Here are some tips :

• Choose a date prior to the wedding.
• Decide on whether it should be a surprise for the bride or otherwise.
• Set a budget and determine who pays for what.
• Make a guest list. Do ensure that those on the list are also to be invited to the wedding to avoid any awkwardness later.
• Select a location. Some possible venues could be a home of one of the bridesmaids, a spa, a nice, quiet restaurant, a hotel suite etc.
• Give invitees advanced notice to keep the day free.
• Plan the event around a theme but keep it simple.
• Keep track of gifts and the givers during the shower.

When participating in these celebrations, it is important to be mindful that :

• Such parties should be fun, lighthearted but not crass.
• As a lead up to such a milestone as marriage, these parties are a rite of passage as well and should therefore be meaningful.
• Embarrassing the bride or groom should be frowned upon.
• Do not hold hen or stag nights on the eve of the wedding – everyone including the bride and groom will never recover in time
  

The lighting of the unity candle symbolizes the merging of two lives into one.

In some ceremonies the lighting of the unity candle will also incorporate the families of the bride and groom. There it symbolizes the joining together of two families, as well as the union of the couple, in a marriage. It marks the transfer of commitment from their families to the new commitment in establishing their own family in their life together.

But in Eaglepoint, we will have the two mothers lighting the candles in the beginning of the ceremony signifying the giving of life by the mothers to the child and then after the exchange of vows, the bride and groom will take their own candle and light the candle in the middle signifying that from this forward, they are one and snuff out their individual candles.

The significance of this act is truly meaningful.