One of the long standing wedding traditions is the wedding shower. Usually these parties are hosted by the mother or sister of the bride. They provide an opportunity for all the females to get together in a pre-wedding celebration to get to know each other. Recently, many brides are throwing their own wedding showers and incurring the cost themselves. Whoever hosts the party, it should remain an affordable, casual event.

Here are some fun, yet affordable wedding shower ideas:

Celebrate at a local bar or pub. This is a great way for all the girls to get together, but they won't be expecting food. Plus, everyone can pick up their own tabs!

Throw a Jack and Jill Party. This combines the bachelor party and the wedding shower in one joint celebration. If you host this party at home, you can provide the food and your guests can bring their own alcoholic beverages.

Buy decorations for the shower that also double as prizes. You can choose from a wide variety of items such as candle favors or place card holder/picture frame favors from Truly Wedding Favors.

Do pizza and a movie. There are no rules for a wedding shower. Instead of a traditional mid-afternoon wedding shower with a catered lunch, instead order in a few pizzas, rent movies and drink wine.

Bridal shower games are a great way for guests who don't know each other to get acquainted. Choose one or two of these silly games to liven up your shower.

What's In Your Purse? The hostess of the party lists items that are commonly (and not so commonly) found in a woman's purse. As she names each item from the list, shower guests will search their purses to see if they have the item. For each item that she finds, the guest will get one point. At the end of the list, the guest with the most points receives a prize.

Toilet Paper Dress Split the guest into three teams. Each team is given ten rolls of toilet paper. Each group chooses a team bride and the rest of the group creates a wedding dress for her using the toilet paper.

Hung Out to Dry This is a very old tradition at bridal showers. Each guest is given a clothespin when arriving at the party. She is also told two words that shouldn't be uttered during the event. Choose words such as "wedding" and "husband," or your fiance's name. Throughout the shower, whenever a guest is caught saying one of the forbidden words, the person who catches her gets her clothespin. At the end of the party, the guest with the most clothespins wins a prize.

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