What's the proper etiquette for a display shower? Do I still hold up the gifts and say thank you and acknowledge people. Or do we tell everyone to stand up and look at the table, as each gift will be labeled from who etc. I have some old school family members (traditional unwrap the gift everyone ohs and aws) and really don't want to offend anyone but at the same time there will be about 50 people there and we don't want to take forever opening each gift one at a time. The shower is the 1st and the invite states display but I really have no clue on how to go about this properly.
Any suggestions or experiences that you are willing to share would help!!
TIA
*Already posted on Baby Shower board and haven't heard anything back, assuming most of the 3rd tri girls had there showers already I figured I'd test my luck here
Re: Display Shower Etiquette*
Everyone brings an unwrapped gift and when they come in the hostess writes their name on a card and places it on the item.
It's kind of known in this area and a lot of larger showers do this, there is really no confusion on the guest part at all. I'm not really worried about what people say- I'm just looking for advice on how to go about my part.
For my wedding shower, my flower girls and BMs had a conveyer belt like system going,..it went very smoothly! Good luck with the 55 and 90+, I just got a little anxiety for you!!!
She is using sticky notes!! Good thinking! Thanks
Personally I love watching the guest of honor open the gifts. But in your case I would keep it display as you want but just at part of the shower say something like "I have a couple of special gifts that I would like to open." Just take a pause, it won't be a big deal and it will make your family happy too.
I am having 4 showers (60+, 20+. 15+, and 20+) and I am dreading writing thank you cards to every person. I may have to enlist the help of my host's to write thank you cards as we go!
Display showers are THE BEST and are the norm in my hometown. However, they can be tough for baby showers since the mom-to be generally gets a lot more little gifts, onesies, toys, etc. than she does at a bridal shower. I had a display bridal shower, but we opted to go the traditional route with my baby shower (even still a lot of people brought unwrapped gifts because they assumed it was display).
The way its generally done is that the guest brings an unwrapped gift and the host takes the gift out of the box and displays it on a nice table and attaches a card indicating who bought the gift. It has to be done right or it can be sloppy and, dare I say, tacky. The gifts should be displayed so that each one is highlighted, and not just thrown on a table. Then all the guests can go up and look at all the gifts on the display table. When done well, it should look like a display at a boutique.
Good luck with the TY cards!! Best advice, enter all the addresses into an excel sheet broken down by cells, f.name, l.name., street address., state, zip and print out labels. It will save your hands!