How to Plan a Baby Shower – A Complete Guide

Baby showers can be so much fun! Great food, time with friends, and a chance to share in the excitement of a new baby. I’ve been to many baby showers over the last ten years, and even helped plan a few myself. If you are tasked with planning a baby shower, either on your own or with help from friends, it can be a daunting task. There is a lot of pressure to make sure everyone has fun, and that the mom to be has the baby shower she’s always dreamed of. Read on for everything you need to know to plan an amazing baby shower!

First Things First – The Guest List

Before you can worry about the major details, such as where to host the baby shower, you need to determine how many guests you can expect. If the baby shower isn’t a surprise, you can simply ask the mom to be who she wants to invite. If, on the other hand, the baby shower is a surprise, you might need to enlist the help of the father to be, or a close family member.

Make a list of everyone that you plan to invite. Then try to figure out how many of those people are sure to show up. Remember, even when someone RSVPs and plans to attend, things can come up last minute. When you choose the location, you will need to get an estimate of how many are likely to attend. The best way is to make your list early on. Let’s say you have a list of 50 people to invite. Let’s say you are pretty certain that 20 of those people will attend. A good rule of thumb would be to assume half of the rest of the guests will attend. So for a guest list of 50 people, you might assume around 30 to 35 people will attend.

Where to Host the Baby Shower

Once you have a good estimate of how many guests to expect, the next step in how to plan a baby shower should be deciding on a location. This might be in someone’s home, or it might be at a restaurant or banquet facility. Where you choose to host the shower will depend on many factors, including the tastes of the mom to be, size of your party, and budget. There is no right or wrong here. In some social circles it is more customary to host this at your home, and in others it is more common to have this at a banquet facility.

If you have decided to host the baby shower at someone’s home, and you know the home is large enough to accommodate the number of guests, you will be saving a good amount of money. If, however, you choose to plan the baby shower at a restaurant or banquet facility, your costs will be significantly higher. Often times, more than one person will chip in to cover the costs.

If you choose a restaurant or banquet facility, you will need to decide on many things. It’s best to call or visit a few places and find out what each has to offer. Here are some things to keep in mind as you decide:

• Size of your party
• Whether you prefer a buffet style or sit down dinner, or just appetizers
• Time of day that you prefer to host the baby shower
• Whether or not alcohol will be served
• Time allotted for the room
• Whether you will be allowed to bring in your own cake
• Cancellation policy

One more option that is often chosen is to rent a facility, but provide your own food. This way you can either hire your own outside catering company, or cook the food yourself. If you choose this option, make sure you are very clear on what you are and are not allowed to bring and what will be provided for you.

No matter where you decide to host the baby shower, don’t forget about weather. An outdoor shower at someone’s home might sound wonderful, but what if it rains? Will the party be able to be easily moved inside? Don’t plan an outdoor shower for a hundred people if your house can only accommodate 20!

If you need some great gift ideas – here are some newborn must haves people often forget about!

Choosing a Date

Once you have your guest list and a place to host the shower, it’s time to nail down the date. This might impact the venue you choose, as certain dates might book up faster than others. Depending on the time of year, you need to consider what holidays fall around the time you are planning to host the baby shower.

Most baby showers are held in the third trimester of pregnancy. You don’t want to have it too early – most people expect the guest of honor to be obviously showing and due rather soon. On the other hand, you don’t want to have it too late, as often times babies come earlier than expected, and many women are just too uncomfortable to go anywhere those last few weeks of pregnancy.

I suggest planning the shower when the mom to be is about 8 months along, and more toward the beginning of that month than the end. This way your guest of honor is likely to be very pregnant and excited for the upcoming birth, but unlikely to miss her shower due to an early delivery.

Make sure you don’t bump up against any major holidays. For instance, don’t plan a baby shower on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, or too closer to Christmas or Easter. People will be too busy during these times of year, and may even be travelling. Try to plan for a weekend that isn’t close to any major holidays or events.

How to Plan a Baby Shower – the Food!

If you have decided to host the baby shower at a restaurant, the food decisions will be easy. There will only be so many options on the menu to choose, and the restaurant will go over these with you and help you decide.

If you are planning the baby shower at a rental hall or private residence, the decision on food will be more difficult. Should you cook or hire a caterer? Should you serve a large meal, or just offer appetizers and dessert? These are the decisions that you will need to make once you decide where to host the baby shower.

Don’t skimp on the food! It is usually expected when someone is invited to a baby shower that food will be served. Offer enough options to cover everyone that might attend. Usually it is customary to offer a meat and seafood as well as a vegetarian option. If you are more limited in your budget, you usually can’t go wrong offering a chicken dish and a vegetarian pasta dish.

If you choose to host the baby shower at a time of day where people don’t normally eat a large meal, such as late morning or mid afternoon, it might make sense to just offer a selection of hors d’oeuvres for the guests to snack on.

Deciding On a Shower Theme

This step isn’t absolutely necessary, but it can sure be fun! Even if you don’t go all out on a baby shower theme, there should still be a loosely defined theme, so that you can coordinate colors and decorations to match. There are so many options, you should take some time to decide on a theme before you plan the rest of the baby shower. If you already know the sex of the baby, this might be a little easier. You can go with the traditional blue or pink, or mix in some yellow, green or any other color you like.

Some fun theme ideas:

• Zoo animals
• Rubber duckies
• Elephants
• Trains
• Princesses
• Anything Disney
• Airplanes
• Boats
• Star Wars
• Flowers
• Teddy Bears

There are so many ideas. A theme doesn’t have to mean you go all crazy if you don’t want to! It’s a good idea to have a theme in mind as you choose some of the other things on your list of how to plan a baby shower. Whether you stick to the theme or stray a bit, having a theme will make the rest of your choices much easier.

The Cake!

Almost every baby shower includes a cake or some type of dessert. For some, this is the best part of a baby shower! This should be in the overall theme of the baby shower. Most restaurants and facilities will not provide this. You will need to decide whether this is something you or a friend or family member could do, or whether you should order a cake from a bakery. Make sure to keep in mind the size of your party, as you should have enough for everyone.

If you plan to order a cake, you should check a few local bakeries. Find out how far in advance the cake will need to be ordered, and when you will be able to pick it up. Don’t plan to get it any earlier than the day before the baby shower, or you might be serving your guests a stale dessert!

Other options include cake pops, cookies, brownies, cupcakes, or a mixture of different desserts. I’m pretty sure you can’t ever go wrong offering people MORE sweet treats to choose from.

Planning a Baby Shower – Decorations

This is one of the most fun parts of how to plan a baby shower. If you have decided on a general theme, this part should be pretty easy. If you plan to have your guests seated at several different tables, it is nice to have a centerpiece on each table, and a special centerpiece for the table where the mom to be will sit.

You should also consider having some balloons to give the room a party feel. Flowers can also be a nice touch. If you are hosting this at a private hall or someone’s home, you can also think about getting napkins, plates and cups in the color or theme of the shower.

Other nice touches include banners, streamers, ribbons, large stuffed animals, or baby clothes on clothespins. It’s also quite common to include a small party gift for each guest. This can be as simple as a couple candies wrapped in cellophane, soap or small knickknack in the theme of the shower, or a small jar of Jordan almonds, M&Ms or Hershey kisses.

Invitations

When planning a baby shower in this day and age, you might assume you can just send a Facebook or email invite. This is certainly fine as a second option, but I still vote for the more traditional paper invitations. With all the notifications we get constantly on our devices, it can be easy to totally miss an invitation to an event. With something as important as someone’s baby shower, a paper invitation in the mail can’t be beat.

Another reason I prefer paper invitations is for accountability. I can’t tell you how many stories I have heard about people saying they would attend someone’s baby shower then just not showing up. A formal invitation that asks the guest to RSVP creates more accountability. If the guest doesn’t respond, you can assume they aren’t coming. If they have taken the time to actually call or email you to let you know they plan to attend, it is much less likely that they will blow off the baby shower. A Facebook invite just can’t compare.

Invitations can also be used to convey important information to potential attendees. Is there a dress code? Is the mom to be registered anywhere? Are kids welcome, or would the guest of honor prefer an adult only event? These are all details you can include in your invitation.

If you take my advice and go with formal invitations, it doesn’t need to be costly. You can purchase a stack of blank ones and just fill in the details. You can also have them printed up, although that will cost a bit more money. If you are good with this sort of thing, you can also design them yourself and only pay to have them printed. However you do the invitations is up to you, just please mail them!

As for timing, I would send the formal invitations no earlier than three months before the event and no later than one month before. If you really want to make sure people attend, a good idea is to send a Facebook or email invite early on, then send the formal invitations a bit later (sort of how people do save the date cards for weddings).

Don’t forget to ask people to RSVP by a certain date. Especially if you are using a restaurant, or hiring a caterer, you will need to give a final head count closer to the baby shower. You will want to make sure you know how many people you can expect to attend. Asking people to RSVP (and setting a deadline) is the best way to ensure you know what to expect as far as attendance.

Baby Shower Games

What would a baby shower be without games? I have never been to a baby shower that didn’t include at least one game. Games are a fun addition to a baby shower, and they help to break the ice and get people talking, especially if the guests don’t really know each other. You should definitely consider having at least one game if you are planning a baby shower.

That being said, I also don’t recommend having too many games. Some of them tend to take awhile, and a good rule of thumb is no baby shower should last more than 4 hours. 3 hours is more common, especially if you are hosting the baby shower at a restaurant or banquet hall.

My best advice is to plan to have two games. You can do one game early on before the food is served, and another a bit later, before the mom to be opens her gifts. You may think you have time for more games, but people need a chance to talk and enjoy their food too. If you plan more than two games, you might find you are having to rush, or that you just don’t have time for all three.

A good idea is to plan 3 games, but only play two. The third game can be a backup in case for some reason things are moving quickly and you have time to kill.

Some good game ideas include:

• How well do you know the mom to be
• Making a list of songs with the word “baby”
• Price is right (where guests try to determine the cost of different baby items)
• Candy in the diaper (where you melt a chocolate candy in a diaper and have people guess what type of candy it is)
• Baby themed trivia

The great thing about games is that you can most likely come up with these on your own and you won’t need to buy anything. I do recommend offering prizes for the winners. Cheap but fun prizes can be found at places like Marshalls, TJ Maxx, or Home Goods. If you are on a budget, you can even find good prizes at dollar stores. If you happen to be crafty, you can even consider making the prizes yourself! If you have a bit more to spend, you can’t go wrong with gift cards either.

I find that one of the most fun parts of a baby shower is the prizes, so offer more than one. You can have several winners for each game, and let them come up and pick their prize based on who came in first, second, and so on.

Other Things to Consider

When you are looking into how to plan a baby shower, one important thing to keep in mind is common baby shower traditions. These might vary quite a bit among different cultures, different countries, and even different parts of the same country. Keeping that in mind, here are some common baby shower traditions, and other little things that you should consider when planning a baby shower:

• Memories from the shower – you might want to have guests sign a picture, or write special wishes or advice in a book or on cards that can be collected in a box or jar. You can buy stacks of these online, or come up with your own ideas and pass out index cards.
• Gift opening – the guest of honor usually opens the gifts near the end of the shower – it’s so fun to see all the cute baby stuff! Make sure you leave enough time for it!
• Pictures – while a professional is not usually necessary, designating someone to take pictures and get them to the guest of honor later is a good idea
• Keeping track of gifts for the mom to be – someone should be designated to write down the details as the gifts are opened, so that it will be easy for the guest of honor to send thank you notes later
• Seating arrangements – while this is not usually necessary at a baby shower, if you are planning a larger and more formal event, you might want to consider it
• Gift table – guests should have a designated spot to place their gifts
• Someone to pick up the mom to be and her gifts – no pregnant lady should be hauling her own gifts home!

There you have it, my ultimate guide for how to plan a baby shower. Hopefully some of these tips can help you plan the perfect shower for the expectant mom in your life!