The birth of a new baby is always worth celebrating! If you have the chance to plan a baby shower for an expectant mother, you might be feeling excited and a little overwhelmed. With some help, you can pull off a baby shower that everyone will love, while also maintaining your sanity!
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When to Start Planning
The first step to planning a baby shower is deciding when it should be held. Baby showers are usually held 4-6 weeks before the baby’s due date. Hosting the shower in this time frame is late enough to ensure that the pregnancy is well along, but early enough to avoid an untimely arrival.
Once you set the date, the real fun of planning begins!
Eight Steps to Plan the Perfect Baby Shower
Planning a baby shower feels almost like you’re planning a wedding. There are millions of decisions, tasks, and details to take care of. Don’t let the stress of planning scare you.
With these simple tips, you can break down your massive to-do list into more manageable tidbits, and plan a shower any mom-to-be and her friends will love!
1. Pick a Theme
As a hostess, one of the first decisions to be made is the baby shower’s theme. Picking a theme makes it easier to tie all the other details together.
Some fun baby shower themes include:
- A favorite children’s book or lullaby
- Little pumpkin
- Bun in the oven
- Apple of my eye
- Baby-inspired animals (Storks, Owls, Monkeys, etc.)
- Pink/blue/yellow
2. Choose a location
Don’t forget that the celebration is in honor of the mom-to-be, host it at a place she loves. Some common locations could include her favorite restaurant, her mom’s house, or a park/garden that she loves to visit.
3. Who to invite
As a baby-shower-planner, here are some words to live by: Keep it close. Only invite the people who are closest to the soon-to-be parents.
Size doesn’t matter where baby showers are concerned. Parents, close extended family, and a few close girlfriends make the ideal list for an unforgettable baby shower.
4. Invitations
You’ve chosen the theme, location, and guests; now, it is time to send out the invitations. Choose an invitation that goes with the theme of the shower. These are going to set the tone of your baby shower.
Make sure you send out the invitations a few weeks before the baby shower so that your guests have time to rearrange their schedules, find babysitters, and save the date!
5. Decorations
Decorate with items that the mom-to-be can use for the baby. Instead of spending money on decorations that will end up back in the closet, use baby items!
- Create a “cake” out of diapers
- Attach cute bibs to ribbon and string them up on the wall
- Hang baby clothes and accessories to crafty clotheslines
- Create a custom banner with the baby’s name
6. Plan Some Games
Although your guests will be busy chatting, eating, and watching the mom-to-be open up her gifts, you should also plan some fun games to play.
Games are always a fun way to make guest books, pass on advice, and make toasts for the mom-to-be. They can be as simple as icebreakers:
- “What’s your favorite memory of the mom-to-be?”
- Parenting advice
- DIY onesie decorating for the baby
- Don’t say “baby”
or as exciting as contests with prizes for the winner
- “Name That Celebrity Baby”
- “Baby Shower Charades”
- Baby stroller Olympics
- Blindfolded baby food tasting
7. Plan the Menu
Serve some of the pregnant mom’s favorites, or something that sticks with the color or theme of the party. Your menu can be as elaborate or as simple as you desire.
- Veggie Platters
- Fruit kabobs
- Cheese and crackers
- Chips and salsa
- Mini sandwiches
- Cake pops, cupcakes, cookies
You can also use food as decoration!
- A rainbow-of-fruit display
- ‘Ready to Pop’ popcorn
- DIY cocktails and mocktails
8. Photo Finish
Photos are an easy way to personalize a party, especially a baby shower! Use baby pictures of the parents-to-be and future grandparents or cute shots of the guest of honor during different stages of her pregnancy.
You can display the photos in frames on the tables and above the mantel place or string up pictures with baby-size clothes pins near the food counter.
Unique Baby Shower Ideas
A baby shower should be whatever the mom-to-be and her close friends find enjoyable. It should be a memorable celebration of the new precious baby.
If you are stumped on fun and creative ideas while planning a baby shower, here are some ideas to get your party planning flowing.
Go Co-ed
Baby showers are traditionally ladies only, but switch it up and invite daddy’s friends too! You’ll need to consider things like neutral decorations, foods that everyone will enjoy, games, and drinks. With the right planning, this can be a fun departure from the norm.
Think Outside the House
If the weather is nice, take the celebration outdoors. Plan some outdoor only games, like a water-balloon toss, and fire up the grill!
Throw a Just-For-Mom Shower
If this isn’t mom’s first child, maybe she doesn’t need any baby items or wants to purchase them herself. If that’s the case, throw a baby shower just for her.
Pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting take a huge toll on a woman. Every mom deserves some TLC!
Tell the guests to bring a gift for the lady of honor. They could be gifts to use now (maternity pajamas or soothing bath salts) or later (nursing comfort balm or a certificate for a massage).
Throw a Tea Party
Remember all those great tea parties you threw as a kid? Now you can make one for real. Specify what you’re doing on the invitation and what the guests should wear. Then bring out your finest china and cutest teapots and teacups. Get your best dress and sun hat, and enjoy the celebration!
At the end of the day, a baby shower is another way to show your support and excitement for your friend and her little one on the way.
No matter who you invite, where you host the shower, or what you do during the shower, make sure the mom-to-be feels loved and cared for.
Pregnancy is a special time for parents-to-be. Celebrate the soon-to-be mommy by planning the perfect baby shower.
A perfect gift for a new mom might be a prenatal massage! Consider getting one for her.
Don’t forget to join Twin Cities Kids Club and happy party planning!!