A Brazilian bridal shower can encapsulate the best parts of Brazilian culture
The spirit of Brazil is often associated with delicious food, mouth-watering cocktails, energetic dancing and raucous celebration. If you have been tasked with hosting a bridal shower for a Brazilian friend or relative, these factors can easily be integrated to create a lively and memorable carnival-themed party.
Instructions
1. Prepare enough food to satisfy all guests. If the shower is intended to have an informal tone, finger food may be a good choice. Brazilian snacks suitable for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike include pão de queijo, pastéis and coxinha (a dish made from spices and shredded chicken). These dishes are inexpensive, easy to prepare and should be creatively displayed on plates around the room. If the intention is to have food as the centerpiece of the shower, more hearty dishes including feijoada (a meat and bean stew), bisteca and, of course, rice and beans are equally as straight forward to prepare, and just as delicious. For a typical Brazilian desert, brigadeiros (small chocolate truffles) are as mouth-watering as they are ubiquitous.
2. Purchase an appropriate range of drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Typical Brazilian cocktails include the caipirinha and rabo-de-galo, both of whose main constituents is the liquor cachaça, a rum-like liquor derived from sugar. Purchase a range of Brazilian soft drinks and make sure you have a sufficient supply of ice.
3. Create a carnival atmosphere by playing Brazilian music like samba and bossa-nova in the background. If time, budget and space permit, book a salsa dance teacher to take guests through the steps. In Brazil, music plays a core part of a bridal shower, and dancing, whether or informal, is a fixture.
4. Decorate the space including the tables in green, yellow and blue, representing the Brazilian flag. This could include drapes or banners billowing from the walls to green, yellow and blue napkins, serviettes or plates on the table. Other carnival decorations include beads and feather boas. Purchase carnival-themed masks and costumes from a party shop, and encourage guests to participate in the festivities.
5. Infuse a Brazilian theme into your bridal shower games. For example, in Brazil, a typical way to end the celebrations of a bridal shower is to make the bride guess what each gift is by feeling it and weighing it. First, attach a blindfold over the bride's eyes. If the bride guesses incorrectly, the party responsible for buying the gift is entitled to draw on the bride's face with lipstick.
Tags: bridal shower, green yellow, green yellow blue, yellow blue