Great! I'm Hosting The Baby Shower! But Now What?...

If you have decided to, or you are thinking about being, the one to host the baby shower for your very close friend or relative, you probably have all of the questions of who, what, when, and where in planning a successful baby shower popping into your head. And you don't just want a succesful baby shower, you want it to be fabulous!

So let's look at some of the important details you'll want to consider:

When to Have the Shower

The very first step, before all other decisions can be made is when to have it. How far into a pregnancy is the ideal time to celebrate the birth and shower the parents-to-be with all of the baby items they will need? In general, there are two main times to have a baby shower: before the baby is born or after. Both have their pros and cons and lend themselves to different activities at the shower.

If you are holding a baby shower before the baby is born, it is important to wait until far enough into the pregnancy that there is a lower risk of miscarriage or other complications. If you wait until at least 20 weeks into the pregnancy, the risk of miscarriage is extremely low. Also, many new parents have their first ultrasound at around 20 weeks into the pregnancy, and will often find out the sex of the baby so you can plan the shower specifically for a boy or a girl.

If there are going to be complications in the pregnancy that require bed rest, those can occur usually in the second half of the pregnancy. It this case, you may want to plan on having a baby shower after the baby is born, or a contingency plan to reschedule should complications in the pregnancy arise.

A baby shower held after a baby is born is nice because guests get to see the baby, will know the gender before buying gifts and can buy accordingly. You should wait until the baby is at least 6 weeks old before expecting the new mother to bring her baby around a large group of people. By six weeks the baby will be able to better resist any germs the guests may bring to the party. Guests should, however, be conscientious and wash their hands well before holding the new baby and avoid getting close to the baby, or even better, stay home if they are ill.

The next “when” question is whether or not to hold the shower on a weekend afternoon or weekday evening. Much of that decision will be determined by the type of baby shower and type of food you want to serve. If you are holding a luncheon for the entire family, husbands and fathers included, than a weekend would be best. A Sunday brunch works well for showers for women only where some of the guests work during the week. This way husbands will be home to care for children while the mother attends the shower.

Your Shower Budget

A baby shower can be successful and special on any size budget. It just takes planning, asking for help from friends and family in donating time, products and even money, and deciding where to focus your resources.

Keep this in mind: The most memorable part of the baby shower for the expectant parents will be who was there and the overall feeling that many people cared about them and their new baby enough to come to the shower. That said however, you will still need to perform a balancing act. Games, photography, scrapbooks or albums that will create laughter and remind the couple of good times will be most treasured by the new family. Your guests on the other hand are most likely to remember the games and activities along with the food being something worth talking about months or even years down the road. So you do want to balance that with an atmosphere that is festive and comfortable and you'll have the perfect formula

Here is a example based on a relatively smaller budget of $300 for 40-50 people. It shows that with many helping hands and calling on the talents of friends and family, hosting a shower doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.

Purchase store bought baby shower invitations at discount store. Approx. $15 for 30 invitations. Covers inviting people from 30 different addresses, for our guest list of 50. So 5% of budget

Found centerpiece for food table on clearance for $20. Use fresh wild flowers donated from Heidi’s garden on individual tables. Get 6 vases from dollar store for $1 each, total $6. Buy paper decorative table clothes for $15 and cut into squares to use over white table clothes borrowed from the another person helping. Say 15% of budget

Food/Beverages/Cake 50% $150 Janet wants to bake and decorate the cake. 6 others are going to each bring one dozen different stylish sandwiches. Buy items for punch, and side dishes, or have others that want to join in bring side dishes and have one or two create the punch! A lot of people may want to be involved. This would bring the cost way down so if you save money here you can drop the over all cost or splurge in another area like invitations. You get the idea. I've written more than I planned to, so I'll have to continue with a second article.

Be Joyous! Celebrate!