Wedding Shower invites, etiquette question

Question

I am getting married this October, my mom's good friend is throwing me a shower. Anyone invited will be invited to the wedding/reception, but she is unsure if she should invite my mother-in-law to be's sisters. She had planned on inviting my mother in law & her mother. But what about inviting my fiance's aunts, step mom and his step dad's mother? They don't want to leave anyone out, yet money, of course, is always a concern & space is limited as well. What is proper with these showers? Thanks everyone!

Answer 1

If someone on your fiance's side of the family or friend circle is also throwing you guys a shower or party, to which the aunts will be invited, then it is not necessary to invite them to this one too.

If not, it would really be a nice gesture to invite them.  

As a matter of fact, if space & money are limited, they should really come before just friends on the priority of the guest list; after all, they are family!

Answer 2

Yes, all those should be invited. As an auntie, I've always been invited to showers from both sides of the family.

Answer 3

um...yes his family should be invited.  wouldn't you be inviting them to the wedding?

If your mother's friend can't afford it all, then maybe your mother or his mother can help pay for the shower.

One person shouldn't be paying for it all by themselves anyway ::even if they can afford it::

Answer 4

Yes all should be invited.....unless they arent invited to wedding...They are pretty much imediate family..its your fiances aunts and step parents...so yes.

Answer 5

A bridal shower should be a small, intimate event. It is given by someone who is close to the bride but not part of her family; and the other guests should be people with whom the hostess is so intimately connected that she knows they, too, actually *want* to "shower" the bride with presents. Keeping showers small and intimate means the guests can be entertained in the hostess's home or garden, and avoids the cost and ostentation of having to engage a banquet-room.

If anyone else wants to be part of a shower for you, but doesn't know your mom's good friend intimately enough to be invited to her shower, then it would be perfectly correct for that person to give a shower for you and invite all of her intimate friends. It is perfectly consistent with good form for a bride to be given several showers, but the hostesses would try as much as possible to invite each guest to only one -- not usually a problem since the separate social circles rarely overlap.

In fact, it is very common for an aunt of the groom, or other close senior family member, to host a shower to welcome the new bride into their family circle. The guests at such a shower would include all the groom's close female relatives. That avoids the strain of a large block of relative strangers' being imposed on one of the bride's friends.