Creating The Perfect Baby Shower!

The Perfect Baby Shower Party!

Everything you need for your yummy mummy’s special celebration!

Congratulations! As best friend or close relative of the proud mama, you’ve been chosen to organise the BEST baby shower for the special lady-to-be. You’re going to want this occasion to be really precious, and everyone who comes to feel included and have a blast.

A baby shower should be perfectly organised, so that you can all sit back and enjoy the time together. Personalisation is key to making Mum feel really included and it will help to make the event memorable for years to come.

Typically, a baby shower involves tonnes of nibbles, cheesy games, and terrible dancing! You can glam up your party with a few simple alterations..

• A theme usually goes down well, like a fun dress code or specific instructions for attending the party i.e. must bring something pink or blue (to match the expected baby)
• Music should be chosen tastefully, along with some cheesy hits
• Decoration should be kept low key and fitting with the theme
• Gifts can be sensitively kept to things that mum will enjoy; maybe a few hints or ideas on the back of the invite?
• Party favours can be a nice memorable touch, so consider personalised gifts that will stay within the budget
• Whatever you decide to do, make sure that each guest and Mum feels included and there are extra activities and ideas just in case things get slow
• Food doesn’t have to mean hard work and depends on whether you’re having a sit-down meal or nibbles, just remember to make sure there are veggie options and plenty to go around

Quick tip! What about…

An advice scrapbook can be a special touch for mum, and invites all the guests to leave a special message for her with advice or just kind words

Think carefully about the people invited to the Baby Shower, you want mum to feel connected to with everyone there. (consider who she talks to most, who she takes advice from and who she’s closest with.)

People may need to book the time off, or organise their home lives to fit in with the shower, so give people plenty of warning by sending the invites early. You will also be able to gauge numbers by RSVP’s.

Have the event planned so that you can always be one step ahead and there are no dead moments. Be aware that Mum might want some time just to relax and spend time with each of her guests, so think about a time in-between all the fun for everyone to chat. Serving the food can be a good way of breaking up the activities.

Quick Tip!

Remember that a bit of mood music helps to keep the atmosphere going, and fills in any awkward silences!

Games;

Now it’s time for the games! These are key to making the event funny and memorable! You can really spice up the evening with some traditional party games and making them appropriate to the occasion is even better. Use music to liven up the activity, choose fast paced, fun music to get the atmosphere going.

Here are a few to get you started!

Blindfolded Baby Change;

Using a sleep mask or scarf, blindfold 2 of the members of the group,

At a table set up with a plastic baby doll, nappy and baby wipes get the two people to change the baby as quickly as they can. Time them and give a prize to whoever does it the fastest!

The baby food challenge;

This is for the more daring of the group..

Set up a table with random flavours of baby food with the labels taken off or covered up. Each player must put on the bib, taste the food and guess what the flavour is supposed to be! You could include more people by splitting the group into 2 teams and taking it in turns to try the food out, each group gets points for every time they guess correctly, and a prize is given to the winning team/player.

(Make it even more daring by blindfolding the taster or even blindfold the ‘feeder’)

Pin the dummy/nappy on the Baby;

Pretty self-explanatory, a large cut out picture of a baby is stuck on the wall, the player is blindfolded, spun round and given a cut out of a dummy/nappy (or other baby related item!) with a pin attached, and is then guided to the baby and tries to stick the dummy/nappy on it in the appropriate area! This can be a lot of fun so try and get everyone involved.

What’s that tune?

Choose music with any baby related words in (i.e. Hit Me Baby One More Time, Baby It’s Cold Outside, I Got You Babe etc.) get people to work as individuals or in little groups, play the first few seconds and get everyone to try and guess the song and/or artist.

Baby Charades

This one is good for getting everyone active and get the group giggling! All you need to do is make up lots of baby related actions like ‘changing a nappy’ or even ‘giving birth’ on some paper/card and get people to take it in turns to act out the instruction without speaking and get the group to guess what it is.

Decorations and Invites

These are important for making the event feel like a proper celebration. You can also use them to tie the theme together, using the colours and styles. The invites could be made formal with envelopes and personalised cards, or kept casual with postcards. Decorations can be kept minimalistic while still keeping the party ‘feel’, with table features but can also be made more dramatic with balloons, napkins, banners etc.

Other Activities

A group chat is a good way of getting everyone involved in celebrating Mum’s special bundle-of-joy. You could use this time for everyone to share their stories and advice, which will be a lot of laughs as well as being useful for Mum because she has the opportunity to ask any questions and get some giggles too!

The present unwrapping could be made into a group activity, if everyone sits round Mum as she opens all her gifts means that she can show her appreciation.

Why don’t you get someone to write down who gave each gift to make ‘Thank You’ cards easy for Mum to fill out?

Keep a camera handy to take pictures throughout the event; these can be put in the scrapbook later to always remind Mum of the happy time.

Most of all, just have fun- you want this to be a memorable celebration for everyone!