Showers are a place to meet new people?

[Twik]

OK - I was thinking you were talking about actual showers like at a gym or something.    at myself.

Yes, my first thought was, "Umm, I'd be rather alarmed at finding someone I didn't know in the shower with me...." 

[Girly]

So I'd expect the guest list to include relatives of the groom that the bride might not have met yet. And a few very close friends of the MOG--those friends that the new bride could expect to meet at her in-laws' house on holidays and special occasions, but not every member of the MOG's bowling league and every neighbor on the street.

This is how my showers were. I met cousins that my husband wasn't really close to at all (c'mon, they are icky girls!), but have since become fast friends of mine.

[onyonryngs]

Ours was a couples shower, but only had people we knew & who were invited to the wedding.

[Unusual Banana]

Yeah, I think it's acceptable to use a shower as an opportunity for the bride to meet her future husband's relatives. I wouldn't think it was gift grabby if I were invited to a shower for a male relative's bride (unless for some reason I'd never met the male relative) because even if I hadn't stayed in touch with him I'd still want to meet his wife.

OK - I was thinking you were talking about actual showers like at a gym or something.    at myself.

Yes, my first thought was, "Umm, I'd be rather alarmed at finding someone I didn't know in the shower with me...." 

I once made a friend in the showers at the gym when I slipped and fell over and my legs ended up in her stall. We both spent the rest of our showers giggling about it.

[Lynn2000]

I also first thought it was about water-showers and wasn't going to read the thread because I was like, "Eek, that sounds like an awkward situation!" Then it suddenly occurred to me there were other things called showers...

If you (general) have agreed to let your in-laws throw you a shower, I think you can expect to meet relatives and family friends you've never met before: cousins your SO hasn't seen in years, parents-in-laws' friends who watched your SO grow up, that kind of thing. But, I could imagine getting an ooky feeling from the hostess, if she's saying things like, "We must invite the Smiths, they invited us to their granddaughter's graduation seven years ago. And what was the name of Great-Aunt Betty's son's daughter? She must be about your age now," and the guest list just starts to balloon with people whom the hostess is using for social "payback" or doesn't even know well herself. That would be uncomfortable.

To me, "friends of friends" seem different, and a little weird. Like, Betty and Bob are getting married, and Bob's friend Cindy is invited... and also Cindy's friend Debbie, who would barely know Bob on the street and has never met Betty. If I were Debbie and got the invitation to Betty's bridal shower (meaning I would also be getting one to her wedding), I would be thinking, "That's a little odd. Are they having trouble filling seats at this thing, or what?" I mean, if I don't really socialize with Bob at this point, would that really change after he marries Betty? And even if it does--there will surely be plenty of time after the wedding, when all four of us hang out together, to get to know Betty. I don't need to start the friendship by giving her two nice gifts (shower, then wedding). That's just my take on it, of course.