Do you have a friend that is pregnant and giving birth soon? If it were normal circumstances would you be the first to offer to host a shower for her? If you’re not sure where to start and how to still make it a magical moment you’re in the right place!
Thanks to Basic Invite for sponsoring this post.
Where to Start? The Same Way You Normally Would
Don’t worry I’ve got you covered! Just read along and by the end you’ll be very confident in your ability to host a successful shower. The first thing you need to do is order your baby shower invites! Receiving an ink and paper baby shower invitation will be a refreshing change to our current inbox situation. So many people are meeting up for video chats and events that seeing an actual invitation in the mail will be a sweet little surprise!
Basic Invite is a great choice! You’ll have a ton of customization options, get your order in 5 days, and they have an address capturing link made for social media platforms to make collecting them painless! Best part: if you order before the end of May 2020 they are offering 15% off with coupon code 15FF51.
Social Media Links: @basicinvite | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram | Twitter | www.basicinvite.com
How to Throw an Amazing Shower
First let’s nix the idea of a shower and view it more as a sprinkle! Basic Invite has really cute sprinkle invites I’m definitely crushing on. Since gathering up a group of people who have different exposure levels can be tricky keeping distance in mind is a must. You can have a group of ten or less people in Minnesota, but let’s say you and mama-to-be don’t want to risk it. Focus on keeping things fun and doing what you can.
Deliver It
Having had my own baby showers while pregnant I can tell you at times they feel like they can get rather long. If your mama is carrying multiples like I was then she likely gets tired fast. Deliver things to her! Not only is delivery hot right now but it’s a great way to make sure she gets it without risking her health.
When you send out your invites ask everyone to pick a time slot on the day of the shower and “sprinkle” mama’s doorstep with all of the gifts they’ve purchased. You can then call her and have her go outside and see everything at one time. Or have each person treat them like May Day baskets. If you don’t know what May Day baskets are, they are sweet little baskets filled with cheese, bread, notes, whatever you want to give. In the past, according to my grandmother, young girls would make them and give them to the boys in the neighborhood. They weren’t hand delivered though…not completely. They would knock or ring the doorbell and then run. That’s the sweetest ding-dong ditch ever if you ask me!
You can also deliver other things as well. If all your guests live in the same city, spend the morning of or day before the event hand delivering the apps/food/decor. Or just deliver it to the mama-to-be! If you end up ordering for the mama only then find out what her favorite food is or her favorite eatery and send her THAT! Guaranteed she will be so happy. My husband brought home grocery store pasta salad and you have no idea…or maybe you do… at how excited I was that the kitchen would not be destroyed again. With a preschooler plus twin toddlers it is a lot of meal prep and cleanup. Having a meal delivered can be a godsend on rough days. Pregnancy is no different. Mamas love to be pampered.
If not all the guests live in the same city you could stick to ordering only for the mama and having those that can’t hand deliver their gifts to simply order off the registry. It will be just as appreciated if delivered in that method!
Also, keep in mind when you’re buying gifts what your mama likes. Sending her some de-stressing gifts may be just what the doctor ordered. Think bath salts, pregnancy safe face masks, chocolates, loofas, scented candles, basically anything you know your mama will love!
Hey, while you’re at it just mail everything! The money saved hosting the actual event with all that food and decor can be spent on postage. Mail the guests all the game cards or info they may need. Mail party hats or simple background displays. Streamers are an inexpensive and amazing decorating item. Have all your guests decorate their background so that when you do meet up for your video chat that everyone is feeling the spirit of the event.
Decoration
I know what you’re thinking… ‘Decorations? Seriously? Why is this on the list? What am I supposed to decorate?’. I’ll tell you! Remember earlier when I said deliver things to mama’s house? Ok, well, maybe she is uncomfortable having so many gifts on her porch, maybe you are too, maybe she doesn’t have a porch… but is there a garage? If so, enlist her partner and get him/her to decorate the garage and have the guests drop off the gifts they’ve purchased in the garage. When someone rings the doorbell you can just hit the garage button and let them in. We are in a visual era. People want to see with their own eyes, so do something that she can see. Make signs, posters, art, you name it. How amazing will she feel knowing how hard you worked to make this shower feel good for her.
What if mama lives in an apartment… OK, well, then decorate your place and send her the pictures of the sweet scene and then mail her all the decor in case she wants to keep any of it. Even better get EVERYONE to decorate their homes or the room they are going to be videoing in from.
Games
If you’ve planned ahead and mailed everyone their supplies through post mail or email then this part is actually not too far off from the standard. Sure, you can’t play guess the candy bar in the diaper game…but who really likes that game anyway and as a mother of three all I can think about is how many poops could have been contained rather than wasted on candy bars…digression aside…
A few easy games to play over video chat are:
- Jeopardy – My mom did twin jeopardy SO FUN! I had no idea that so many celebs had twins. You don’t have to do only that though, you could also do jeopardy based on the couple, when they met, history of diapers…dream big here!
- Baby Bingo – You can still play this! Not everything has to have a prize for winning. In fact, just skip prizes all together. The whole event is to celebrate the coming of a new generation. So keep it simple.
- Relay Race – If you want to be silly you can still dork it up with a relay race. Have each person assigned to a team and require them to diaper a baby doll or a dog. Yup, I said dog. Trust me when I tell you this is hilarious. And then have the participant show their success on the screen for all to see before the next person is able to proceed.
- Gender Guessing and Reveal – Let’s not forget the ever wonderful baby gender reveal which could be a fun addition to the party!
If you come up with more games that can be easily transferred to a video chat let me know and I’ll add them to this list!
Conclusion
So now that you know an amazing place to get your baby shower invitations and you’ve got some great logistics as to how to actually make all of this work… get started and have fun!
