Paris Themed Bridal Shower Inspiration (2024)

Does the bride-to-be love the idea of the romance of Paris? Has she dreamed of standing on top of the Eiffel Tower? If she has, then consider hosting a sophisticated Paris themed bridal shower. With this theme, the possibilities are endless and there are many ideas associated with Paris to help focus your planning.

Paris as a party theme is a good choice because there is much to choose from for Parisienne decor and food/drink ideas. This helps make the planning easy and more affordable. A Parisian theme is a classic theme and never goes out of style. So you can also rest assured that your party will be a hit!

So, how do you go about planning a Paris themed bridal shower? This article will help to guide you in your planning.

Paris Party Theme Colors, Associated Symbols, and Phrases

While you can use any colors you want in a Paris themed party, in general, North American Paris themed parties use the colors pink, black, and white. Sometimes gold or silver is thrown in as well.

Often the pink does range in color from a blush pink towards a more bright, hot pink color and you can mix and match these shades of pinks in your decor items. For the pink, think of the pink colors that are used in Chanel branding, as much of this North American centric Paris “look” may have been inspired by Chanel (think Chanel no 5 perfume). It is also possible that it could have come out of the popular Belle Epoque era in Paris as images from that time often used pink. It is also often associated with Audrey Hepburn’s 50s and 60s movies that were set in Paris. For example, you’ll often see Paris themed room decor with pink, black and white accents and an image of Audrey Hepburn on the wall.

For whatever reason, the idea that these colors represent Paris has become a part of North American pop culture. While the origins are not clear, North American imagined Paris themed parties will generally use these colors.

Furthermore, bold black and white stripes, polka dots, fleur de lis, and damask floral patterns are also popular with this Paris theme. The Eiffel Tower plays a very prominent role as a symbol of Paris and should be central to your Paris themed bridal shower decor. Other symbols include: coffee and cafes, poodles, Chanel, feminine fashion girl illustrations, lips, and shopping bags & packages. Roses, peonies, and other large flowers are also associated with this theme. Baroque style is important to this theme as well. You’ll often find elaborate chandeliers and picture/mirror frames as decor items.

Phrases associated with Paris themed parties include “Ooh la la”, “Boujour Paris”, “Paris, je t’aime”, and “Paris, je t’adore”. Often times party invitations will include wording such as “join us for a day in Paris”, “Join us for an afternoon in Paris”, or “Join us for a night in Paris.

Your Paris themed bridal shower can feature many of these colors, symbols, and phrases. However, you can also choose to go with a different, less stereotypical Paris look. As long as you include some well know Paris iconography, you should be good to go.

Some additional ideas are to use soft, pastel colors like you often see with French macaron cookies. This looks very sophisticated when paired with whites. For example, many of your party decorations and linens can be white and you’d add highlights of pastel flowers.

Another idea would be to go with bold red, black and white instead of pink. Red, in particular, is more reminiscent of Moulin Rouge. If you want the theme to be more like Moulin Rouge, red, gold and black would be standard colors and theatre and dance props could be added. You’d also need to add some feathers and fans!

Finally, you could also do a French style garden tea party with a lot of colorful large flowers.

With that in mind, let’s look at some possible invitation designs for your Paris themed bridal shower party.

Paris Themed Bridal Shower Invitations

In your search for a Paris themed bridal shower invitation, you can keep the above ideas in mind and cover off many of the colors and themes talked about above. Or, you can choose an invitation that goes somewhat against what is typical. Here are some ideas for Paris themed bridal shower invitations. You can purchase any of the below printed invitations for your party by clicking on the images.

Paris Themed Bridal Shower Decor Ideas

The internet has a lot of Paris party theme inspiration, including many posts specifically for bridal showers. Here are some photos for inspiration. You can click on them to be taken to the original posts.

Party City has many great Paris themed party decor items to choose from including tableware kits like the one shown below, balloons, confetti, scene setters, eiffel tower centerpieces and more. They even have a cute Eiffel tower cardboard cupcake stand.

Amazon also has many great Paris themed party decor items available. Here are a few items that I found.

Paris Themed Party Decor Crafts

For the do-it-yourself crowd, the below craft ideas for a Paris themed party are pretty simple, but also very nice.

DIY Eiffel Tower Centerpiece

DIY Eiffel Tower Wall Art

Food and drink for a Paris themed Bridal Shower

France is definitely known for its food! So in terms of food and drink for a Paris themed bridal shower, there are many options to choose from.

No Parisian themed party would be complete without wine, cheese, and baguettes. So that will be a necessary part of your planning. There are an abundance of French wines to choose from and you should be able to source out some wonderful European cheeses. Baguettes can be found at local bakeries.

You can also look up the top French foods and try to provide some of these iconic French dishes. This top 10 French foods guide has links to recipes and also some information about wine and cheese pairings. You can also review these 44 classic French dishes for inspiration (also includes recipes).

Many of the dishes shown in those two articles are full meal dishes though and oftentimes bridal showers are more informal finger food affairs. So, it might be best to focus on hors d’oeuvres. Allrecipes has an extensive selection of French hors d’oeuvres recipes. Check online for other sites as well. What I like about allrecipes is that there are many reviews of the recipes to help you make great selections.

In looking at some of the Parisian themed bridal shower parties featured online, many of them seem focused on French pastries, cakes, and cookies. Think of it as a Marie Antoinette “Let them eat cake” sort of party. In terms of sweets, French macaron cookies are especially iconic as are souffles.

Croissants are also an iconic French pastry and can be both savory and sweet. In terms of sweet croissants, chocolate croissants are particularly popular in North America.

Another popular French dish are crepes. Crepes can also be both savoury and sweet. Both savoury and sweet crepes are delicious and would be a great choice for a Paris themed bridal shower. In the image shown below, the bridal shower hosts provided a fabulous dessert crepe bar. How fun is that? And tasty looking too. I wish I could have attended! You could also do up a savoury crepe bar as well. Check out these 32 mouth-watering sweet and savoury crepe recipes or these 25 savory crepe recipes for inspiration! There are a lot of recipes online for crepes. You can really do anything with them since they are really just thin pancakes that you wrap around a filling. Maybe, keep in mind that not all recipes are authentic French, so if you want to keep with your theme, it is best to choose a more French based recipe. That said, this post of 35 savory and sweet crepe recipes is to die for I’m sure.

One thing to keep in mind with the food part of your Paris themed bridal shower is that a party that is mainly providing hors d’oeuvres and pastries can affordably be catered by a local caterer that specializes in French foods. In particular, pastries are the easiest things to pick up from a local French bakery. So the food does not have to be homemade.

Other ideas for French foods include: baguette sandwiches, mini quiches, and eclairs.

In addition to wine and sparkling water, pink lemonade and champagne are also good drink choices.

Parisian Bridal Shower Free Printables

Sometimes free printables are a way to save some money on your bridal shower planning. However, one thing to keep in mind is that they do not save on labor. You have to print and cut them out as you would any other do-it-yourself project. But if you’re up for it, here are some free printables I was able to find on the internet to help with your party decor.

You’ll find some free printable gift tags and wrappers that might work for your Paris themed bridal shower if you scroll to the bottom.

This site features several free printable Paris themed boxes that you can use as favor boxes.

You’ll find a free printable Paris pennant banner here in pink and black. It has an Eiffel tower on one pennant and stripes on another. The image for this banner is shown to the left.

Below is an image that showcases some free printable Paris photo booth props. If you click on the image, you will be taken to the page where you can download each prop to print.

A Free Printable from Party Simplicity

We’ve also made up this great free printable for a Paris themed party and it can be used with a Paris themed bridal shower. It’s a free printable Paris themed party social media hashtag sign. Place it around your party to let your guests know what social media hashtag to use when they post their party photos on any of the social media sites. This makes it easier for you to collect all the various photos from the party. They are 5″x7″ to fit in frames easily. They would look great in elaborate baroque style gold or black frames! Click on the image or the link in this paragraph to visit the page for downloading this freebie.

This is not an exhaustive list of free printables available for this party theme. You can search online and find more I’m sure.

Parisian Bridal Shower Party Favors

A great party favor for this theme is a cellophane bag with a couple of French macaron cookies in it. You can tie this with a ribbon and add a personalized favor tag or sticker. Voila!

If macarons are not to your fancy, an eclair or mini croissant is a great choice too!

Another idea would be an inexpensive mini baroque style picture frame. It’s a cute and useful decoration for someone’s home. You’d just need to add a personalized gift tag and ribbon.

Paris is often associated with chocolates as well, so a couple of chocolates in a cellophane bag could fit with the theme. Bonus if you can find an actual French chocolatier! Hersey’s Kisses also make a great Paris themed party favor.

There are many other ideas for party favors out there, but I like the above ideas because they are either useful or something that can be eaten. These days people seem to have so much stuff that many knick knacks get lost in people’s drawers or cabinets.

Conclusions

A Paris themed bridal shower is a great classic theme choice for a bride-to-be who loves all things Paris. It’s a great feminine theme that is also very bold. So it’s a fun choice for a stylish girl who likes to be bold and dramatic.

As there are many great decor items available for this party theme, it is also very affordable. Although there tends to be a set style with pink, black and white as the color palette, you can also add on your own creative touches or forego the stereotypical party theme completely. All you really need to do is include some iconic Paris symbols.

I hope you found this post helpful. If you did, please feel free to share it.

Au revoir!

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