Summer Showers bring September flowers?

Okay that was a stretch, but there will be a bridal shower this Sunday and flowers at the wedding in September. Anyway...those of you attending the Columbus Shower, cannot wait to see you!! As the rain pours down on Kansas City, decided to research bridal showers a bit. The custom originated here, and is celebrated primarily in the US and Canada.

The custom of the bridal shower is said to have grown out of earlier dowry practices when a poor woman's family might not have the money to provide a dowry for her, or when a father refused to give his daughter her dowry because he did not approve of the marriage. In such situations, friends of the woman would gather together and bring gifts that would compensate for the dowry and allow her to marry the man of her choice.

The man of my choice doesn't get a dowry, so far he's gotten my collection of Eeyore figurines, letterpress posters and a closet full of clothes and Keds. Poor Jerrod. But luckily Dad approves of him and gave his blessing before Jerrod proposed. Also read that a bridal shower is meant to, "socialize women into the hyper-feminized traditional wife role." Not sure how I feel about that part...

I am not sure what Mrs. Taylor, Aunt Kathy and Marcia have in store for Sunday, but sometimes there are bridal shower themes. With the 24-7 Shower Theme, guests are assigned a time of day that the gifts will be used by the bride; morning, midday and night. Or there's a Recipe Shower, each cook brings a recipe and some items needed to prepare the dish, a recipe card can be included with the invite.

This whole Suzy Homemaker notion of bridal showers is quite amusing. "A bridal shower gives women a chance to indulge their inner-Mrs. Cleavers and pretend, if only for an afternoon, that once married the bride-to-be will use her slew of newly acquired kitchen accessories to make a tasty (yet nutritious) homemade meal for her hard working husband." Hehe.

Not to say that I won't happily accept the awesome kitchen gadgets and other items, just as long as I don't have to wear an apron and pearls when I use them. Thank you again to those planning and coming to my party!