Thinking about throwing a shower with a theme? Check out these 5 popular shower themes and lots of fun ideas to fit each one.

Tea Party

Prim-and-proper tea parties are a hit with sophisticated ladies. Whether you’re going for Southern charm or British elegance, make your affair all about tea and you’re sure to impress every guest

Table settings: Lacy, ivory-hued tablecloths will give tables a girly feel – perfect for tea parties. For centerpieces, scour flea markets and tag sales for old teapots and use them to hold bouquets of wildflowers. The eclectic look of teapots in varying colors and patterns all filled with multicolored wildflowers will evoke a cozy, charming feel. Or for a more sophisticated look, try to find only pots in white or ivory and fill them with pretty pink peonies or roses.

Favors: A heart-shaped stainless steel tea infuser makes a great – and practical – keepsake. Or give out personalized tea bags with the brides name and the shower date on them.

Food: A proper tea is served with tiny finger sandwiches (think cucumber sandwiches and egg sandwiches) and pastries like scones and muffins served with butter and jam. Arrange all the delicate finger foods on tiered trays to complete the look.

Cake: Tiny petit fours iced in fondant are perfect for tea parties.

Games: For added fun, hire a fortune teller to read the tea leaves at the bottom of each guests’ cup. If a fortune teller isn’t in your budget, research how to read tea leaves and give it a go yourself.

Other Ideas :Serve more than one flavor of tea. Earl grey, English breakfast, and orange pekoe are all popular choices. And don’t forget the decaf! Also, note that tea parties tend to work best in the late afternoon – between lunch and dinner.

Scrapbook Shower

Whether scrapbooking is the bride’s favorite hobby or she’s just the sentimental type, hosting a scrapbook shower is sure to evoke some emotion. Scrapbook showers are more fun for guests, too. Each guest is asked to bring a photo of herself with the bride and/or any other appropriate memento (play bills, concert tickets, etc). They’ll then craft scrapbook pages during the gift opening ceremony. At the end of the party you’ll be able to present a completed book to the bride that captures her history with all her closest female friends and family members. The host can provide pages, materials, and other craft supplies so that all the guests have to do is get creative. (Some hosts think it’s easier to ask guests to make pages in advance and bring them to the shower.)

Table settings: Use the scrapbook supplies as centerpieces. Put them in pretty containers and the centerpiece will be both functional and beautiful. The containers don’t have to be expensive. Just wrap the outsides of ordinary cardboard boxes and cylinder containers in decorative paper and ribbon to match the shower colors – then use them to hold scissors, glue sticks, photo corners, paper and other scrapbook essentials.

Favors: Follow the photo-theme by presenting each guest with a photo coaster or a frame.

Food: Keep the food very mess-free. Don’t serve dishes with sauces, oils or anything else that might drip or smear onto a page. If that’s not an option for you, be sure to serve the food at a different time – and in a different location – than where guests will be crafting. One scrapbook shower we attended had a few tables set up just for scrapbook making – far away from all the messy Italian food being served.

Cake: Let the top of an ordinary square cake look like  a scrapbook page – top it with an edible photo of the bride and groom and make any lettering or decorations look similar to those you’d find in a scrapbook.

Games: When all the scrapbook pages are made, shuffle them up and pull one out. The person who made whichever page you pick can win a prize: a scrapbook making kit.

Other Ideas: Try to stay away from outdoor venues for the shower. You don’t want all the scrapbook materials and pages blowing away in the wind. And make sure the party is long enough to allow time for everyone to linger over their pages while they watch the bride open her gifts.

Dessert Party

For a sweet bride with an even sweeter tooth, a dessert party is decadent and delicious. Serve only sugary confections and let the décor follow the theme.

Table settings: Instead of a traditional floral centerpiece, fill glass jars with jelly beans or candy-coated chocolate pieces to match the shower colors. Place a candy scooper and some favor bags nearby and let guests take some sweets for the road on their way out. You can place the jars on crisp white linens (the contrast between the colors in the jars and the linens will be striking) or play up the fun theme by draping each table in a different candy-colored cloth.

Favors: Chocolate bars wrapped in personalized wrappers are always a hit. Or give out cookies shaped like wedding cakes or engagement rings. Or let the candy centerpieces serve as favors. 

Food: Tell your guests to check their salt cravings at the door – only sweets will be served at a dessert party. Think cakes, cookies, pies, cupcakes, ice cream sundaes, a chocolate fountain and any other sugary treat you can think of. Be sure to serve beverages that complement. Hot chocolate, coffee, tea, and ice cold milk all go well with desserts. If you’re serving lots of cocoa confections, you may want to serve a dessert wine that matches well with chocolate.

Cake: Place one of the many cakes you’ll be serving at center stage on your grand dessert buffet and ice the bride’s name and shower date on it. Be sure to use the cake that’s in her favorite flavors.

Games: Buy a big box of chocolates with different fillings and let guests take bites and guess the flavor. Or serve chocolate dipped fortune cookies and let one of the cookies contain a fortune declaring its recipient the winner of a prize.

Other Ideas: Dessert parties are great evening affairs (so guests can come indulge after dinner). Or serve the sweets in the middle of the afternoon. 

Around-The-House Shower

This is a popular gift-giving theme that ensures the bride receives gifts to fill each room in her home. Every guest will be designated a room in the house – bathroom, kitchen, living room, etc – and will be asked to bring a gift that corresponds to the room.

Table settings: Guests who have been designated the same room can sit at a table named for that room and topped with a centerpiece to fit the theme. For instance, all of the guests who’ve been asked to buy kitchen-themed gifts can sit at the table called “kitchen”. The kitchen table can be decorated with a pretty colander filled with a couple dish towels, egg cups or other kitchen gadgets. The “bathroom” table can be decorated with a shower caddy filled with pretty soaps. Either give the centerpieces to the bride, or play games so that guests can win them. 

Favors: Give each guest a small trinket they can use in their homes. Photo coasters with the bride’s name and wedding date slipped into the photo slot are fun, as are picture frames or tiny topiaries – anything they can use to decorate their house.

Food:  Give the grub a home-cooked feel by serving casserole dishes or other comfort foods. Or try a pot luck – each guest brings a dish and the recipe to give to the bride.

Cake: Have someone designated to a “kitchen” gift, whip up a cake from scratch and provide the bride with a recipe. Present it on that gorgeous cake plate she registered for.

Games: The traditional bridal shower bingo fits an around –the-house theme. Guests cross off gifts on their bingo cards as the bride opens them and the first one to get a full row of gifts crossed off wins a prize.

Other Ideas: The perfect location for an around-the-house shower is someone’s home.

Honeymoon (or Travel) Shower

Since the shower is celebrating the bride’s journey into married life, let her shower pay homage to all the journeys she’d taken before. A travel theme can highlight all the bride’s voyages. Or if she and her husband-to-be are planning a whirlwind honeymoon, include décor, food and traditions from the place they’ll be visiting. (Think a luau for a couple planning to honeymoon in Hawaii.)

Table settings: Give each table a name based on a location the bride has lived in or traveled to. Decorate the table by framing a photo of her in that place – or frame a postcard from the locale if it’s one she hasn’t been yet (their honeymoon spot or the far-off city they’ll be moving to).

Favors: Luggage tags make great favors for a travel theme. Slip a piece of paper with the bride’s name and wedding date into each tag.

Food: Serve up dishes from the bride’s favorite travel spots – start off with a great bruschetta appetizer if she’s been to Italy or a hearty Greek salad if she just loves the Greek isles. A main course of pad Thai is great if she backpacked in Thailand after she graduated college. Finish off with beignets if the bride loves all things French.

Cake: What’s the bride’s absolute favorite travel destination? Find a popular dessert or cake from that place and serve it at the shower. The croquembouche (a traditional French wedding cake) is divine. Or if she just loves Key Lime pie from the Florida keys, serve one up for dessert (mini key lime pies served on a tiered tray will look more cake-like – and be fun to eat.)

Games: Ask the bride or some guests to tell stories about adventures the bride has had on her travels – leaving out details that might include major landmarks. Then have guests guess where they took place. For example, “Her fiance proposed here.” Or “She once got so lost in the countryside of this place that she drove around for 3 hours before reaching her destination”. The guest with the most answers wins a travel-themed prize!

Other Ideas: Chip in and buy the bride and her fiancé a night at a nearby bed and breakfast.