standard ettiquete

Sometimes I'm just not good at being a girl. Unlike most 26 year old St. Louis natives I have not attended many weddings in my young lifetime. Now I find myself just a few months away from the wedding of one of my very best friends from high school + two weeks away from her bachelorette party. All of this is very new to me + I'm just worried I'm going to screw up on the things that most know as standard ettiquete.

So to my understanding/research there are 4 key events leading up to the big day:
Engagement Party | Bachelorette Party | Bridal Shower | Wedding

Here's what I know about each:

Engagement Party: I already probably failed with the this one when all that I offered was well wishes. How standard are gifts? What if you live in a different state & can't attend the actual party? Are gifts still necessary? If so, I'll be sure to tack on a little extra to the wedding gift.

Bachelorette Party: I find gifting lingerie to be kind of trashy, so this is where you just give other girly gifts, right? I have a good idea what route I'm going to go with on this one, but I'm still a little uncertain about the price range. What's typically reasonable for this?

Bridal Shower: This is the biggest question mark for me. If I'm out of state (+ not likely to be invited) + also not in the bridal party are bridal shower gifts necessary? This is a very good friend so I don't want to be rude. I think I get confused on this too because people often have multiple showers (one for friends, one for family, etc). What's the protocol on this? These gifts should come right off the registry, right?

Wedding: Let's be honest, most couples just want cash or gift cards, right? That's the route I plan to go plus maybe something smaller from the registry. I should be good with that, right? What's the typical price range on these gifts?

Clearly I need a lot of help. I'm just nervous about screwing something up + totally embarrassing myself. Any other tips I should know about ?

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