The 2 women in my life who are very close to my heart are now pregnant and as their girl friend I am throwing a baby shower for them. This is to welcome the babies in the world and shower them with love. It’s my first time to prepare such event and I am excited about it.
It’s a great experience where in one is having a baby boy, and the other is having a baby girl. Sounds fun. I want to share with you how I managed my time and budget in planning the baby showers.
In planning a baby shower, the first thing to do is to have a pocket size note book/journal and pen. As I started a lot of ideas was rushing in my head, sometimes ideas comes to me in a middle of a meeting at work or while eating, in ordered not to forget these ideas the pocket note book is very handy to write it down anywhere I go.
I had a short time so I had to make my planning simple and easy. So this is my simplified Baby Shower Plan.
1) Identify the Baby - In my case I got 1 baby boy and 1 baby girl. This is to help get all the things coordinated for the whole event.
2) Budget - This is the tricky part. I don't have an exact value to go around with this. In my pass experience in preparing other kinds of event budget are actually never followed. It always depends on the situation. So the only aim is to spend as low as possible but have everything look nice and presentable. And if you can get some friends to chip in the expenses.
3) Guest List - It will depend on you if you plan to make this baby shower a surprise or not. Baby showers are traditionally for women only. I have preferred mine not, I have to take in consideration that my mommies to be would want specific people to be in this event. As I have known my Mommies to be friends they got lot of very close girl and guy friends so I making the baby shower a co-ed. So I have asked the parents to be to be the one to prepare the guest list.
4) Location, Date and Time - In setting these 3 details you have to consider what would be convenient to the mommies to be. The most practical and continent location would be their home so they don't need to travel especially if the party get late. Which leads in panning the date & time of the event. Saturday would be nice day to set a date so that if she got tired over the event she would still have a Sunday to rest. As it goes for the time... it should be around 5pm or 6pm this is to consider in giving time to the guest who have Saturday work.
5) Theme – One of the best ways to figure out a theme is to ask the mommies to be what they want. If the have nothing to suggest then go with the baby’s gender. The most simply way is Blue for baby boy, and pink for the baby girl. Building a theme would depend on how you need to coordinate the whole event with the theme.
6) Invitations - Made your own or buy ready make are good. Important details must be in.
a) Name of the Guest of Honors (mom & dad to be)
b) Location
c) Date
d) Directions (important)
e) Phone number in case questions
f) RSVP
g) Theme of the party (optional)
h) Dress code (optional)
i) Let the guests know if there is anything they need to bring
7) Decoration - This would depend on the budget you have and the creativity you can do. To save money I made my own decorations out of colored papers and do some cut-outs. List down all the decors you plan to put up.
a) Banner
b) Wall décor
c) Ceiling décor
d) Door wreath / Door sign
e) Centerpiece (Diaper Cake or Blanket Cake)
8) Utensils – To make the preparation easy and cleaning up as well. Its better to have disposables so that cleaning up will be a swift. Remember to prepare the followings:
a) Paper Plate
b) Plastic Cups
c) Plastic Spoon & Fork
d) Plastic Knife (optional)
e) Styro bowl (if your serving soups)
f) Tissue
g) Garbage Bag
9) Menu – It is better to get advice from the mommies to be if there are any food she is not allowed to have. Choose foods that are easy & economical.
10) Games & Entertainment – This is optional. You can have the party a casual one where you leave you guest to mingle around or you can put up some entertainment systems like DVD movies or karaoke systems. Games can be played to. Prepare some games and small prices for the winners.
11) Baby Shower favors / souvenirs – This is optional. If you have the time and the luxury to make or buy its all up to you.
12) Scheduling your set up - This is the most important thing. Set the time table in buying the decor or in creating your own decors, the buying of items for the event, the setting up of the decorations and the food if cooking or ordering caterings.
With all this enjoy the moment you will spend with your mommy & daddy to be and wish them all the best.