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      At least 2 weeks before your baby shower, you’re going to need to start thinking about your baby shower food. 

     The first thing you’ll need to make some decisions about regarding the baby shower food is your cake.  First, will you be making the cake, or will you be ordering a cake?  If you plan to order the cake, you should try to go in at least 2 weeks in advance, although some cake stores will take orders a couple of days before.  The cake is very important, so don’t wait until the last second.  If possible, have the cake represent your theme.  You can even put it out on the cake during the shower and it can help set the mood of the shower. 

     Next, decide whether you will be serving a full meal or appetizers.  If you are on a tight budget, appetizers and snacks can really keep the shower costs down.  Many showers are planned with just snacks and appetizers, so don’t be afraid to not serve a big meal, just make sure that you plan your shower at a time that guests won’t be expecting a meal (a mid-afternoon or evening shower is great for appetizers and snacks).

    If you plan a meal, make sure that you plan dishes that can be made ahead of time, so that you will have time to enjoy the party, and won’t end up spending the entire event in the kitchen. 

    Whether you do a meal or appetizers, don’t be afraid to have some fun.  Consider doing foods that you can tie in to your theme.  This isn’t necessary of course, but it can add a fun twist and make the shower memorable.  For instance, serving “deviled humpty dumpties” instead of deviled eggs at a nursery rhyme baby shower is sure to bring some smiles.  This can be as simple as hanging a cute little menu or labels for the food that indicate names that tie in to your theme.

   Most importantly, don’t let the food become a stressor for you.  There is nothing wrong with doing something as simple as a vegetable tray and some chips and dips, along with a cake.

While it’s not quite time to decorate for your baby shower yet, you’ll certainly want to figure out what decorations you’ll have on hand.  Of course your decorations should reflect your baby shower theme.  Decorations can range from simple to elaborate, depending on your budget and space at your location.

Table centerpiece – At the very minimum, we recommend that you have a centerpiece for the table.    Diaper cakes are always a wonderful centerpiece and can double as your gift.    Baby toys can be cute centerpieces also.

Baby blocks, bottles, pacifiers, and baby toys set out around the room can make excellent decorations, and can be given to the new mom at the end of the shower.

Personalized Baby Shower Banners are available, and make a really nice touch. 

Balloons are another great way to add color and a sense of festivity to the party.   Gather them in bunches and tie them to baby pacifiers, baby bottles filled with bath salts or other colorful fillers, baby food jar candles, or small toys.

Consider your theme, some themes lend themselves very well to decorating.   Here are a few theme specific ideas:

• Nursery Rhymes – Decorate with Baby Books
• Clothesline – Hang a clothesline of baby clothes
• Moon and Stars or A Star Is Born – hang small stars from the ceiling
• Baby Animals, Zoo, Jungle, or Safari – small stuffed animals
• Baby Blooming, Butterflies, etc – Flowers and small ornament butterflies or bees.
• Blocks – Build a small tower out of baby blocks, put blocks around as decorations.
• Cars – put out hot wheels and other toy cars

…. and you get the idea.  Have fun with your decorations!  You don’t need a ton, but certainly put out a few to add some excitement to the event.

Once you’ve sent out your baby shower invitations, you’ll want to concentrate on your tableware and the other supplies you will need for your successful baby shower.  You’ll want to figure out what games you’ll be playing, prizes for the games, and decorations too, so we don’t recommend ordering quite yet, as you may be able to get everything from one or two baby shower supply places.  Today we’ll just be discussing the basic baby shower tableware.

You will want to serve some type of refreshments at your baby shower, here are some tableware supplies you will need.  Be sure to purchase enough for all of the guests you are expecting, plus a few extras.

• Tablecloth – you can use fabric, or use a disposable tablecloth that matches your baby shower theme.
• Dinner plates – If you are serving a full meal, you’ll definitely want dinner plates.  If you are serving appetizers, you can use either dinner plates, or just get twice as many desert plates.
• Dinner Napkins – We recommend dinner napkins even if you are doing appetizers, are beverage/dessert napkins are quite small.
• Forks, spoons, and knives (if needed)
• Beverage Cups
• Dessert Plates
• Dessert Napkins

As a general rule, order about 15-20% more supplies than you think you will need.  It is better to have too many than not enough.

You’re all set, you know the theme of your baby shower,  you’ve chosen your date, time, and location, and now you are ready to order your baby shower invitations.    We’re going to walk you step by step through the process.

Step 1:  Decide what type of invitions you will be sending.  There are 3 basic options. 

• Fill-in invitations – These are generally the least expensive option, a pack of 8 can often be purchased for around $5, and they are usually available in a wide variety of themes.
• Homemade invitations – By the time you purchase supplies and figure your time, these usually end up a bit more expensive than the fill-in invitations, but they have a nice personal touch.  Stamps, stickers, and scrapbooking supplies can be used to help decorate the invitations.  These will require a significant time investment, and are not recommended for large baby showers.
• Printed invitations – These are invitations, generally made from cardstock, that come printed with all of your important shower information on them.  These are easily found, can be found in practically any theme you can think of, and depending upon where you purchase them can be quite inexpensive.  They also require little time investment on your part.  Be sure to make sure that the store you purchase them from includes printing (our store does, but not all do).

Now that you’ve chosen your invitation type, you are ready to proceed.  We’re going to assume you are purchasing printed baby shower invitations  as these are by far the most popular option, but the steps will be similar for both fill-in and handmade invitations. 

Step 2: Gather your shower information – having this ready will make ordering a snap.  Most invitations companies are going to ask you for the following:

• The guest of honor’s name – This is the name of the expectant mom, or the mom and dad if dad will be attending.
• The date and time of the event
• The location of the event – it is best to include a name and address for your location.  If it is someone’s home, it is fine to write “Susan Murphy’s House” and then the address. 
• The host or hostess – be sure to include everyone who is helping put on the shower.
• RSVP type – Generally there are considered to be 3 types of RSVP, if you choose no RSVP, then generally the printer will leave the rsvp section off all together.  This means your guests will not let you know if they are coming or not.  Next is the Regrets Only, if you choose this option the invited guests will let you know if they are not coming, if you do not hear from them, then you can assume they will attend.  RSVP is the most popular option, in this case the invited guests SHOULD  let you know whether or not they will be coming. 
• RSVP to – you’ll want to provide the name and number of the person the guests should contact when they RSVP (or give their regrets).  It is also becoming quite commonplace to put an e-mail address instead of or with the phone number.
• RSVP / Regrets By – This is the date that you would like all of the responses by.  You’ll generally want this to be at least 1 week before the shower, but not less than 1 week after the invitations go out.
• Registered at – It has become commonplace to include registration information on the baby shower invitation.  If you are throwing your own baby shower, you should not include registration information as this is seen as asking for gifts (just make sure that close friends and relatives know where you’re registered and word will get around).

Step 3: Find the perfect baby shower invitation - This is the easy part.  Find a beautiful baby shower invitation that matches your theme.

Step 4: Order your invitations, generally, you’ll want to do this at least 1 month before the shower date, at least 2 weeks before you’d like to send them out.  If you are doing a fill-in invitation, you’ll want to leave more time so that you can fill them out.  If you are handmaking the invitations, plan to have them made at least 1 week before you plan to send them.  You also might want to consider ordering thank you cards and return address labels so that these will match your invitations.  Return address labels will also make the next step, addressing your invitations, much easier and faster.

Step 5:  Address your invitations

Step 6: Send out invitations – As a general rule, invitations should be sent out 2-6 weeks before the event date.   The earlier you send them, the less likely it is that people will have scheduled a conflicting event, but the more likely they are to forget about it.  We don’t recommend sending out more than 8 weeks ahead of time.  If you know that the time you are having the shower is a particularly busy time for most people (around the holidays for example) you could consider a small save the date card before the invitations.