One of the most exciting events to the run up of the D-day is the Baby shower. Back in January, I planned a baby shower for one of my closest friends. Little did we know that eight months down the line she would be returning the favour by helping hubby plan a baby shower for me :)
My husband planned and executed a brilliant baby shower for me recently (obviously with some help from my girlfriends and my darling sister). I was absolutely floored by the level of detailing and how well he had planned it. The event was a great success because the brilliant event planner had looked into every little detail. So I thought it may be a good idea to put together my thoughts on what made the baby shower a success. It may give you or your hubby or friends a few ideas for planning the next baby shower :)
Here is a sneak peek into how hubby made the party a grand success
Select a Theme: Setting a theme for the baby shower is a fun way to engage your guests even before the event. Gives them something to think about before the event. Hubby decided to go for the unheard of Purple Vs. Yellow. To further add a twist to this, he incorporated the Cat woman vs. Batman twist to the purple vs. yellow. So all those who felt it would be a girl (team Cat woman), were asked to dress in yellow and those who felt it was a baby boy (team batman) were to dress in purple.
Theme for our baby shower: Batman Vs. Catwoman
The theme could be anything of your choice.
- Book themed baby shower: you could request guests to be dressed as characters from their favourite books. You could have a corner lined with storybooks where the guests could leave a message for your bundle of joy in the book of their choice. The decor could be done up with some of your favourite childhood books and fairytales.
- Bows vs. Moustache baby shower: you could send out props (bows and moustache) with the invite or have props lined up at the entrance & ask them to pick a prop of their choice depending on whether they feel its a boy or girl.
- Pink Vs. Blue: this is the simplest to implement & you can go for this if you are short of time and ideas as all props and decorations for this one are readily available (an observation to the mad caps store in Mumbai). We planned a baby shower around this theme for my friend, shall do a post on this theme next to showcase how we went about it.
- Colour of your choice: you could choose to do up the place in colour of choice, the decor, invites, some cupcakes.
The list is endless, you could come up with any theme based on your creativity & the time at hand.
Decorations: Sky is the limit when it comes to decor and doing up the venue for the occasion. Following are some of the online stores where you can find decoration items for a baby shower:
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| The venue was done up with purple and yellow gas balloons with baby pictures of mommy & daddy-to-be hung at the bottom of the balloons |
www.partyhunterz.com : These guys have an outlet in Bandra in Mumbai which is pretty well stocked. In fact a walk around there store could also give you a few ideas on how you could do up the Decor. The website also lists other outlets across cities & gives you the option to shop online. My suggestion, be creative and don't restrict yourself to the goodies available for baby showers. Use various props available to create something of your own.
If you stay in Mumbai, you may want to check out some of the party shops in Crawford market. If you can brave the crowd & have the patience to look around a bit you may find some goodies.
But most of the readily available decor adhere to the pink Vs. blue theme. So if you have some other theme in mind, you may have to be more creative by doing up the place with Balloons, flowers and mix and matching the various props and decoration material available at the store. My suggestion, be creative and don't restrict yourself to the goodies available at the stores for baby showers. Use various props available to create something of your own.
The pictures may give you an idea of how my husband went about decorating the place in line with his chosen theme.
Props for the Mom-to-be: Since the event is all about celebrating mommy & her bundle of joy, one should make her feel special. So it may be a good idea to get her a tiara or a headgear (could be made of fresh or plastic flowers or ready made one). Your local florist or an outlet like ferns N petals could help you customise one. You could also get her a sash (like the one beauty queens wear) which reads Mommy-to-be (these are available at some of the outlets I have mentioned above & could also be ordered online).
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| My sister got a beautiful headgear made from ferns n petals in the colour theme of the evening |
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| And of course a sash which I wore with pride |
Engage the audience
Yes, this event is all about mommy to be and her little bundle of joy, but there is go to be something to keep the guests engaged. Now there are multiple ways to doing this
Photo booth: Hubby created a fun photo booth with a backdrop of Cat woman Vs. Batman and placed loads of props in the corner. Props ranging from fun head gear, slates & chalk for people to write message for the mom & baby, wigs, posters which read “yummy mummy” to name a few. In this age of selfies, if you give people a backdrop and the props to pose with it is surely going to keep them happy and give you loads of images as memories for years to come.
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| Create a fun corner with a nice backdrop which depicts the theme of your party |
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| Add some fun props for people to come and pose with & your photo booth is ready |
Games: It’s good idea to arrange for a few games that could engage the guests and create a fun element in the party. For instance at my baby shower my friends had arranged for the following games
Pin the baby: similar to pin the donkey’s tail that we played as kids, in this case it was about pinning the baby on the mother’s belly (they had created a cut out for the same).
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| Plan some fun games for your guests. This is pin the baby to mom's belly that we had at the party |
List the maximum number of baby items: The guests were divided in 4 groups and each group was asked to list down items that would be required for a baby. The team that listed the most won.
Guess Mom’s favourites: prepare a list of questions that judge guests on how well they know mom to be. The questions could range from Mom-to-be’s favourite cuisine, favourite holiday destination. the team that answers most correctly would win.
Capture those moments: engage a good photographer to capture those fun moments. In our case, hubby clubbed the maternity shoot with the baby shower. So an hour before the party started we had the photographer capture some fun images of the baby bump. Our event was captured by Vrutika Doshi, you can check out some of her other work here
https://www.facebook.com/vrutikadoshiphotography. All the pictures in this post have been captured by Vrutika. We loved her work, her non interfering style of working and would highly recommend her.
https://www.facebook.com/vrutikadoshiphotography. All the pictures in this post have been captured by Vrutika. We loved her work, her non interfering style of working and would highly recommend her.
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| Some fun props for the family members |
Fun foods & cake: you have a host of options available when it comes to decorative cakes & cupcakes. Depending on your choice, budget and theme you could get a cake and cup cakes customised for the event.
You may choose to incorporate some or all of the above elements depending on the scale of event. The idea is to have fun and create some beautiful memories. And a note to the Mommy-to-be, don’t forget to give yourself a break and prop your feet up every once in a while during the party so that you don’t exhaust yourself (all that extra weight can really tire you out).