Last August I received a call to discover my sister was expecting her first child. Along with a lot of 'Oh my
gaad, I'm going to be an aunt' and guessing to myself what the sex might be, one of the first things that popped into my head was how I couldn't wait to throw her a fabulous baby shower. Fast forward six months and the time to plan the party had arrived.
Knowing where to start can be mind boggling for any event so naturally my first point of call was to start scrolling through Pinterest. Once the ideas were flowing, we nailed all the details and threw a pretty awesome baby shower, if I do say so myself. Snaps for Yasmin!
Getting from A-Z was easier said than done though so I thought I'd share my tried and tested pointers to throwing the perfect baby shower.
1. Pick a theme. This can be easier if you know the sex of the baby but what about those gender neutral parties? Fitting into the latter we settled on a pink and blue colour scheme. This inspired everything from the decor to food and made deciding on those finer details all that bit easier.
2. Choose a venue. We were in a bit of a pickle choosing where to host our baby shower. Trying to stick to a budget and with a guest list of 25 we decided against a restaurant or bar and my mum's cosy living room wasn't really an option either. It then came to me -
The Lifestyle Lab was the perfect destination. It's centrally located in Glasgow so easy for everyone to get to and we could get in the day before to decorate exactly how we wanted. We could even bring our own food and drink - it was perfect!
3. Choose your decor. Once you've settled on a theme, this part
should be easy. With pink and blue in mind we opted for extra large paper pom poms to fill the room. This is a great cost effective way to decorate a space and let's be frank, it's bloody adorable. We then covered the door with a large mesh bow to ensure our guests knew exactly where the party was. We bought pink and blue balloons and covered these in mesh (which FYI unfortunately makes them no longer stay up so if you're planning this look don't bother wasting your money on helium). And finally, I added a mini washing line complete with teetsy tiny baby clothes across the window that also doubled up as a gift for my sister.
4. Get the grub. Naturally, food is a key part of any baby shower. I mean if the woman canny drink, at least make sure she's got some great food to snack on. For ours, I wanted the food table to create a cute addition to the decor so we opted for pink and blue marshmallow pops, a box of The Biscuiteer biscuits, pink and blue candy floss, 'Ready To Pop' popcorn bags and cupcakes. We then also had lots of pakora and sausage rolls to ensure guests didn't leave the party starved.
5. Drinks. This is a crucial element of any baby shower. It's important to keep the mum-to-be happy so checking that she is comfortable for everyone else to be drinking alcohol at the party is key. If the answer is yes, it's always nice to ensure you have a few alcohol free options for the guest of honour. Make sure you have enough drink to get everyone started on the right foot and then simply invite guests to BYOB.
6. Plan the games. This can set the tone for the rest of the evening and is often a good ice-breaker for guests who don't know many others. Choose a few for variety but don't go overboard as you'll loose interest quickly. I went for four games but I think three would've been more than enough. I think my favourite game had to be 'Porn or Labour' - basically a guessing game with images of woman pulling all sorts of weird and wonderful faces.I'm sure your imagination can picture exactly what this looks like! I ended up making my own version of the game as I didn't want to fork out for a download so if you'd like a copy of mine, just let me know and I'd be happy to email it over to you. We then also played guess the baby food, guess the celebrity name, guess the guest (the one where everyone brings a picture of themselves as a baby) and a blindfolded nappy challenge.
7. Share a dress code. Once the party is announced, guests will start questioning what the dress code is so try and get this information across in your invites. It's always best to plan a dress code suited to your mum-to-be. My sisters is always super glamorous so I knew she'd be dressed up for the occassion but more often than not, 7/8 month pregnant woman just want to be comfortable so check-in with them as the last thing you'd want to do is make them feel under-dressed.
8. Manage the gift list. Now this might sound like quite a strange thing to do for a baby shower but it's honestly one of the best things I done. Opening the gifts in front of guests is one of the most exciting parts of a baby shower so ensuring your mum-to-be isn't opening the same gift more than once ensures everyone's gift excitement isn't spoiled. Checking in with the mum ahead of the party for a list of still-to-buys is also really helpful for those who're just not sure what to buy.
9. Capture the memories. Once the party is in full swing it's important to ensure you're capturing the memories. As party planner it's your responsibility to get all the best bits on film so have a camera by your side at all times. This is something I forgot to do but setting a hashtag is a great way to capture everyone else's pictures. Think of it as the modern day disposable camera.
10. Create a keepsake. Having everyone you love in the one room is something that happens very few times in your life so I think it's important to take advantage of this. After searching online I found a few keepsake ideas that double up as a gift for the baby. I opted for a finger print elephant drawing. I LOVE how it turned out (picture below), don't you?
11. Arrange a visit from Daddy Cool. It might not be to everyone's preference but I think it's really nice if daddy-to-be makes an appearance to thank everyone for coming/the gifts. Having the other half there to open the presents is always a good way to plan his visit. Plus, us girls just love to find out how daddy is feeling about his soon to be new life.
I think that's about everything but most importantly, just have fun! I hope these tips give you some guidance if you're planning a baby shower and if not, I hope you like the pictures!
Oh, and here's the picture of my little keepsake. I LOVE it.
XoXo
