Candle in the Night: 10 Tips for Throwing an AMAZING Baby Shower

Baby showers can be great fun! Or...they can be dreadful affairs. If you're the hostess, the last thing you want is for guests to walk away praying they never have children of their own. When I had H, I had several baby showers, all of which were lovely. I've also thrown a few baby showers for friends and family members. And I've been to LOTS of baby showers. I thought I'd put together a list of things I've learned that make baby showers fun! Beware, the tips below aren't for mediocre baby showers, they're for the best ones!

Here are the DO's.

1. DO pick a theme. This really makes the shower fun. I've been to nice showers where there was no theme, but the ones where there is a theme stand out in my mind as the most fun! You can choose your theme based on the baby's room decorations or just based on something baby or mommy related. My nephew's room is decorated with bunnies, so we decided to go for a Peter Rabbit/Velveteen Rabbit theme. That actually expanded into a children's book theme and the ideas for the shower exploded from there. My friend threw me a chocolate themed shower. This is every pregnant woman's dream! It was great! Do a google search for baby shower themes and you'll have TONS of ideas!

See the storybooks?

2. DO play games. Many times, I hear people say they hate shower games. I think the reason people think they hate shower games is that they play the same games over...and over...and over. Once again, a google search will send lots of games your way! If you still can't find games that are original enough for you, make up your own games. One great idea I've seen is to take a game like Apples to Apples and turn in into a baby themed game. Come up with lots of baby-related items and use them instead of the cards that come with the game. This also works great with Taboo, Catch Phrase, or Pictionary.

3. DO make the food match the theme. It's easy to decorate a cake to match the theme, but think about how you can match the rest of the food to the theme. For a friends shower, the theme was "Good things come in small packages." I made all the food miniature. Mini cupcakes, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, even miniature s'mores. It was great fun!

Mini watermelon, mini ritz crackers, mini donuts, mini oranges, mini lemons,
baby carrots, and cherry tomatoes.

4. DO decorate! This one may seem like a given, but it is one area that is sometimes overlooked. It's easy to buy a banner that says, "It's a Girl!", but please, do more than that. Every mom likes to feel special and even if it's just a few balloons blown up and some streamers, she's going to know you worked hard for her. Decorations can also be extremely fun to put together. For my sister's storybook themed shower, we put books all around the room with stuffed animals that matched the story. "But No Elephants" had an elephant next to it. "Smily Snake" had a snake. For my shower, my family decorated with butterflies since that was the theme of H's bedroom. There were butterflies EVERYWHERE! It was adorable! And I was even able to use them to decorate her bedroom afterwards.

Decorations for "Good things come in small packages" themed shower.

Loved these decorations from H's shower. Colors matched her room

decor, doll was mine when I was little, and the pictures are Brian and I

as babies. There were little displays like this all around the room.

5. DO keep it to two hours. You should be able to do this fairly easily. Have a plan. A successful schedule I've seen is to let people get food as they arrive, then play a couple games, then cut and serve the cake and eat dessert while the new mommy opens gifts. If there's time, play another game at the end. If not, people can leave as they need to. If you go longer than two hours with planned activities, people will get antsy and want to chat instead of being interested in the activities.

6. DO have great prizes! Prizes for the games, door prizes, or party favors make all the guests happy! Make them fit the theme and you'll be even happier! At my chocolate themed shower, the prizes were, of course, chocolate bars! I've never seen a guest leave sad when they are leaving with a chocolate bar. At the "Good things come in small packages" shower I threw, the prizes were mini-jar cookie mixes. Adorable! I can't believe I don't have pictures of them, but I don't. :(

7. DO make sure the mommy is comfortable at all times! If you've never been pregnant, you may not think about this, but a pregnant woman needs to be comfortable. Don't make her crawl around on the floor, sit in a hard chair, or stand up for too long. Offer to get her a drink or plate of food whenever it looks like she's running out. Not only is this her party, but she's growing a baby and is probably more exhausted than you even though you've been working your tail off for her shower! :)

These last few things are DO NOT's.

8. DO NOT make or order a belly cake. I'm sorry, this one is totally my opinion, but I just can't get over the tackiness of this cake. It's awful.

Photo Credit

9. DO NOT play games where you can't say a certain word. Again, this is my opinion and maybe some people disagree, but who wants to go to a baby shower where they can't say "baby" or "aaw" without being the loser?

10. DO NOT play embarrassing games. Yes, games are important, but no one likes changing a diaper full of "poop". It's gross. If the mom is barely showing, or self-conscious, she's not going to appreciate having her belly measured. Stick to games that are fun for everyone. Don't have some guests having fun at the expense of others.

My last tip is this. Order a cake from my sister. She's amazing! (No, she doesn't actually take cake orders, but she is amazing, isn't she??) But really, order from someone who knows what they're doing. Unless you've had lots of practice, there's just no way your cake decorating skills can match that of a professional.