It’s time for bridal shower

Just as you put a lot of thought into choosing your wedding date, there’s a science behind picking the right day for your bridal shower. And here it is…
It is simple: avoid too early in your engagement or too close to your wedding.

One month to three months before you get married is the sweet spot for bridal shower timing. That’s because it’s a little unfair to wedding guests to stretch out marriage celebrations in your honor for more than a few months (besides the engagement party). Plus, pre-wedding events, like bridal showers and bachelorette parties, are great for building momentum for the main event (aka your wedding). When a bridal shower is, say, six months before your nuptials, your guests’ excitement for your wedding will likely die down well before the wedding invitations go out.

Throwing a bridal shower less than a month before the wedding day also isn’t ideal for a few reasons. One, you’ll be so busy with last-minute wedding arrangements that you won’t have time to write out a couple dozen bridal shower thank-you cards. Two, even low-key bridal showers can be overwhelming for a bride, when the women you love most from all parts of your life are gathered in one room, eager to watch you open presents. It’s better for your psyche to leave some space between draining events when all eyes are on you. Three, guests who are giving you bridal shower gifts, and wedding presents could use more than a couple weeks’ time to recover from spending money on you.
All that being said, some engagements are simply too short to accommodate a bridal shower that’s more than a month in advance. Or, on the flip side, if people have to fly or drive several hours to attend your bridal shower and your wedding, you may want to leave more than three months in between the events to soften the blow of paying for airfare (and spending hours traveling). And sometimes, in order for all the women closest to you to attend, the party has to fall outside of that one- to three-month range.

But please, however much ahead of your wedding it is, tell the lovely ladies hosting your bridal shower that you’d prefer they didn’t throw it on a holiday. I’ve heard about Mother’s Day bridal showers (as much as your friends love you, they may want to spend that day toasting their mums) and showers on high holy days.