베이비 샤워 Baby Showers. Essential Pampering or Unnecessary Extravagance? > 파티&이벤트

Planning A Baby Shower
Getting ready to throw a baby shower for your best friend, daughter, sister or even brother? We've got everything right here to help you get organized. We have checklists and guest lists ready to print out, even a free gift track to help with those post-party thank you notes! Our only advice? Set aside four weeks for planning, sending invitations, and purchasing supplies.

What's Expected?
Back in the day, baby showers were thrown by friends, not relatives...and men were never invited to partake in the festivities! However, times have changed, and many parents-to-be, family members and friends are throwing baby showers, and everyone's invited! Baby showers are a celebration of life and family, and in fact, these days it's not uncommon to have more than one baby shower, especially if the parents-to-be have a large family or several close friends.

So, to help you make sure you throw the best baby shower ever, we've put together this four-week baby shower planning guide. The next few sections will cover the following:

Week 1: Organizing A Baby Shower
You're throwing a baby shower! How exciting. There are several decisions you'll need to make in the early stages of planning, so we'll walk you through each one and provide a ton of tips and hints to help out. To get started, here is a sample schedule you can use for your baby shower:

Of course you can throw in some more games, mix things up, leave things out, it's all up to you!

Putting Together the Guest List
Traditionally you would invite only women to a baby shower, from both sides of the family, the mom-to-be's girlfriends, and of course, the mom-to-be. Times have changed however, and potential invitees could be the dad-to-be, grandpa-to-be, and anyone else! The real question is, what kind of baby shower do you want to throw? Is it women only? Will the parents-to-be have another baby shower for family only? If so, you might consider hosting a friends-only baby shower. Another popular trend is to host a co-ed couples baby shower.

Whether or not to invite children is another matter for consideration. If the baby-to-be already has a brother or sister, then inviting other kids might be a great way to get them involved in celebrating their new sibling. Depending on how old the older siblings are, they might be able to lead the other kids in activities. Seven is about the right age. This way, they'll feel as though they are included in hosting responsibilities. Or, you might even consider hiring a babysitter for the event.

Picking a Location
Once you have a general idea of the number of guests, start compiling venue options. Traditionally, baby showers have taken place in the home of the hostess. However, it's also good to broaden your scope. Consider a restaurant, a park picnic, a reception hall, or even a day at the spa with a catered lunch!

Week 2 & 3: Invitations & Entertainment
Now that the guest list is in place and you know where you're going to host the baby shower, it's time to pick a theme and get the invitations out!

Themes
Themes serve as inspiration for decorations and games, invitations, favors and even the food. our favorite resources for Baby Shower Themes. There are about 50 different baby shower theme ideas to help get you started. Themes can be as simple as a color scheme like blue and white if you know the parents-to-be are having a boy, or pink and white for a girl. A theme also makes shopping for supplies a breeze! For example, if you are using a Rubber Duckies theme, you'll pick the invitations with the ducks, duck decorations, a baby bath centerpiece filled with water and floating rubber ducks, small rubber duck favors, and yellow foods. Fun right?