Hosting a surprise baby shower is a lot of fun. With proper planning and organization, I can guarantee you that it's a breeze hosting one. I have had the privilege to host baby showers for three of my very dear friends. And let me assure you, if you have a like minded co-host, it makes hosting a lot more relaxing, and enjoyable. In this article, I am hoping to include all the steps involved in hosting a successful baby shower especially if you are a newbie. Remember, it's very important to plan at least a month and a half before the actual date of the shower.
When to host a baby shower
Who should be invited?
Things Required From Father-to-be
When to host a baby shower
A baby shower is usually hosted in the seventh or eighth month before the baby is due. Decide on a date after consulting with the father-to-be.
Who should be invited?
A baby shower can be ladies only or couples. As per the tradition, the shower is meant for the mother-to-be, and for her girl friends. But of course, these days it's a personal choice, and co-ed baby showers are as popular as ladies only.
Things Required From Father-to-be
- The list of guests they could like to invite for the shower. This is a very important since the guest count is required for determining the venue, food, size of the cake etc. Give the dad-to-be at least two weeks time to get this done.
- If you are planning to send invitations online, please ask him to also include the email addresses of the invitees.
- A link to the baby registry to include in your invites.
Host's To Do List
- Determine your budget.
- A budget needs to be decided early in the planning process. If you are co-hosting with your friend, decide on a final budget that you both are comfortable splitting.
- Create a Google doc spreadsheet
- Google docs (docs.google.com) allow you to share the documents with your co-host, and you both can view/edit the file at the same time once shared.
- It's a very efficient way for tracking things-to-do and shower expenses
- Decide on the date, time and venue.
- Shower Invitations
- Send invitations a month before the shower day just so that you have a higher probability of all invitees making it to the shower
- I am huge fan of e-invites since that makes life a whole lot simpler for the sender, and the receiver. But you can choose to mail the invites as well. If you are choosing to send e-invites, try anyone of following online invitation sites - http://www.squidoo.com/evites. My personal favorite one is mypunchbowl.com
- The invitation should include - Address to the shower venue (include map if possible), Time and date, Link to the baby shower registry, Dress code, if any. For example, if it's a baby girl you can ask all guests to wear shades of pink or shades of blue, if it is a baby boy, and RSVP Date: 2-3 weeks before the baby shower day.
- Note: Ask guests to arrive 30 minutes before the mom-to-be is expected. You do not want a guest and the mom-to-be arriving at the same time to spoil the surprise. You can either mention this on the invite or email this later.
- Place order for the cake.
- Decide on the shower games
- Playing games makes baby shower a lot more entertaining. For ideas, refer the following sites - Baby shower Games, Baby Bingo Game
- Buy gifts for game winners
- It's nice to give a small gift for the winner of the game. Remember to keep this simple yet something useful for the receiver.
- It can be - potpourri, fragrance, candles, photo frames, body lotions, cosmetics, jewellery, gift cards etc.
- Some of my personal favorite gift shops for buying the game prizes are - Pier 1 Imports and Bath and Body Works
- Decide on the menu
- If hosting a potluck shower, assign the guests with what to get.
- Buy decorations.
- Try to buy decoration kits.
- It's advisable to buy neutral colored decorations than gender specific ones.
- Shower decorations can be bought from: Party City
- Take a print out of the guests list with a column to note down the gifts that they gave. Hand this list to the mother-to-be to send thank you cards.
- Take a print out of the checklist for your reference -Print Checklist
If it's a ladies only shower, check with the dad-to-be on whether he is would like to accompany the mom-to-be to cut the cake together. I am sure, most of the mom-to-be's would definitely like their husbands to be around for cake cutting, and for gift opening.
Surprise Mom!
Last but not the least, put on your thinking cap, and decide on how to surprise the expectant mom. Some of the things that we did
- We sent a fictitious wedding anniversary or birthday party invite to the expectant couples home. We stayed close to this expecting mom, and asked if we could share a ride with them. And of course, the dad-to-be agreed. When they came to pick us up for the fake party, voilà it was her baby shower at our place.
- Invited our expectant friend for lunch at the venue.
Hope all these tips help you host a successful one. Readers, please feel free to pool in your ideas/thoughts/tips on baby shower as comments.
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Baby
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