The essence of this theme is culture. Your focus will be on the history, landmarks, and culture of different countries around the world. You could also pull in some details from the Travel bridal shower theme.

When completing the invitations, assign each guest a country to use as the inspiration for selecting a gift. This a great theme to use if the bride and groom have many different products on their gift registry.

Below are some suggestions for countries to use and some ideas for each country in case your guests call you for help.

• Belgium - chocolates or waffle maker
• China - wok
• England - tea set
• France - framed art or wine
• Italy - pasta maker, pizza stone, or olive oil sprayer
• Japan - rice cooker
• Switzerland - wall clock
• Thailand - spices

Rather than traditional invitations, use postcards depicting beautiful, foreign scenes to inform guests about the shower. It will be cute, and you'll save a little money on postage.

You could create several special areas around the party space in which you would feature the history and culture of a particular country or region.

Decorate with well known images from various countries or cultures, such as the Eiffel Tower from France. Use posters or build your own models.

Decorate with flowers that originated from the countries you've decided to highlight, such as tulips from the Netherlands or orchids from Japan.

Incorporate flags of different countries in your decor. You could hang large flags on the walls around the party space. Another idea is to print miniature versions of each flag, glue the flag to the non-pointy end of a wooden skewer, and create a centerpiece for your food table. The CIA's flags of the world page is a good resource for this.

Borrow or purchase dolls dressed in regional attire which you can then place around the party space.

As mentioned earlier, make use of postcards depicting scenes of foreign lands. You could use them as placecards or perhaps create a collage to use as a placemat or as wall decor.

Below is a list of shower games that would work nicely with this bridal shower theme.

• Cities of the World Word Search
• Language of Love Match Up Game
• Wedding Words to Language Match Game

Serve a variety of ethnic foods. Try to select one dish from each region of the world or country that you use in your decor. Try to offer a good mix of spicey and non-spicey dishes. Be sure to label each dish with its name and country.

Have a bakery create a cake using a photo of some famous foreign landmark.

Serve cupcakes with minature flag picks stuck in the top.

A calendar or poster depicting beautiful, foreign scenes

A guide book about a country that you've featured

Wine from a country that you've featured

An international chocolate sampler featuring brands such as Lindt(Swiss) or Toblerone(Swiss)