COVID-19 sucks to say the least. People’s lives changed drastically in all sorts of ways since March. Other than our favorite places getting shut down, one huge impact for me has been planning events.
Whether it’s birthdays, bridal showers, weddings, church events, bachelorette parties. We’ve had to change it all.
After quarantine started someone geniously thought of throwing a party with a drive by. And so if you’ve been contemplating doing a drive by anything recently, here is how I threw my sister her Drive By Bridal Shower. Hope it inspires you!
Why I decided to do a Drive By
Originally my sister and I agreed on doing her bridal shower in September. She even had the day off and all set to go for us to plan it at any time. I was waiting for her bachelorette (which was planned for July 30-Aug 2nd) to happen before I started officially planning her bridal shower. And then, she got COVID… The week before the Bach Party 😑
Thankfully Gabi had a mild case. It quickly went away in about 2.5-3 weeks (not including her breathing). Once she was consistently getting better day by day was when I started planning her shower. She had only 2 dates available off work that would work for everyone. The date we picked gave us 2 weeks to plan.
I spoke to Gabi many times months ago about doing a drive by. She said NO! She 100% did not one. But, unfortunately we live in South Florida. No one is allowing us to rent inside. And we can’t rent pavilions at parks (if you plan an outdoor event in Florida you’ll need one in case it rains. We never know when it’s going to happen).
If she had given me a small guest list, I probably would have done something different, but her guest list was about 50 women!
With that said, I had 2 options, either she doesn’t get a Bridal Shower at all, or I go against her wishes and try planning the best Drive By Shower I can! I obviously went with option #2 🙂
ALSO! Doing the shower this way made it easier to do it coed and have Daniel (and other guys who wouldn’t have wanted to go to an original bridal shower) join Gabi, which makes my sister feel more comfortable.
Inspiration for the Drive By
First, I searched the internet high and low for inspirations, and the best ones I found were of course on Pinterest. Drive by anything hasn’t been going on for very long (insert drive by shooting jokes here!) so I took ideas from whatever content I could find. Then I shared my ideas with the bridesmaids, and got everyone on board to help me.
After that I spoke to Gabi’s soon to be sister-in-law. Her parents live on the perfect street to do a drive by. Once we had an ok from them, one of the bridesmaids that is a graphic designer designed the invites, and they were PERFECT! *Surround yourself with smart and creative women* ❤️
If you don’t have anyone to design one, Etsy is FULLLLL of beautiful designs that are cheap and easy to edit. You could also do evites. It’s easy and potentially free anddd they’ll track the RSVP for you!
Like I said, from the day we sent out invites to the day of the bridal shower, it was 2 weeks. I had 2 weeks to plan a drive by, and honestly it was the perfect amount of time!
This photo here was my inspiration for the drive by. I don’t know who’s photo it is. If you know, please let me know and I’ll tag them.
The Arch
My sister’s wedding decorator suggested to her that instead of having a regular rectangular arch, to do a triangular arch. My sister loved the idea. When I found the picture up top for inspiration, I figured I’ll have my husband build it now and we’ll store until wedding day.
I had my husband build it whenever he had a minute. I stained it myself. He wasn’t going to be in town the day of the bridal shower, so I asked him to make it simple enough for me to put together on the day of. All I did was screw the legs onto the bottom of the triangle and voila. We got this 👇🏼
For the flowers on the arch, I looked on YouTube for tutorials (perfect tutorial here –> tutorial). You need a floral foam block, zip ties, the flowers, and wire pliers. I picked flowers based off the flowers on the invite. I bought these below at the dollar store. The dollar store I went to didn’t have eucalyptus, so I bought some at Hobby Lobby.
Goodie Bags
The good thing about a drive by is that you don’t have to feed people a ton of food (or none at all)! We did however put goodie bags together as a favor with hand sanitizer, ring pop, mini cake (wrapped in plastic. the cake was dipped in melted chocolate so it could keep it’s form), and a thank you note (it said thanks for coming and to RSVP for the wedding!). We also had cold water.
The bags I purchased at the dollar store. They were a package of 3. So 3 for $1. The hand sanitizers I got at Target. They were each $0.99. The ring pops were ordered in a bulk on amazon. And the cake my mom ordered them.
If you don’t know of anyone who makes cakes like the ones I described, I saw someone do cupcakes. Or you can do cookies, cake pops, or muffins. I read another blog where the bride bought $5 Dunkin gift cards so their guests could grab breakfast on the way home. Get Creative!
The same bridesmaid that designed the invites, designed the thank you card. You can also buy small cards and hand write it yourself if you have nice handwriting (or get someone who does). You can type something simple on your computer and print it on cardstock. Cut them up and you’re set! You can also make a tag and tie it onto the bag. Again, BE CREATIVE!
A little more details about this picture up top 👆🏼 The metal tub is from Ikea. I’ve seen similar ones at Hobby Lobby (or similar craft stores). I purchased flowers at Trader Joes and put it together in a vase from the dollar store. That light up sign was given to me, but I’ve seen them at Target, at TJ Max, Marshals, Hobby Lobby, and I’m sure you can find it on amazon!
I had a cooler under the table with more ice and water to add more to the tub later. The thank you on the front is from Target. They have a create your own package and you can write whatever you want! They also have it in white. The table I bought at Target. It folds up in half and is perfect for storing. Lastly, the sheet on the table is from an online store that I found 👉🏼 tableclothsfactory.com
Tent
I can’t begin to explain to you how HOT this day was. It rained for a few minutes while we were setting up, but it was insanely hot! To give you an idea my scalp on the very top of my head got burnt… I digress.
The main reason for the tent is for most obviously the shade. I wanted the couple to have a place they can stand a few minutes where they’re not in the sun. The 2nd reason for it was just so the gifts didn’t sit out in the sun. I wish I had a second one because I would have put it over the goodies table.
If you have storage and live somewhere hot, this tent is worth investing in! It belongs to my husband’s company, but whenever I can get my hands on it for an event, I do. It really does help!
The table is a 2nd foldable table I have. The sheet I also purchased from that website I mentioned. The love balloon was from a box my sister got from a bride subscription. And I quickly put the balloon arch together so that the tent wouldn’t look plain (lots of turorials on youtube as well). I was going to put some flowers in it and I ran out of time.
Car Parade
Soooooo there wasn’t one 😅 I did not set up a meeting spot to form the car parade. I was hoping people would show up all together and the line up would happen on it own. Well, it didn’t. When the first guest arrived, they were a bit confused so they parked and got out of their car. As soon as they did the 2nd car arrived, saw them and did the same. Do you see a pattern here??
My main thing was that the couple were ok and having a good time. They didn’t mind people were getting out. Anyone who wanted to really social distance stayed in their car. Some wore masks. We had masks for the couple as well in case someone preferred they use it.
Gabi and Daniel like to interact with people they know and love. I think Gabi didn’t want a drive by because she probably thought it would feel impersonal. I think if there had been an actual parade where people just said hi and drove on by, I don’t think they would have enjoyed it as much as they did.
Butttttt, if you DO want to have a parade of cars and not have guests getting out of their cars, DO NOT do what I did. Set up a meeting spot and time and have someone lead the parade. If you let 1 person get out of their car, others will follow. If you don’t want it to happen, have someone “control” that. Don’t let people pull over.
This sign up top was also designed by the graphic designer bridesmaid 😁 Another bridesmaid has a brother who works for a company that does prints like this and so between the 2 of them they got it done for us. It was actually really big. Almost 4ft long! We also had 2 arrows printed on smaller signs that we put out to lead the cars to the house.
Home Depot sells signs like this. If you’re artsy or know someone who is, or if you don’t care who writes on it, you can buy a blank one and write on it. Because this sign only has their name and wedding hashtag, my sister will be using it at the wedding venue location as well. It’ll be in their parking area. Again, think outside the box 😉
Final Notes
When I knew no one else would be coming, me and those who helped put everything together quickly disassembled everything. How is it that tear down is always so fast?? Anyway, we sent guests who were still there after tear down home. We took the gifts inside for the couple to open, and then some of us helped the couple get their gifts to their soon to be home!
I believe those are all the details. If you have any questions, please let me know! I would be more than happy to help. Let me know what you thought of this drive by. What you loved or hated! I hope it can provide you some inspirations.
If you’re getting married soon and can’t think of a honeymoon spot, consider St. Augustine, FL. 😘
