I was SO so lucky last November to have the most amazing literary-themed bridal shower. My bridesmaids (with the help of my mom) put together the most fabulous party featuring book-inspired decorations, food, and activities for my bridal shower.
Because it was SO much fun, and perfect for any book-loving bride, I wanted to share some of what they did — as we all as more inspiration from Pinterest — right here for all of you!
Book-ish Bridal Shower Decorations
The decorations started with a bridal “throne” — which my bridesmaids surrounded with stacks and stacks of books. The tissue-paper flowers over the window (below) were hand-crafted by my mom, and include tissue paper she printed with scans from old fairy tale books.
My bridesmaids hit up thrift shops for old, falling-apart books and used them to craft some fabulous decorations. They used the old pages to make garlands to hang from the fireplace mantle, and glued together a runner for the table.
Here are some other pretty book-ish decoration ideas we found on Pinterest:
Book-Themed Party Foods
The menu for my bridal shower included:
- Count of Monte Cristo Sandwiches
- Harry Potter’s Chocolate Pretzel Wands
- Oliver Twists (pretzels)
- Great Eggspectations Deviled Eggs
- Dr. Seuss Fruit Skewers (slices of strawberries & bananas)
- Lemony Snicket’s Lemon Meringues
My mom also hand-crafted these beautiful cupcake liners, that she had printed with our wedding illustration and scans from old fairy tale books.
Here’s where she got her inspiration from:
Literary-Inspired Bridal Shower Games
No bridal shower is complete without a few games. My bridesmaids had the perfect word-games for my book-themed shower, as well as some more traditional shower games. We played:
– Wedding Vow MadLibs
– Bridal Scattegories
– Guess What the Groom Said (in which I had to guess his responses to a set of questions, and the guests had to vote whether they thought I’d get the answer right or wrong.)
– Pin the “ring” on the hand:
During all of the games, my Maid of Honor kept score (having assigned everyone a “District,” Hunger Games-style). The guest with the highest score (my mother-in-law) took home the grand prize, a copy of Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield, the book I was buying when my husband proposed.
More Ideas:
Another fun bridal shower game is “Literary Lovers Match-Up” — in which your guests must correctly pair up each literary couple.
Favors
For favors, my mom hand-crafted these beautiful bookmarks. The front includes our wedding illustration and scanned pages from a fairy tale book, and the back is made from glitter scrapbook paper.
You can see more ideas that inspired my bridesmaids on my bridal shower Pinterest board.
Novel Novice 
Absolutely loved this! I’ve done (series or book specific) book birthday parties for my kids, and have heavily hinted that I’d love a book-themed 40th. Better show my sister and husband these ideas- especially the food !