Bridal Shower But No Wedding Invite?

No it is not the trend. The bride in question behaved inappropriately by asking you to attend the shower and not the reception. The bride knew her financial situation prior to the shower. It is just tacky.

If you look at other advice columns, you will find that most say a gift is NOT required if you do NOT attend the ceremony/reception. So please do not feel obligated to. A lovely card with words of kindness and congratulations is more than enough.

I totally agree with Jane!!
That is just not right!! I understand wanting gifts and having friends at the shower but C`MON!! It is not like you are going to break the bank by adding one more couple to the list. If the budget was that tight she could have asked you to not bring a guest. You did your duty by bringing a gift to the shower.

Hello there....I am also in a bind similar to this...but I am the bride.....we have 180 people coming and there is a couple of girls that I had planned on inviting,,,,but we held off, not wanting to go over our limit for people. We just were waiting to get replys back...and now these girls are coming to a shower that my other girlfriend(that was invited) is throwing for me. Now that we know we aren`t over our limit, I am going to hand these girls and their hubbies of course, invitations at the shower, and just explain to them that we had to be careful....i don`t know,,,is this tacky....i feel bad that these girls are in on the shower and even though i had planned on inviting them, I feel really stupid handing them a late invitation. I don`t want them to think they are last choices....i made a mistake....any input into this? shame on me
How should i handle this situation....

I think that is perfectly acceptable!!
Budget restraints are understandable, it is the manor in which they are delt with that is the most important part. If the gal that started this message board was told the situation, I don`t think there would have been an issue in the first place. Unfortunate circumstances delt with in a graceful manor are much easier to swallow. You are going to have a great wedding and you will be surrounded by 180 people that care for you! ENJOY!!

If you are hand delivering invitations, you can always apologize for being tacky and claim that either you didn`t have their mailing addresses; or that somehow your computer address book messed up. The key is to make your friends feel welcome - not like they`re lower ranking on the totem pole for financial reasons.

My situation is similar, but my brother`s fiance did send me a wedding invitation in a timely manner, the bridal shower invitation came one week before the event. I was appauled, and called my Mom to see if she knew of this, that not just myself, but my 4 sister`s also didn`t receive a bridal shower invite until the last minute. My Mom told me it slipped the brides mind, she figured it would be word-of-mouth. Should my sisters and I attend the shower, knowing that the bride had intent of us not being there, or should we go and mingle as if to say, hmm, we are better than that.