Bridal shower invitations, and six wordings to copy
· Written by the Wedvite founders · Prices checked 15 September 2026
A bridal shower invitation comes from the host, not the couple. It carries the host’s name, the bride’s name, the date, a start and an end time, the address, the theme if there is one, where she is registered, and one person to reply to. Every guest on it must also be on the wedding list.
Who hosts a bridal shower, and whose name goes on it?
Whoever is paying. That is the whole of it, and it is why the first line of a shower invitation names a person who is not getting married: the maid of honour, the bridesmaids together, a sister, an aunt, or — openly now — the bride’s mother. The etiquette books once held that immediate family should not host, on the grounds that it looked like the family soliciting gifts for itself. That rule has quietly gone, and mothers host without comment.
What has not gone is what naming the host does for your guests. It tells them whose house they are walking into, who to thank on the way out, and who to reply to. So put the hosts at the foot of the invitation (“Given with love by” on a formal card, “Hosted by” on a plain one), and give exactly one of them as the reply-to, with one phone number or one link. Three hosts and three numbers is how a guest list of twenty-five turns into three half-lists nobody can add up.
The bride hosts nothing and answers nothing. If she is the name on the RSVP line, the invitation reads as her own party for her own presents — and on a surprise shower it gives the whole thing away on the first reply.
Who can you invite to a bridal shower?
Anyone you invite to the shower must also be invited to the wedding. That is the one rule in this event that does not bend, and the reason is plain enough: a shower asks for a gift, and asking for a gift towards a wedding somebody is not invited to is a bill, not an invitation.
It runs one way only. A wedding guest list of a hundred and forty produces a shower list of twenty-five, and the hundred and fifteen people who are not at the shower are not being slighted — a shower is a small party for the people closest to the bride, and nobody expects otherwise. The trap is the other direction: adding a cousin to the shower to make up for cutting her from the wedding. It reads as exactly what it is.
Two honest exceptions. A workplace shower, thrown by colleagues who were never on the wedding list, is its own event — keep it at the office, keep it to an hour, and do not send both groups the same invitation. And out-of-town guests who cannot realistically come: invite them anyway, then make it easy to decline by saying in the message that you know it is a long way and there is no obligation. A virtual shower is the other answer to that one, and example five below is written for it.
What does a shower invitation carry that a wedding invitation doesn't?
Five lines a wedding invitation never has, and one it is not allowed. A wedding invitation announces a ceremony; a shower invitation runs an afternoon in somebody’s living room, which needs more instruction and less ceremony.
An end time — a wedding invitation prints a start and stops. A shower is a sitting — games, gifts, lunch — and a guest who does not know when it finishes cannot plan the rest of the day. Our own editor treats the end time as an opt-in field for exactly this reason: most weddings leave it off, and this party should not.
The host's name, and one reply-to — named at the foot, with a single phone number or link. It is also the answer to “whose house is this?”, which a hotel ballroom never raises.
A private address, with the practical detail — the door to use, where to park, the buzzer code, the dog. A venue has signage and staff; a house on Willow Lane has none of that, and the invitation is where you make up the difference.
The theme, if there is one — a theme is instruction, not decoration: “hats optional” answers what to wear, “bring a recipe card” answers what to bring. One thing to bring, at most, and say what happens to it on arrival.
The registry — the one invitation where gift information belongs. The party exists to give gifts, so name one or two shops or a single registry address in small type at the foot — and no prices. On a wedding invitation this line stays off the card, which is what our own wording guide says and why our invitations carry no outbound registry link at all.
And the line it must not have — a plus-one. A shower guest list is people, not couples, and “and guest” on a shower invitation turns a table of twelve into a table of twenty-two in a room that seats fourteen.
If you are sending a link rather than a card, the registry line is the one item that moves: it goes in the WhatsApp or text message you paste the link into, which on a shower list is where guests read it anyway. The rest of the rules are the same in either medium, and the wedding invitation wording guide is the page to read next when it is the wedding’s turn.
Six bridal shower invitation wordings you can copy
Each one is complete for the situation it is labelled with — nothing to fill in but your own names, date, address and shops. Copy the one closest to your party and change those four things. The names, the house and the phone numbers in them are invented, so replace every one of them before you send it.
1. Traditional · hosted by the mothers
The formal version, for a shower at a family home with the older side of both families in the room.
Please join us for a bridal shower
honouring
Amelia Hartley
bride-to-be of Jonah Whitfield
Saturday, the sixteenth of May
from eleven in the morning until two in the afternoon
at the home of Margaret Hartley
14 Willow Lane, Ashford
Given with love by
Margaret Hartley and Eleanor Whitfield
Kindly reply to Eleanor by the second of May
07700 900 123
Amelia is registered at Liberty and at The Linen Press
Four things make this a shower invitation rather than a wedding one: the hosts are named and they are not the couple, there is an end time as well as a start, the address is a private house, and the registry sits at the foot in small type. Change the hosts, the two names, the date, the house and the shops. Keep “honouring” — it is the formal word for a party thrown for someone, and it does the work “in honour of” does on a plainer card.
2. Casual · hosted by the bridesmaids
Same information, written the way you actually text. Short, warm, and still complete.
Amelia is getting married —
come and help us spoil her
A bridal shower for Amelia Hartley
Saturday 16 May, 11am until 2pm
14 Willow Lane, Ashford
Brunch, fizz and an unreasonable amount of cake
Hosted by Clara, Nadia and Priya
Tell Clara you are coming by 2 May — 07700 900 123
Amelia's registry: ameliaandjonah.example/gifts
Jonah has been told nothing, so neither have you
Three hosts, three first names, one phone number — guests need one person to reply to, not a committee. “11am until 2pm” is doing real work: a shower is a sitting with a beginning and an end, and guests who do not know when it finishes arrive without a plan for the afternoon. The last line is optional and only true if it is true.
3. Tea party · with something to bring
A themed shower, where the theme has to tell guests what to wear and what to bring.
A tea to celebrate Amelia
You are invited to a bridal shower tea
in honour of Amelia Hartley
Saturday the sixteenth of May
from two until half past four
14 Willow Lane, Ashford
Sandwiches, scones and a very good pot of Darjeeling
Hats entirely optional, cake compulsory
Please bring a recipe card for Amelia's kitchen —
handwritten, one you actually cook
Hosted by Clara Bowen
Reply to Clara by 2 May — 07700 900 123
She is registered at Liberty and at The Linen Press
A theme belongs on the invitation because it is instruction, not decoration: hats optional answers what to wear, and the recipe card answers what to bring. If the theme carries a game — a recipe box, an advice card, a photo of the guest with the bride — say it here, in one line, and say what to do with it on arrival. Never ask for more than one thing.
4. Couples shower · for both of them
The co-ed version, which is also what most people mean by a wedding shower.
Amelia and Jonah are getting married,
and we are throwing them a shower
A couples shower for
Amelia Hartley and Jonah Whitfield
Saturday 16 May, 4pm until 7pm
14 Willow Lane, Ashford
Cocktails on the terrace, a barbecue if the weather holds
and one round of how-well-do-you-know-them
Hosted by Clara Bowen and Theo Whitfield
Reply to Clara by 2 May — 07700 900 123
They are registered at ameliaandjonah.example/gifts
Both names in the honouring line, and a host from each side if you can manage it — a couples shower with only the bride's friends hosting invites half a room that knows nobody. The later start and the barbecue are the tell that this one is an evening party rather than a lunch; if yours is a lunch, move the hours and lose the cocktails. This is the wording to use if your invitation says wedding shower.
5. Virtual shower · on a link
For a bride in another city or country, or guests who cannot travel for an afternoon.
A virtual bridal shower for Amelia
Saturday 16 May
11am in London · 6am in New York · 8pm in Sydney
Join from the link in this message —
it opens in your browser, there is nothing to install
One hour, and only one hour:
a toast, two short games, and Amelia opening your gifts on camera
Gifts by the 14th, so she has them to open:
14 Willow Lane, Ashford
or her registry at ameliaandjonah.example/gifts
Hosted by Clara Bowen
Reply by 2 May and I will send the game sheet
Every time zone your guest list lives in, written out — this is the one invitation where getting that wrong empties the room. Promise an hour and keep to it. The gift deadline is two days before, not the day of, because a parcel that arrives on the 17th is a present she opens alone. Say the meeting link is coming and where from, rather than printing a long one nobody can type.
6. Surprise shower · she does not know
When the bride is not in on it, the invitation has to manage the guests as well as invite them.
Shhh — it is a surprise
A surprise bridal shower for Amelia Hartley
Saturday 16 May
Please arrive by half past ten.
Amelia arrives at eleven.
14 Willow Lane, Ashford
Park on Mill Street and walk round —
not on Willow Lane, where she will see the cars
Hosted by Clara Bowen
Reply to Clara only: 07700 900 123
Not in the group chat. She is in the group chat.
An arrive-by time and a real arrival time, thirty minutes apart, and the parking instruction that actually keeps the secret. Send it to one person at a time rather than as a group message, and make the reply channel a single phone number — a shower is given away by a reply-all more often than by anything else. If she has a habit of arriving early, tell the guests half an hour earlier still.
When does a bridal shower invitation go out?
Three to six weeks before the shower. Three is enough for a link texted to twenty-five people who all know each other; six if you are posting cards, or if guests are travelling and need to book something. Earlier than six weeks and a shower invitation starts competing with the wedding’s own post; later than three and you are ringing round.
The shower itself usually sits two weeks to two months before the wedding, most often four to eight weeks out. That is convention rather than rule, and it exists for a practical reason: close enough that the wedding feels real, far enough that the bride is not opening presents in the same week she is confirming final numbers with a caterer. Keep the seven days before the wedding clear of everything.
The wedding invitation is a different calculation with a longer runway, and when to send wedding invitations does that arithmetic. If both are your job this spring, do the wedding’s dates first and fit the shower around them.
Should you send a shower invitation as a link or a card?
A shower is the clearest case for a link there is, and not as a compromise. The list is small, and the host usually already has every number on it — these are the bride’s closest people, most of them in a group chat with you right now. Posting a card to twenty-five people you text weekly is ceremony for its own sake, and it costs you the fortnight you spend waiting to find out whether it arrived.
What a link adds on a party this size is mostly relief. Replies land in one place instead of five, so there is no tally on the back of an envelope. The time, the address and the parking line can be corrected after you send it, which matters when the host’s plans are still moving. You can see who has not opened it yet, so chasing is one message rather than a round of calls. And a surprise shower stays a surprise, because the invitation goes to one phone at a time rather than into a group the bride is in.
The honest other side. A card in the post is a keepsake, and the shower is a keepsake sort of event — brides keep these. Older relatives may genuinely prefer paper, and on a list of twenty-five that is one or two cards to write by hand, not a workaround. A formal shower given by the mothers, with a tea service and place cards, is a paper occasion and you will not talk anyone out of it. The cost of invitations itemises what paper runs to if you want the arithmetic rather than the argument.
What ours costs: $89 at list, paid once, for any number of guests, with the invitation hosted through your wedding date and at least 90 days after — a shower sits comfortably inside that window, and the same invitation can be reused for the wedding. It is free to start, so you can build the whole thing and share with your first 10 guests before you pay; on a shower list of ten, that can be the entire list. Replies, the headcount and the guests’ messages come back to whoever made it — the host, which is how a shower should work. The invitation with the RSVP built in is the same thing pointed at the wedding, and engagement party invitations are the event before this one, if you are working through the whole year.
Wedvite's list price is $89. Until Oct 31, this code brings it to $49, applied automatically at checkout:
What about Evite for a bridal shower?
It is the most searched name in this category, so here is the honest version, from Evite’s own help pages as we read them on 15 September 2026. Free designs cost nothing and show advertising to your guests — that is how the free product is paid for — and the free cap is far past anything a shower needs: its help centre says “Free Invitations support up to 750 guests. If your gathering runs larger than that, Evite Pro bumps that limit to 2,500 guests per Invitation.” Premium is a one-off charge chosen by guest count: $17.99 up to 12 guests, $36.99 up to 30 guests, $68.99 up to 75 guests. Real-time RSVP tracking is on every tier; the reply-by deadline, the animated envelopes and guest names on the envelope are Premium only.
So for a shower of ten, $17.99 is less than we charge, and for twenty-five, $36.99 is too. If the invitation is a means to an end and the ads do not bother you, that is a real answer and we would rather you heard it here. Two caveats that are theirs, not ours: a Premium package covers one event, is non-transferable, and has no pay-the-difference upgrade, so a list that outgrows its cap means buying the next tier outright; and if you send by link rather than by email, Evite’s help centre says those guests do not appear on your guest list until they RSVP and you lose read receipts for them — which on a texted shower invitation is how most of your guests will arrive.
What you are paying us more for is the thing itself: an invitation with an animated envelope, a venue map and the RSVP built in, the envelope included rather than gated behind Premium, no advertising beside it at any stage, and one flat price whatever the list does. Background music, a wax seal, a hand-drawn venue sketch and a second language are add-ons on top of that $89 base, so a fully loaded order — all four — is $139 at list, still paid once and with no guest cap. The full Evite comparison has the whole table, tier by tier, with every figure dated.
FAQ
Bridal shower invitation questions
Who hosts a bridal shower?
The maid of honour, the bridesmaids, or a close friend or relative of the bride — and now, openly, her mother or sister, because the old rule against immediate family hosting has largely gone. What matters is what hosting means in practice: the host pays, the host invites, the host's home or chosen venue is the address on the invitation, and the host is the name guests reply to. It can be shared — three friends splitting the cost put all three names on it. The one person who does not host is the bride, and she should never be the reply-to.
Do bridal shower guests have to be invited to the wedding?
Yes, and it is the one rule here that does not bend: nobody should be asked for a shower gift for a wedding they are not invited to. It only runs one way, though — plenty of wedding guests are not at the shower, which is normal and needs no apology. The recognised exception is a workplace shower thrown by colleagues who were never on the wedding list: keep it at the office, keep it small, and do not send both groups the same invitation. Never add someone to the shower to soften a wedding cut; it reads as exactly what it is.
How long before the wedding is a bridal shower held?
The usual window is two weeks to two months before the wedding, and most land four to eight weeks out — close enough that the wedding feels real, far enough that the bride is not chasing final numbers the same week. Avoid the seven days before the wedding entirely. The invitation itself goes out three to six weeks before the shower: three is plenty for a link texted to twenty-five people, six if you are posting cards or guests are travelling. These are conventions rather than rules, and the bride's calendar outranks all of them.
Do you put registry information on a bridal shower invitation?
Yes — this is the invitation where gift information belongs. The event exists to give gifts, guests will ask if you leave it off, and one line of type saves the host twenty separate replies. Name one or two shops, or a single registry address, in small type at the foot: no prices, and no “no gifts, but if you insist”. A wedding invitation is the opposite case, where the registry stays off the card and lives on the wedding website. If you are sending the shower invitation as a link, put that line in the message you paste the link into — our invitations carry no outbound registry link.
What is the difference between a bridal shower and a wedding shower?
The party is the same; the name signals who is invited. “Bridal shower” is the traditional term for a party for the bride and her side, and “wedding shower” is the term that fits when the guest list is mixed and both of them are being celebrated — which is also what a couples shower is. If your guests include the groom's friends and family, calling it a wedding shower or a couples shower on the invitation tells them that in one word, and saves you the four texts asking whether men are coming.
What does Evite cost for a bridal shower invitation?
Evite's free designs cost nothing and show advertising to your guests; its Premium packages are a one-off charge chosen by guest count — $17.99 up to 12 guests, $36.99 up to 30 guests and $68.99 up to 75 guests, checked on 15 September 2026. A typical shower of twenty to thirty guests therefore lands on the $36.99 tier, and a shower of ten on the $17.99 one, which is less than we charge — worth knowing before you read anything else on this page. Packages cover a single event, are non-transferable, and there is no pay-the-difference upgrade, so a list that grows past its cap means buying the next tier outright.
One link, and the replies come to you.
$89 at list, paid once, unlimited guests — the date, the address and the reply on one page your guests open on their phones.