1. Get up and sing with the band

If you have a voice that’s meant for more than just singing in the shower, why not jump on-stage and front the band for a song or two? This can be the perfect way to express how you feel about your new husband or wife, and it’s guaranteed to be a performance they never forget – hopefully for all the right reasons!

2. Have a dance-off

Performing a dance-off with your partner, best man, mother or even your entire bridal party, is definitely one way to get the party started, and if tradition isn’t really your thing, this can follow or even replace the classic bridal waltz. Taking a dance lesson or two before your wedding day can see you busting moves that your guests never saw coming, and is guaranteed to bring a buzz to your wedding that will keep everyone on the dance floor for hours.

3. Have musicians enter with the bridal party

Want to enter your wedding reception with a bang? How about walking in with a 4-piece horn section? Once recent bride decided that she and her new husband should walk in to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Uptight’ being performed by the band. The twist was that the entire horn section walked in with her – resulting in an entrance nothing short of spectacular

4. Write a song to be performed on the day (possibly by you)

Searching for the perfect way to express how you really feel to your new husband or wife? Why not compose a song for the band to perform? This is an incredibly touching gesture that your partner will no doubt remember for years to come.

5. Have a video kiosk for guests to record their messages to you

Take advantage of the technological advancements of the last ten years, and shy away from the traditional photo booth – video kiosks allow your guests to leave entire video messages, can hold up to 60 hours of video footage, and cost the same or less than a photo booth. At the end of the wedding, the operator will burn you a dvd (or two, or three, or four…) with all the messages from your wedding guests throughout the night.

6. Refer to your cultural heritage

If either you or your partner have strong links to another culture, why not pay homage to it at some point during the day? This can be through music, food, dress…whatever gesture you feel works best. This will not only bring something unique to your wedding celebrations, but will also allow you to share your cultural identity with friends and family.

7. Hire a roving magician or illusionist

Having a magician or mentalist perform at your wedding is a great way to keep your guests entertained. You can have the magician dressed as a member of the wait-staff, only to surprise guests with tricks and mind-games to keep them entertained throughout the night.

8. Celebrate with fireworks

If flamboyant and dramatic is your style, then fireworks can serve as the ultimate showpiece.  Extravagant and awe-inspiring, a personalised fireworks display is an incredible entertainment experience.

9. Enter your ceremony with a bang

Via horseback, parachute, out of the ocean…it may sound strange but these entrances have been done before, and work spectacularly. If you want to shock your guests, why not imagine the most unconventional entrance you can think of, then make it happen. It’s up to you to make anything possible!

Second video – A Bridal poem read by Briana! This was a madlib that was passed around the room. Each girl wrote an answer. That explains its randomness )

Bridal showers are one of the most fun parts of planning a wedding.  Planning a bridal shower can also be fun and can be done on a limited budget if you are resourceful.  While the trend seems to be hosting the shower at a venue such as a restaurant, why not consider a bridal shower at home.  It is less expensive, more intimate and gives you more options as to your menu.

While it is supposedly a faux pas to have the mother of the bride plan the bridal shower, my daughter’s bridesmaids enlisted my help. I offered to host it in our home and they were thrilled.  We all talked and decided on a rather unconventional approach. We would do a co-ed, or as more commonly known – a “Jack and Jill” shower.    The first thing I suggested was to come up with a theme.  Using a theme for any celebration makes it easier to plan.  It’s kind of like a GPS for your plans.  It will help to give you ideas for everything from the invitations, to the menu, activities and even the favors. Since they wanted to do it in May, I suggested a Kentucky Derby theme and we did it on Derby Saturday.

For our menu, we kept it simple – we made assorted sandwiches, salads, fruits and pastas…as if you were on the racetrack sidelines picnicking. We had lemonade, iced tea and beer, wine and fresh fruit sangria in a punchbowl.  For desserts we made dozens of mini-cupcakes and displayed them on cupcake stands. We added chocolate covered strawberries, homemade cookies and cake ball desserts. If you have never eaten cake ball desserts you are in for a treat. Small bite sized nuggets of cake and frosting, dipped in melted chocolate. We used the chocolate for candy molding and did a rainbow of colors.

I always love to include a game at our own family celebrations so we came up with a Derby Dollars guessing game.  The game gathered everyone together to watch the race… so fun! Even those who knew nothing about horse racing got into the action.

The final gathering was to watch both the bride and groom open their lovely gifts.  It was a beautiful celebration filled with all the people they both love so much. Best of all, this whole showers cost pennies in comparison to hosting it out of the house.  Many of these ideas would be perfect for a more traditional bridal shower with a garden or tea party theme… so let your creative juices flow and you can plan a beautiful bridal shower on a limited budget.   You can see the fun invitations and creative favors we made as we planned this bridal shower at Celebration Ideas Online

The toilet paper wedding dress is a great bridal shower game that involves covering the bride in toilet paper. Learn more about playing the toilet paper wedding dress game with tips from an event planner in this free video on bridal shower games. Expert: Carie Ellington Bio: Carie Ellington is an event planner. She began her craft work by creating signs for sporting events and worked her way to baby showers, weddings, corporate events and product promotions. Filmmaker: Adolph Ramirez

Susan “The Shower Diva” shared some fabulous ideas on what is hot in the bridal shower world today. Focusing on a peacock-themed bridal shower in honor of Priya David’s upcoming wedding, hosts Jenny Hansson and Anne Jaeger discuss fun ideas with Susan “The Shower Diva” that can make your bridal shower easy peasy. Thank you to Forté florists, St. Cupcakes for providing the decorations and to BadaBadaBingo for the trendy games. Replayed with permission from CBS Koin Channel 6.