At one time bridal showers concentrated solely on the bride and only female guests were invited, but today’s couples both get the red carpet treatment with ‘Couples Showers’ otherwise known as ‘Jack and Jill Showers’ or ‘Co-ed Showers.’  These showers also include male guests or a male counterpart of a female guest.

Themed Couples Showers are making a big splash.  Here are few ideas for themed Jack and Jill showers.  If the couple is living in a duplex, single-detached home or a townhouse with a small garden area where outdoor work is required, have an outdoor theme.  Make it a master theme, starting with the invitations, and follow the outdoor theme right down to where the shower is going to be held, food and beverages, decorations and gifts. 

Start with some kind of floral invitation.  Hold the event on a patio or in a garden, weather permitting, and hold it late afternoon or evening.  Have the guests bring gifts such as outdoor tools like a rake, shovel, gardening tools, gloves, knee pads or mats, hose, sprinkler, watering can, lawn chairs, BBQ accessories and a snow shovel.  Have fun flower centerpieces or make your own from flowers grown in the garden.  Place flowers in watering cans, scattered about the patio or garden area.  If the shower is being held in the evening, light garden stakes for a soft, mellow ambiance and serve foods fresh from the garden and grilled on the BBQ.  Serve beverages with floral names such as the Lavender Iced Tea, Orange Blossom Iced Tea, Garden Infusion or The Garden Patch Caesar.

Do you know a couple who are campers but have been borrowing camping equipment from parents and friends?  Now is the opportunity to give camping equipment as gifts. Have a campout shower.  Pitch a fairly large tent in the backyard and play loon or birdsong and cricket music or rent a campsite at a local campground and have an overnight camping shower, with guests sitting in camp chairs around a campfire and serve camp food and beverages with names such as The Muskoka Iced Tea, The Great Lakes Cocktail or The Tranquility Cocktail and of course, top this event off with a wiener and marshmallow roast.

If the wedding is scheduled close to Christmas or in late autumn, have a Christmas themed shower.  Ask guests to give Christmas decorations as gifts or pool the money and purchase the couple a Christmas tree for their first Christmas together.  Serve Christmas fare and beverages too while Christmas tunes play in the background.  Decorate for the shower with Christmas ornaments and wreaths.  For a even better touch, have one male guest dress up in a Santa Claus suit and hand the gifts to the couple with a few hearty ho-ho-ho’s and have a tobogganing party after the gifts have been opened.

Another great idea is a Honeymoon Destination shower.  Decorate for the event with travel posters of the couples' destination, play music and serve food and drinks pertaining to that particular destination.  Ask guests to bring gifts such as a travel alarm clock, travel hangers, a blow dryer with dual voltage, gift certificates from a travel agency or a restaurant from that area, picture frames, photo albums and rolls of film or disposable cameras.

If the couple loves to cook, have a kitchen themed shower.  Hold the shower in the kitchen and ask guests to bring gifts pertaining to cooking.  Have a few gag gifts like an apron that states ‘Kiss the Cook’.  Place herbs in terracotta pots along windowsills or have a centerpiece with herbs and flowers on the table and serve gourmet foods and beverages that are unusual.

If the couple enjoys relaxing, have a Jacuzzi shower.  Jacuzzis or hot tubs are available to rent and ask guests to bring bathing suits to enjoy the tub also.  Make it a bathroom themed shower, where guests bring gifts such as towels, bath mats, tooth brush holder, soap holder or dispenser, bath pillow, back brush and gift baskets of bath beads, oils or gels and candles for those romantic baths for two!

These ideas are just the tip-of-the-themed-couples-shower-iceberg.  Whatever is cooked up in the way of a theme, remember to be creative and make it fun and memorable.