I have a good friend whom I am giving a bridal shower for. She has very little support from family and I am the only person who is "doing" anything for her. I say all of this to explain why I didn't "resist" when she told me she had 48 people on her guest list for the shower. Yep, you read that right...48. So, HELP! I need tips (food, decorating, theme, anything) for having a huge shower for as little $$$ as I can. Here is what I have done so far:

-Bought adorable invitations for at Wal-Mart
-Bought great plates and napkins at Wal-Mart. The plates and napkins match and are striped chocolate, cream, and green with a wedding theme.

So far, I have spent 26.26 total. I need advice for EVERYTHING else. I am hoping to stay in the light green and chocolate color theme. Thanks for any help!

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I don't know if you have one near you but Garden Ridge & The Factory Card Party Outlet have really cute decorations for really cheap! Also, sometimes you can find cute things at Big Lots for favors and what not. I would do a search for bridal shower stuff on the net. You can find a lot of great ideas that way.

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When my mom and friends had my bridal shower ... they did a great favor. Get pretty spoons (they used nice silver from yard sales but you could use plastic spoon). Put a couple of hersey kisses on it and cover with the wedding mess stuff tie with a ribbon and attach the following printed out on piece of paper (print on white paper... use fancy scissors to get a pretty edge and paste on card stock and cut again). A spoonful of love, a couple of kisses to help _____ (your friend's name) become a Mrs.

Also send out a pretty recipe card (think 3X5 index card) and ask all guests to fill in their favorite recipe and bring with them. Have a recipe box to place all the cards in.

Think about having it at "tea" time. Invite people to a bridal tea celebration ... if you use the word tea people do not expect alot of food. So you can have tea, small finger sandwiches, small desserts etc instead of having a full meal. For my friend's baby shower, we (my other friend and I) made sandwiches (with the crusts cut off) of cream cheese and cukes, some sort of salad (tuna/ham/chix), cream cheese and herbs etc. cut into small triangles. Fruit salad (grapes, kiwi and strawberries) Desserts ... we didn't do a cake ... instead we did lemon bars, scotish tea cakes, shortbread etc.

For drinks make a punch ... to make it fancy place some lemon/orange/lime slices in water or the punch mix and freeze. Float these in the punch to keep cold and look pretty. Punch is much less expensive than individual drinks ... you could make an alcoholic one if you wanted.

Decorate the table you are serving the food on. What I do is make different heights with upside down pots, books etc. Place a table cloth over it and make it drape. Take a 2nd tablecloth that has a design on it and drape a little bit more. Think Martha Stewart.

HTH

Hit a place like Sams Club for small finger foods.... you can find things prepackaged in large quantities. I've used the mini cheesecake squares, queches, and spirals for large get-togethers.