If you’re in charge of planning a baby shower this season, it’s an exciting time! However, there are a lot of moving parts, so we’re here to help you plan the perfect event either for yourself or a loved one. Follow these steps and it won’t be such an overwhelming process! From the venue to guest list, food to decor and games to gifts, look no further than this guide to get everything covered and to help the mum to be celebrate in style on this special day. 

Choose A Venue

The very first thing you should do is to choose a venue. This is because you’ll need to know the date to get final confirmation on who can attend. So, think about the kind of things the mum enjoys and then go from there. Some really popular choices would be afternoon tea venues, as the food can be catered to lots of different people, it’s nice and relaxed and it’s not involving alcohol. You could also think about hosting a garden party if it’s the summer, with a contingency plan in case the weather is bad, but this can be a lovely way to celebrate. Local restaurants and pubs with function rooms can also be a good choice. The main thing to consider is whether or not you want to do the food yourself or you want catering, and this will help you to choose! 

Put Together A Guest List

You should then put together a guest list. It would be worth asking the mum-to-be who she wants to invite to make sure no one is missed off and it takes one thing off your plate! Once you’ve got your guest list together, we’d recommend making a group chat on WhatsApp or something like that, then you can send a digital invite out into the group and any updates about the day means you’re only sending one message rather than separate ones to everyone. 

At this point once you’ve made the group, you can put the date in (try to plan this as far in advance as possible and make sure that the most important people to the mum to be can all make this date before suggesting it), just so everyone has it in the calendar even if you don’t have anything else finalised yet. You want as many people as possible there to celebrate so this is a good trick! We’d also recommend setting up a spreadsheet with each person’s name and then you can add whether or not they can make it, as well as other details later in the process which we will get onto. 

Decide On Food

Now you have a venue and guest list sorted, you can start on planning the food. If the venue offers catering, find out how much it will cost per head and the different options available. They will likely want a pre-order and will want to know if anyone has any dietary requirements, so make sure to ask in the WhatsApp group for people to message you separately if they have any special dietary requirements. You can then fill in any preorders and dietary requirements on the spreadsheet we mentioned! 

If the venue doesn’t offer catering, you either need to get an external caterer in, to pick up pre-made food yourself or to organise to do a buffet between a few of you. If you’re confident with food and know you can cater to peoples requirements then this can be a good direction to go down, just ask people for a small contribution towards the food once you know how much it’s going to be. 

Get Started On Decor 

Onto the exciting bit, decor! There are so many directions you can go with this, but the best place to start is to ask the venue what you can bring in terms of decorations and how much space is available. Try to link the decor to either the style the nursery will be or something they really like, so if they love a visit to the zoo, you could do an animal theme, or if they like something more neutral, you could do a cloud or bear theme. Or you could do something like floral or just their favourite colour.

Then, the main things to consider are an area to have some photos and the table decor. For an area to have photos, you can get build-your-own balloon arches, which you can just attach to hooks on the wall if the venue has them. The venue might also have a balloon arch you can borrow then you just attach the string of balloons to it when you arrive. In terms of table decor, things like sprinkles for the table, little thank you cards, standing balloons for the centre of the table and napkins can all be lovely finishing touches. 

Plan Games

Something else to think about is games for the day. We wouldn’t recommend that you overplan as often people love just chatting to one another, so a couple is more than enough. One good one to get people chatting is to have cards on the tables with questions on when people are eating, then it can ask for things like valuable advice for the parents, predictions for the baby and anything else valuable. Then you could plan one main game, perhaps a quiz about the mum to be and baby, baby bingo or a game to help the guests get to know each other where they have to find another guest who is aligned with whatever the question is! The main thing here is not to plan too many forced games and instead focus on one great one and a few bits for the tables as that’ll be more than enough. 

Send Out Gift-Wish-List 

Last but not least, we’d recommend asking the mum to see if there is anything they need and then sending out a wish-list to help them style their home for the baby or to get ready for the practical bits! In the message make sure to say that if they had something in mind already that’s no problem, but then provide the hints for people who are unsure or want to get something that they’ll really need. You should include things to suit a wide range of budgets and also lots of styles, from clothes to nursery room accessories and then more practical things like muslin cloths or bottles. Everyone can take their pick, the parents will be happy and it’s just a great way to help them get settled without having to spend a fortune, as babies are expensive!