Lingerie showers are a fun twist on the typical bridal shower, and now brides and their girls can enjoy the ultimate lingerie party in an actual lingerie store!

Sylene's of Washington has made its swimwear and lingerie retail location available as a venue for wedding showers. Brides can come into the store and select all their wedding and honeymoon essentials, and the pricier packages even come with intimate wardrobe makeovers for shower guests.

Shower packages range from $150-$500, include up to 10 guests, and come with goodie bags for all attendees. Contact Sylene's for more details.

Homebaked cupcakes. Hmmm. What could be nicer than sitting down with a cup of coffee and a freshly baked treat? That's why we just love this gourmet cupcake mix favor from Beaucoup. It's a fabulous idea for a favor.

The cupcake mix comes in three flavours: chocolate, vanilla and champagne and is then mixed with fresh ingredients from your kitchen. Each mix yields 12 cupcakes (or two dozen mini cakes) and costs $5 per box. If you want to go the extra mile you could also include a set of heart-shaped measuring spoons.

The boxes are available in white gloss or natural and to personalise them you could add a customised label of your own, or just order a set of personalised designer labels for a unique touch.

It's a super idea and would also be wonderful as bridal shower favors too.

With the growing trend of themed bridal showers -- from stocking the kitchen to stocking the lingerie drawer -- the sky really is the limit in terms of celebrating your engagement with your friends and family. But why not ask the host of your shower to not only shower you with fun but everyone else, as well? Why not toast to your party's success over a few (dozen) bottles of wine!

In most cities across the U.S., wine bars are becoming more and more popular (and more and more prevalent!). And most wine bars are a great place to have a shower, either a ladies-only one or one for couples, as they include a funky atmosphere and a can't-pass-up tasting. Add some delicious food to the mix, and this party location leaves nothing to be desired.

With friends and family scattered across the map and circles of friends growing wider, it's certainly possible to fill more than one guest list for a bridal shower. With the growing trend of bridal shower themes -- stock-the-bar, kitchen, couples, etc -- it's understandable that you may want to cram as much fun as possible into your engagement period. But what does etiquette say about multiple showers and, more importantly, inviting the same people to more than one?

Traditionally brides were only thrown one bridal shower by their bridal party, but that is changing as the landscape of traditional weddings changes. Regardless if your wedding isn't adhering to tradition, it is important to keep in mind that the underlining theme of a shower is to receive well wishes and gifts from your friends and family, so too many showers can risk making you look greedy. Regardless of how many showers you have, etiquette does dictate that you don't over-invite your guests, but you can certainly have more than one shower while avoiding a lot of eye rolling and whispering from those closest to you. Here's how:

We're stumped. An appalled bride recently wrote, disgusted after her bridal shower, that she couldn't believe the guests kept all the prizes from games for themselves. Didn't everyone know that you're supposed to give those to the bride?!

Um, no, not everyone "knows" this. In fact, we'd never heard it before, and we think it sounds sort of silly. Why would there be prizes at all if the winners aren't supposed to keep them? But hey, just because we've never heard of it doesn't mean it's not a tradition somewhere. Maybe we're wrong.

What do you do with bridal shower prizes?

Depending on the bride's location in relation to bridesmaids, friends, and family, a number of different bridal showers could possibly take place.

Many times there's a family-based shower, which includes aunts, cousins, grandmothers, etc. Then, there might be the slightly more risque lingerie shower with the bride's best friends. And then there are the showers based on organizations to which the bride belongs -- church, work, clubs, etc.

Your bridal shower or rehearsal dinner will be the crème de la crème when you give it a French twist with these party ideas. First, set the scene with French style invitations. Depending on your budget, there are many different decorating schemes to choose from. For more formal parties, you can have the wait staff dress in blue and white striped shirts and berets for a fun extra touch. Second, create more ambiance with French inspired activities. For larger parties, you can hire a caricature artist and juggler to entertain guests in the style of a French boardwalk. Smaller get-togethers can be enhanced with fun movies set in France, such as French Kiss or, for a bit more "ooh la la," something like Femme Fatale. For bridal showers, have someone come give the gals French manicures (technically, they're not really French, but who doesn't love a manicure?). A French-inspired menu offers a variety of choices. Go formal with wine and cheese, fondue, truffles and tarts or keep it casual with croissants and berries and Eiffel Tower cookies.

One of the things we loved about getting married was that new feeling of "home." We loved having friends over for dinner and throwing parties -- for some reason, doing these things as husband and wife felt so different and fun.

If you have a friend getting married who enjoys entertaining, there are a gazillion gifts you can give her that will be both fun and useful, but it would be hard to beat a fabulous apron by Haute Hostess Aprons. They're a little pricey, running around $100 (but many are on sale for half that!), but they're really an outfit all on their own. Forget covering up an amazing ensemble -- this is an amazing ensemble!

Check out the gallery and see which one is your favorite! Or, perhaps more importantly, which one would be your friend's favorite.

There's something wonderfully relaxing and romantic about an evening garden party and if you're getting married in summer then why not have a few pre-wedding celebrations outside.

A few tables, either scattered around a pretty garden, or set out on a terrace, provides a great atmosphere for guests to unwind and have fun. You could help create a fairytale ambiance with the strategic use of lights and lanterns and these cheerful weaver's nest tea light holders are just the thing!

Available from Fairwind Online, a Fair Trade company, they cost £10 and come in aqua, fuschia, olive and tangerine.

If that isn't quite the look you're after, there are a few other striking lanterns and candles in various designs, from simple to more sophisticated.

Picking your wedding colors and theme are some tough choices, but once you have those decisions made and filed away, the real fun begins -- scouring the Internet and/or bridal magazines to find the perfect ring pillow, signature cocktail, invitation, etc, to match the colors and theme that are oh-so you. The pink-and-brown theme is a really eye-catching and popular one, and if you have chosen this combo to be your wedding-theme colors, your big day is sure to be a gorgeous one.

Thankfully, the fun doesn't have to begin and end on your wedding day -- your bridal shower theme can also be centered around your decided-upon wedding colors. There are online stores galore that offer the most adorable bridal shower invitations in pink and brown hues to kick off your pre-wedding party.


With this many invitation choices, deciding upon the color palette will seem -- in hindsight -- like an easy check to make on the to-do list.

This is a shower game with a twist of secrecy -- the bride cannot be in on the game, and it's best if most of the guests are left in the dark, too. It's simple, though. As the bride opens her presents, someone discretely writes down her comments, like "Oooh! I've always wanted one of these!"

After you're done with presents, you read these statements back, and they are to tell a story about the honeymoon. With all the inherent innuendo, it's a surefire way to get a truly blushing bride! This kind of game will crack up everyone in attendance. Just think about the possible responses: "I've never seen one of these before!" or "I had no idea it was so big!"

Have fun!

When you and your friends were little girls, you probably had sleepovers where you each played with makeup and dolled yourselves up. Using the brightest reds and the most absurd color combinations, you all went home looking like a bunch of ten-year-old clowns. A bridal shower is a great time to relive some of these ridiculous childhood memories.

Get some cheap cosmetics together in the brightest, tackiest colors you can find. You're also going to need a blindfold for this one, some facial cleanser, and a bride who is a good sport. The bride sits in a chair while her friends take turns putting on the blindfold and doing her makeup for her.

Be sure to take lots of pictures! These will be good for laughs for a long time.

One of the perks of an already incredibly fun engagement is the opportunity to have people throw you parties and lavish you with gifts. One of my favorite pre-ceremony parties is the lingerie shower -- nice for the bride and the groom. Presents can range from cute and classy to wild and sexy, but everything can be tossed into your honeymoon suitcase.

One benefit of the lingerie shower is the chance to be treated to items you couldn't rationalize splurging on yourself -- many personalized items that couldn't be found just a few years ago.

If you are a bridesmaid and don't want to default to Victoria's Secret to buy your friend some adorable lingerie, try a few of the original styles below. You can't go wrong with any of them, and the happy couple won't be able to thank you enough.

If you're hosting a shower where the guests don't all know each other already, you may want to kick off the festivities with a game that will get everybody talking to each other to break the ice. One such game is called Guess Who?, and it's great for showers because it can be adapted for most themes.

The hostess writes the names of several well-known people or characters (which can fit within the theme of the shower) and pins or tapes one name to each guest's back. They go around talking to others, asking questions like "Am I female?" "Am I alive today?" "Am I a fictional character?" and so on until they are able to guess the name on their own back. A fun twist is to have most of the names fit the theme, but include a few that have nothing to do with it at all, just for kicks.

If you're planning a bridal shower, you're probably going to want to play some games. If you are having games, you will need prizes. Here are some prize ideas that we like:

• Fancy bath soaps
• Candles
• Plants and/or seeds
• Movie passes
• Mini champagne, liqueur, or wine
• Bath salts
• Christmas ornaments
• Chocolates

These prizes can be anything from serious to comical, romantic to gag gift. It all depends on the mood of your shower, so have fun with it. For more great ideas, browse our Favor File posts.