17 Bridal Shower Ideas for a Bookworm Bride

17 Book Themed Bridal Shower Ideas for
invitations and décor for the bookworm bride.
The best part is elegant recycling and classy budgeting.

So your bookworm friend is engaged and you’re excited about planning her bridal shower.

What could be a more fitting theme than books?

And everyone has old books, or can easily acquire them for pennies at thrift stores or yard sales.

Here’s 17 of our ideas for a book themed bridal shower.

No. 1 of 17: Book Themed Bridal Shower Invitation

There are so many ways to incorporate book ideas in an invitation.

What You Need:

Library book cards and pockets and a library stamp for the due date.
Book pages and printer paper if desired for a cover sheet for the invitations.
Medium brown ink stamp pad or damp tea bag
Ruler, scissors, pencil, pen
5″ x 7″ Envelopes

How to make them:

Invitation: Hand print, or type with a vintage typewriter, the invitation on library cards. Here is a suggestion for wording:
Book Card Pocket: Cut a heart shape from book page and glue to the front of the pocket. Then slide the invitation into the pocket.
Cover folder: Cut book page to 10″ x 7″ and fold in half for a cover sheet for the invitation. (If you don’t have large enough book pages, use two and bind them together by gluing to a narrow binding of white printer paper. Then age the paper edges with the stamp pad. (A used damp tea bag has nice vintage color, if you don’t want to buy a stamp pad just for this project.) The library book card pockets are adhesive, so attach the pocket to the inside of the cover sheet. We designed a book cover and then glued the book card invitation and pocket inside.
Envelope: Cut book pages 6.75″ x 7″ and slip into the envelopes for a sweet liner.

Author’s Disclaimer: We’re not happy with the dark antiquing we used. The photos don’t do justice to the real thing, but we would definitely use the color we have highlighted as a purchase option next time. Or go the tea bag route.

Now to continue with our 17 bridal shower ideas:

Décor Idea Mood Board

Use scrabble tiles as décor. With or without the racks. If it’s a seated table shower, use them as place cards. However, if it’s a socially distanced shower, use scrabble tiles and racks for the food table, announcing what each dish is. Another idea is typewriter keys on placecards.
Use book pages as place mats for a sit down dinner. Or glue or use double sided tape to attach book pages together as a runner for the center of the food or gift table.
A vignette idea to use as inspiration for the welcome table.
Buy blank newsprint and crumple it and smooth out again. Then hang it as a backdrop behind the food table or the bride-to-be’s chair. You could write words or a quote on it, or glue cut out letters to it to add interest. Also, you could make a scroll.
Use stacked books with the floral centerpieces.
Borrow a vintage typewriter for ambiance. Roll a page into it and type an interesting quote or message for the shower on it. If it’s on a game table, it could be instructions for playing the game.
Another vignette idea.
Stack piles of vintage books on the floor and/or table around the bride-to-be’s chair.
Another centerpiece idea. Use old bottles or wrap book page strips around vases for the flowers. And/or wrap flameless candles the same way. Tie ribbon or twine around over the book pages to keep the pages in place.

Bonus Book Themed Shower Décor Ideas

Make a wall banner with book pages, with a letter to a phrase on each page.
Unbleached parchment paper to cut into squares for fancy cupcake liners. It’s a bit of a challenge, but if you tape the parchment squares to regular printer paper, you can send it through your printer. This gives them a bake-safe way to get a book page look for the cupcake liners. If you don’t have cupcakes, use the squares as tray liners.
Make or buy book page heart shaped confetti.

Some Game Ideas add up to 17 great bridal shower ideas

Using lined notebook paper, draw a vertical line down the center. Then write one name of a couple from famous books down the left side, and guests will write in the other name across from it. If that’s too difficult, make a list of names on the bottom for clues, or do names down both sides and guests draw lines to match the couples. Make a copy for each guest.
The MC reads a quote, and guests write down who they think said it. Try to use couple quotes from famous/well known books. Another option is to write the book title.
Use a chapter from a book, or write a page of the bridal couples fall-in-love story, and create a Mad Lib game. Guests fill in the blanks with a “verb,” “noun,” “adjective” or “exclamation” as needed to finish the story. Guests sign their names and bride reads the stories, then opens that person’s gift.