Baby Shower Themes Can Help You Plan A Perfect Shower
Planning a baby shower doesn’t need to be stressful, if you keep a few basic ideas in mind. Proper planning, some advanced thought, and finding some friends and family to help will make the day special for the expectant mother, the host, and the guests.
Giving the gift of a Baby Showers is a fantastic way to demonstrate your love and affection - you are “showering” your love on the guest of honor. It is also a chance to help the new mother (or father) prepare the changes in their life with the arrival of a first (or second, third, etc.) child.
There are three basic tips I would share to help you plan the perfect shower. Select a theme, create a task list, and beg, borrow, and bride help from friends and family.
Let’s start with baby shower decorations. Party supply and stationary manufactures have done a great job in coming up with a wide variety of traditional, fun, and sentimental decorating patterns to help make your decorating job easy. Themes can help both the host, and the guests, in several ways. To start with, it helps the host come up with a decorating theme to make the event festive, and to make the expecting mother feel special.
How do you select the perfect theme? Think about the guest of honor. Is she expecting a boy or girl? Maybe twins are in the future. What is her personality? Will the “dads” be attending? Select a theme that you think best captures the spirit of the mom.
With your theme selected, you can now create your task list for the baby shower. Starting around 45 days in advance, you might want to select a location, and date for the event. You should also start finalizing you guest list. Figure out how much money you want to spend, so you can invest wisely in invitations, favors, catering, a cake and such. There are some great planning tools available online at some of the online baby shower suppliers.
Next, you can give thought to your food menu, the guest list, and possible activities. Try to get friends and family members of the guest of honor involved - you’ll find everyone wants to help “shower some love” on the expectant mother. As the host, you can develop a set of small tasks for friends to select from. Examples might be picking out a cake, filling out invitations, or picking up catering. To avoid confusion, try to be clear with everyone who is helping about any dietary issues, budget constrains, or timing requirements.
30 - 35 days ahead of your event, buy your invitations. Most invitations are available with matching decorations and tableware in a theme. You can buy stock, or custom printed baby shower invitations that match your theme, and get your decorations at the same time.
Around four weeks ahead of time, order any baby shower party supplies you need so that you can make sure they arrive in time. Get those invitations out into the mail, and enlist the help of volunteers for any projects you have.
Three weeks from the event, follow-up on all the activities you’ve asked for help from others. Make sure everything is done well in advance so that if anyone has questions, or has had something come up that causes them not to be able to complete their task, you can graciously take care of it.
At least 2 weeks before the shower, make sure any bakery or cake issues have been addressed, and that the baker has all the instructions for the cake. Review your checklists again to help assure you haven’t missed any critical items.
7 Days out is a good time for advanced preparation of any food that can be put into the freezer. Make sure you know the who has RSVP’ed yes or no. Check in with all your helpers to make sure everything in on track.
Two days before is a great time to start the “wind-up” for the event. Thaw any frozen foods to be served. Rearrange the furniture, and clean the house. (If you are inviting people you don’t know and hosting the event at your home, don’t be afraid to put away any breakable items, and/or lock-up any valuables!)
The day before, thaw any frozen foods for cooking preparation. Get your decorations arranged, and confirm pick-ups of any catering or baked goods. Anything that can be prepared food-wise in advance will make your big day run smoother.
On the day of the baby shower, try to get any balloon bouquets filled and or delivered that day. Latex Balloons don’t float that long, so you want them fresh. Same with the flowers. You might want to snap a picture for the keepsake book as well. Do a final review with your helpers, and then, RELAX - YOU ARE READY!
The only thing left is to have FUN!