Baby Shower ideas?? Help , need to throw one!!

[decaff38]

I have an employee that is having a baby boy. Need to throw a baby shower but have no idea what to do. Cake, balloons , etc.. Been a long time since I have done anything like this. All ideas welcome!! Thanks in advance.

 

[disprincessatheart]

Diaper cakes are very popular. Other than that I don't know of any new things for showers. Mine two years ago were pretty standard - food, gifts, games.

 

[cbnaquin]

Thanks for starting this thread! I'm planning a baby shower too and would love to hear any ideas!

 

[dancin'girl]

I just threw a budget baby shower for my SIL. She and my brother just love Hawaii, so tropical was the theme. We gave every guest a lei, although this was really a waste of money because very few actually wore theirs. For games, I purchased a baby name game at Michaels. It was very inexpensive - maybe $2.99 for 50 game sheets. I also printed out blank bingo cards and the guests filled them in with what they thought the mom to be would open that day. I bought Ghiradelli chocolate squares (individually wrapped) in a jumbo bag from Walmart and those were the game prizes. We did diaper cakes for the centerpieces and then the baby had a ton of diapers to start off with. I was able to get Yankee Candle votives in tropical scents during their $1 sale. I wrapped them up in tissue paper and glued a tropical flower on top. Those were the favors. I found tons of ideas on this site - http://catchmyparty.com/inspirations_and_themes.
There are so many cute themes to go with!! And if you have a Michael's near you, try their baby section, which is near the wedding stuff. They have ready made games and others items that may be helpful.

 

[kerryk74]

I have hosted two showers recently...this punch is delicious and the cutest piece on the table:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baby-blue-punch/

I used it for both a boy and a girl shower. I skipped the ice cream both times, because I thought it looked cuter and more like a "pond"! I couldn't find white cranberry juice for the second shower, so I used white grape and sprite. Both times, it tasted great! I cannot tell you how much everyone complimented this punch!!! It was adorable, and they loved the taste! Almost everyone wanted multiple refills!

Also, the Dollar Tree has everything you need in paper products...they have light blue (or pink for those doing a girl), including the matching utensils. They also have really cute "silver" serving trays!!! At a dollar each, I bought several (and they are reusable)!


Dollar Tree also has Mylar balloons (solid color or baby themed) and holders to make cute center pieces! They have baby banners, signs, etc, and tons of things to use as party favors or game prizes too.

If you don't have a Dollar Tree, I'm sure that other similar discount/dollar stores have these things. I had no idea, until my mom told me that they had all of this great stuff! It was much cheaper than party city or wal-mart/target and easily turned out as cute. I think I spent around 20.00 on everything, except food.

The party I just hosted was near valentine's day, so I went with a brown, yellow, red theme (girl party), and I used several v-day type decorations w/baby theme included. It turned out so cute, and I was blown away by the compliments I received.

Good Luck! It really was a lot of fun!

 

[lunalibre]

You say this shower is for an employee. Are you having the shower in the office?

I work with a bunch of guys and a few gals (we're software engineers). We have kept the baby showers very low-key in order to keep the pressure down on folks. IOW, we wanted everyone to show up to the party, but no one should feel obligated to bring a gift.

What we have usually done is turn the party into a group potluck lunch. The managers (or other interested parties) contribute to paper goods and a cake. Someone also usually brings a bouquet of flowers and/or a balloon. Everyone HAS to sign the card! We take up a collection (no donations required!!!) and buy a gift card to either Target or Babies'R'Us. Honestly, we usually prefer to do these after the baby arrives so that everyone can meet the baby . A lot of guys wouldn't be that interested in a baby shower, per se, but everyone is interested in food and most folks are more than happy to play "pass the baby". We always do this on a Friday, but spouses/families are welcome to attend the potluck if they can. Doing this keeps the costs down for everyone, but it's still a lot of fun.

In fact, our group does this for most every shower occasion - baby or wedding. We have a number of folks without kids, and some folks are, um, not at their best in social situations , so we try to keep these events low pressure. I think it's really important at the office to try to keep singles/married/kids/no-kids folks accommodated so that no one feels either left-out or put-upon. Parties at work should be celebrations and opportunities for group bonding!

Good luck with the baby shower.

 

[WendyLovesPeter]

went to shower recently where guests were asked to bring and sign storybook in place of a card.....the coolest shower idea I ever saw. The baby had huge selection of sweet books....all signed with loving wishes from family and friends

 

[pixiewings71]

We played shower games when I threw a shower for my DD24, I printed the game sheets off the internet so they were free. Just the cost of ink and paper. I did the baby food game (have different baby foods in bowls and people had to guess what they were), I did the "what was on the tray" game, where you put a bunch of smaller things on a plate, put it in the middle of the room for everyone to look at for a certain amount of time and then everyone tries to remember what was on the plate, that one is always fun and new parent(s) get to take home the goodies after. We did a "baby name game" where you had clues to baby names and had to figure out the name, things like "you make this on paper", the answer was "Mark".....
I got all the decor at the Dollar Store, Party City or Target, right now you could probably get some heart themed plates, cups and napkins for half off, maybe not the ideal color but they'd be cute. I did the food myself but it was held at my house so..... work showers we always just did a potluck type of deal, the only "catch" was to eat you had to either give money or bring a dish, the guys would donate $5, the women usually brought food. The money that was donated was always put on a gift card and given to the person the shower was for, the cake was usually purchased by the company.

 

[Rosiekins]

Check out Etsy for printable party decoration packages (Banners, napkin wraps, water bottle labels, cupcake toppers etc). You pay once (I always find plenty for around 10 dollars) then print out as many as you want. I love doing this for all my parties as it is pretty cheap and I get a unique pulled together party.

You should also check out Kara's Party Ideas blog. She has so many cute and clever parties on her site it is my go to place to get ideas for events I want to do. http://karaspartyideas.blogspot.com/

 

[reginaastralis]

pinterest.com. ... LOVE IT.

I was perusing the site last night, and came across the idea of an elephant baby shower. I pinned all the girl things, but they had some boy ideas as well.

I personally love the storybook idea, to bring books for the baby. Another thing I saw that I loved was for all the participants to bring in a letter to decorate the baby's room with.

 

[clh2]

went to shower recently where guests were asked to bring and sign storybook in place of a card.....the coolest shower idea I ever saw. The baby had huge selection of sweet books....all signed with loving wishes from family and friends

I have been to several showers where this was done. The moms-to-be loved this!