Bridal shower
A party where friends and family give gifts to the bride-to-be, held in the weeks before the wedding.
Also: shower, kitchen tea
The bridal shower is a gathering for a bride, mainly of the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia, held a few weeks before the wedding. Guests, usually women, bring gifts, often household items chosen from a registry, and there are games and a cake. The name is said to come from the shower of gifts, and a legend of a Dutch miller's daughter is told but unproven. In Australia and South Africa it is called a kitchen tea, and in Africa a kitchen party. Many showers now include men.