few finger foods, and a couple of desserts.
Cakes are popular, obviously, but they don’t need to be a bakery
cake to be eaten.

Make up a batch of brownies, two small cakes, and maybe something
like a pudding pie. I’ll post a recipe for a CHEAP, EASY pudding pie.

For finger foods, have some chips, pretzals, crackers, and maybe a
small veggie tray with things like carrots (baby carrots are about
$1.99 a bag, two bags should be fine for 30 people. Buy a pack of
celery, cut it into baby carrot size sections, and provide some
veggie dip to dip them in.

Here’s the pudding pie recipe:
1 graham cracker crust ($.99 at Save-A-Lot)
2 packages pudding or 1 large package pudding ($.29 at save-a-lot
for a small pack, so $.58 total)
1 tub of whipped cream ($.99 at Save-A-Lot)
1 package sandwhich cookies ($1.29 at save-a-lot)

I use chocolate pudding and chocolate sandwhich cookies- Save-a-Lot
has some identical to Oreo’s that work perfectly.

Mix the pudding up with only HALF the milk required in 2 seperate
bowls. Mix 1/2 the whipped cream in 1 bowl of pudding. Pour the NON
whipped topping pudding into the pie crust.

Next, break about 10 cookies into 4’s, and mix them into the whipped
topping/pudding mix, and pour that over top of the plain pudding in
the crust.

Lastly, smooth the left over whipped topping onto the whipped
topping/pudding/cookie mix, and put it in the fridge. If you use
canned whipped topping for the top, do NOT put it on until serving-
it WILL melt. Before serving, break some more cookies in half, and
insert on the top in a circle. Total cost? $3.85- this goes over
GREAT with chocolate lovers!

For party gifts, go to the dollar store. Get some pretty candle
holders and candles, things like dish towels & pot holders, etc. Use
those for gifts both to the bride and the prize winners. Some people
do parties where the gift goes to the bride no matter what, others
do it so that the winner & the bride get a gift. That’s up to you to
decide.

Do something like gift bingo. Give the people each a blank bingo
grid, and tell them to write in the boxes different gifts you think
the bride will get. First bingo gets a prize. You run this
simultaneously as the bride opens her gifts. You can also just do
this for the only game, since it takes up no time outside of gift
opening, and several people can win.

Another game which works for both baby showers and bridal showers is
to get baby pictures of both the bride and the groom, and mix them
in with baby pictures of other people (yourself, other bridal party
members, etc, and post them on a peice of poster board. Have at
least 3 baby pictures of both the bride and groom, and scatter them
all around the board, then fill in the space with baby pictures of
other people (use boys and girls!). Number each picture, and have it
set up through out the entire shower. Then, after people have had a
chance to look at it (maybe pass it around?), have them write down
the numbers they think are the bride & groom. Whoever guesses the
most numbers correct gets a prize.

You might want to make certain to have enough prizes on hand for at
least 2 winners per game, just to be safe.

Also- for the dress issue, does she have a specific bridal party
dress picked for your daughter? If not, ask if you can buy a nice
party dress off the rack at a clothing store. You can find them
cheaper usually, and most often match the bridal party color.