Display Shower Thoughts

I'm not a fan. People go out of their way to spend money and attend your shower. I think the least you can do is open their gifts.

My cousin did this and it was ok. I personally am not a fan of them and didn't do it at my shower which was hosted by referred cousin, my MOH. It definitely helped speed things up but she didn't like it.. She said it killed the excitement of opening up the gifts, the anticipation etc.

What is a display shower? Are 100 invited or 100 people already RSVPed yes?

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Where you request that the gifts not be wrapped. They are displayed upon guest arrival.

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Ohhhh. I see. I've never heard of that. I'd feel super weird bringing a gift not wrapped so I'd probably still put it in a bag at least.

I don't care for them for several reasons, but my personal opinion doesn't really matter since I won't be invited. What DOES matter are your guests' opinions, and I would imagine unless this type of shower is already the standard in your area, most of your guests will be some combination of confused (not follow the instructions and bring their gift wrapped anyway), turned off, annoyed, or outright offended. Is it worth the risk?

If your primary motivation is to save time, then you have too many guests. Showers are celebrations, not mercenary present-collecting events (well, at least they shouldn't feel that way). Many, many people enjoy shopping, wrapping, and giving gifts, and then seeing them opened at a shower.

We are doing the traditional open gifts at the end, but we are playing a game with it. The guests are filling out bingo cards of what items they think I’ll receive and will play along with bingo as I open the gifts.

I went to a baby shower that was like this.... Honestly, I didn't like it. To me the whole point of a shower, baby or wedding, is opening the gifts. (We played the gift bingo game at daughter's bridal shower and I agree it helps keep the guests involved.) To me, at the baby shower, it seemed really awkward to hand over my unwrapped gift to the hostess, and then to see how she "arranged/displayed" them all. There certainly seemed to be MUCH more focus on some gifts than others (extra "cute" and larger/more extravagant gifts were "front and center," and more mundane stuff like onesies or books were kind of stacked on the far edges or behind the "cute" things). I thought the whole thing was kind of tacky and rude, and left me thinking, "you can't take the time to actually unwrap my gift?" (They also had guests address the envelope for their own thank-you note, I was kind of surprised I wasn't supposed to write the note, too....)

I don't mean to offend, but like the pp, if there will be so many guests that it will take too much time to open gifts, I'd cut the guest list. However, like others said, I'm not coming to your shower, but realize some guests might be like me and find this odd, if not rude.

I am agreeing that I would not enjoy this as a guest. I feel like the main “attraction” of a shower is watching the gifts being opened. I liked PPs idea of making a game out of it. Shower bingo sounds super fun!

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100 RSVP yes and that isn't the total count yet

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I can see how it could be rude. I actually didn't mind addressing my own envelope at the shower for others but can see how you as a guest could find that odd.

The issue is we kept our wedding to mostly family, only inviting 10 friends each so cutting the list isn't going to help but I think that I will probably go the traditional route and open gifts at the end.

Why do people open gifts at showers? This is a tradition I have never understood. To me gifts are personal and private and should not be displayed or shown off to other people. I feel like it becomes some big competition about who got the best gifts, most creative gift, most expensive gift. That's just not what it is about to me.

If all one of my friends or relatives can afford is a card wishing me and my FH well, why should they made feel bad or less then others?

I am refusing to open any gifts at my showers and my family/friends hosting them have been told. Buck tradition with me!

I love these, I absolutely loathe sitting and watching anyone open gifts except my kid. People still see what you received and you can spend more time with guests.

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I agree! Plus, when opening gifts people always say "I hope they like it". Well I picked the item out, and if it's something that they bought for me not on my registry then I would still be thankful.

I actually think because you'll have so many guests that it's probably better that way to do it as display. Otherwise you're going to be spending a ridic amount of your bridal shower time simply just opening the gifts.