Baby shower: Planning the perfect baby shower in 10 steps

Few events surpass celebrating your pregnancy with the most important people in your life.

Here, we share party-planning tips and tricks for getting your own event just right.

Find a host

Traditionally, a close friend or relative of the mum-to-be is responsible for organising the baby shower, so you can relax and enjoy the event. The host could be your sister, cousin, best friend or a collective of women. If you’d like to take on the task yourself, ask friends to assist so you’re not overburdened.

Choose a date

Baby showers are usually held in the third trimester, somewhere around the 32- to 34-week mark, when your pregnancy is well established, but not too close to the due date. The guest of honour doesn’t want to be worrying about going into labour! Make sure you select a date that doesn’t conflict with other family events.

Decide on a venue

Baby showers were traditionally held in the host’s home but, these days, modern mums-to-be are celebrating over brunch, lunch or high tea, and often at cafes and restaurants. The advantage of holding a baby shower away from home is that someone else takes care of the preparation, catering and cleaning up.

This means you and your guests can relax and focus on enjoying yourselves.

Pick a theme

Popular ideas include running with colour theme like pink or blue, or even a rainbow of colours, like Laura Byrne went for if you don’t yet know your baby’s gender. You can take inspiration from what other celebrities have done for their baby showers, movies, nursery rhymes, favourite children’s stories or scroll through Pinterest.

Send the invites

The host should aim to send out invitations a month before the event. There’s a range of baby shower invitation designs to choose from at department stores and online stores such as The Party Parlour. If you’re feeling creative and have time, make your own based on the theme of your event.

Plan a gift registry

It’s likely that your guests will want to spoilt you and your baby to be with a present or two. If it’s your first child you might need everything, but if it’s your second (third… fourth), you might need specific things. One way to make it easier for your family and friends to make sure there are no double ups or things that don’t quite suit, a baby gift registry can be a great idea – and this one will give you a free baby product for signing up.

Stick to a budget

Putting on a baby shower can quickly become expensive. Think about how much you’d like to spend and what’s realistic for your circumstances. Follow these savvy saving tips to help keep your budget on track.

• Design your own e-card invitation and email it to guests.
• Host the shower at home and ask everyone to bring a platter of food.
• Bake your own cake or ask a friend to make it as her gift to you.
• Go out for a girls’ lunch instead and ask guests to pay their own way.

Choose your cake

A special cake is often the centrepiece for the baby shower, so if you’re handy in the kitchen this is a chance to show off your skills. Or you could ask a crafty friend to whip up – and decorate – a cake. Otherwise, consider handing the job over to the experts for something truly stunning.

Devise a menu

If you decide your party will take place mid-morning or late afternoon, you can get by with a selection of finger food and sweet treats. Aim for a mix of dips and offerings such as chicken sandwiches, mini quiches, a cheese platter with crackers, plus brownies, cupcakes and an assortment of biscuits and lollies.

And for an extra cute touch, leading champagne house, Maison Pommery, has released their POP It’s a boy, POP It’s a girl range within Australia!

POP was the first champagne especially blended to be consumed directly from the bottle or with a straw making these elegant individual bottles the perfect accompaniment to celebrate baby showers and gender reveal parties!

Have some fun

Playing games is traditional at baby showers. Of course you don’t have to, but it does add another element to the event and can be a great icebreaker if guests don’t know each other very well. Here are a few ideas to get started.

• Who’s that baby?
  Ask guests to bring a photo of themselves as a baby. Number each photo and put them on display. Give guests a piece of paper and ask them to correlate each photo to a guest. Whoever guesses the most matches correctly is the winner.
• How big is the bump?
  Ask each guest to estimate the size of
  your bump. Use a tape measure to discover the most accurate answer.
• Play celebrity baby heads
  Make headbands, each with a picture of a celebrity baby. Ask guests to close their eyes while you put one on their head. They can only ask each other ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions to discover the baby’s identity.