whats the etiquette...

[rainbowbeetle]

for a baby shower?

im organising one for my dear cousin, who is due August 22nd.

about when do you hold one, i've heard 6 weeks before?

do you give gifts to the guests?

what sort of food did you have? im thinking more classy type stuff, rather than frankfurts and meat pies and sausage rolls

any tips would be lovely!
thanks!

[Maghan]

Rainbowbeetle, I too am holding a baby shower ... for a girl at work, who is 31 weeks. Her hubby's an awful man and has not supported her during her pregnancy.

Anyway we're not great mates, but I'd like to give her a lift, so any comments on how, what, games, pressies etc would be FABULOUS!!!

[hummingbird]

I had my baby shower a few weeks ago and it was great fun.

I think 6 weeks prior to due date is perfect timing just so they can get their head around what they still need to get if they didn't get it all at the shower.

We had about 30 ladies (friends and family) at my mum's house from 12-4pm on a Sunday and provided lunch which was cut up bbq chicken, prawns, leg ham, salads (ceaser, potato, green etc), bread etc. We mostly had champagne and guava, but also had some wine and softies too. Then for dessert I made up vanilla cupcakes of which half had blue sprinkles and half had pink with tea and coffee. Everyone picked a cupcake for which sex they thought the baby was going to be and we ate them while I opened the pressies. We also had a tarot card reader who charged $20 for a 15 minute read and about 20 odd people ended up doing it - they thought it was great fun and were happy to pay.

[Faithcomesinnumbers]

The food I have too many ideas for, but with the games side of it.

1) You get a ball of string and get your cousin to stand in front of each person, they have to guess how big she is (around the belly at largest point) by cutting the string and they can't measure or touch her. Whoever is the correct size wins a prize.

2) You can line up a clothes line with babies clothes and whoever takes of the most babies clothes and only using one hand wins a prize.

3) Put a baby photo up of everyone that attends the shower. Then whoever guesses the most correct wins a prize.

4) Get everyone to place a peice of paper above their own head and draw a baby. They can't see what they are drawing as it is like "celebrity head". Whoever draws the best looking baby wins a prize.

5) Get a tray with all baby items on it everyone gets a short time to view all the items, then cover it back up and they have to write as many of those items as possible. Whoever guesses the most items wins a prize.

Here is just a few games for you. Hope this helps. :p

[*Country Bumpkin*]

Well Im due on the 25th August and Im having mine on the Sunday 11th June at 2pm.... Its a "High Tea" theme.....lil sandwiches,finger pastries, mini quiches, brewed tea and coffee.....all that sort of stuff....Its more like a fancy afternoon tea but with a baby oriantated theme.....

For decorations were doing all white linen table cloths and pink....of course lol.....I think were going to have pink and white flowers as table center pieces... Were not having games just a big get together with all my friends and family....they all no each other so games wont be necisary.......all theyl want to do is talk anyway- theres around 30 people coming!!

Were having a "gifts" table...which Im not to keen on but u know.....Also the lady whos throwing me the shower is getting me to write a list of things I need so if people ask what I ned she knows what to tell them....

[rainbowbeetle]

I had my baby shower a few weeks ago and it was great fun.

I think 6 weeks prior to due date is perfect timing just so they can get their head around what they still need to get if they didn't get it all at the shower.

We had about 30 ladies (friends and family) at my mum's house from 12-4pm on a Sunday and provided lunch which was cut up bbq chicken, prawns, leg ham, salads (ceaser, potato, green etc), bread etc. We mostly had champagne and guava, but also had some wine and softies too. Then for dessert I made up vanilla cupcakes of which half had blue sprinkles and half had pink with tea and coffee. Everyone picked a cupcake for which sex they thought the baby was going to be and we ate them while I opened the pressies. We also had a tarot card reader who charged $20 for a 15 minute read and about 20 odd people ended up doing it - they thought it was great fun and were happy to pay.

thanks siobhan, we where looking at 6 weeks prior to the big event.

im liking the cup cake idea. shes having a boy, so they'd all be blue but :)

[rainbowbeetle]

The food I have too many ideas for, but with the games side of it.

1) You get a ball of string and get your cousin to stand in front of each person, they have to guess how big she is (around the belly at largest point) by cutting the string and they can't measure or touch her. Whoever is the correct size wins a prize.

2) You can line up a clothes line with babies clothes and whoever takes of the most babies clothes and only using one hand wins a prize.

3) Put a baby photo up of everyone that attends the shower. Then whoever guesses the most correct wins a prize.

4) Get everyone to place a peice of paper above their own head and draw a baby. They can't see what they are drawing as it is like "celebrity head". Whoever draws the best looking baby wins a prize.

5) Get a tray with all baby items on it everyone gets a short time to view all the items, then cover it back up and they have to write as many of those items as possible. Whoever guesses the most items wins a prize.

Here is just a few games for you. Hope this helps. :p


thanks Faithcomesinnumbers

my cousins 10 year old daughter wants to arrange the games, so i'll put these on the list for her

[rainbowbeetle]

Well Im due on the 25th August and Im having mine on the Sunday 11th June at 2pm.... Its a "High Tea" theme.....lil sandwiches,finger pastries, mini quiches, brewed tea and coffee.....all that sort of stuff....Its more like a fancy afternoon tea but with a baby oriantated theme.....

For decorations were doing all white linen table cloths and pink....of course lol.....I think were going to have pink and white flowers as table center pieces... Were not having games just a big get together with all my friends and family....they all no each other so games wont be necisary.......all theyl want to do is talk anyway- theres around 30 people coming!!

Were having a "gifts" table...which Im not to keen on but u know.....Also the lady whos throwing me the shower is getting me to write a list of things I need so if people ask what I ned she knows what to tell them....


Adele, i TOTALLY love the sound of yours. that sounds exactly what i'd like to do.... will have to run it past her though.

shes due 3 days before you, so that weekend may be a goer for us also.

it'll be blue for us, baby boy of course :)

yeah i like the idea of a list, i've already asked her, shes thinking on it.

[Elfin]

Rainbowbeetle what a lovely cousin your are! Guests should definitely bring a gift even small things like bibs and socks are fine.

I think the girls have given you some really good advice, I would just suggest giving your counsin a nice hard back writing book like a diary thing. Get all the guests to sign the book and maybe write a message to the baby. Then your cousin can add to it once the baby is born, how she birthed, all the milestones, first words, funny things her son says, record of his height, hand prints etc.

Hope you have a lovely time:) .

[rainbowbeetle]

Rainbowbeetle what a lovely cousin your are! Guests should definitely bring a gift even small things like bibs and socks are fine.

I think the girls have given you some really good advice, I would just suggest giving your counsin a nice hard back writing book like a diary thing. Get all the guests to sign the book and maybe write a message to the baby. Then your cousin can add to it once the baby is born, how she birthed, all the milestones, first words, funny things her son says, record of his height, hand prints etc.

Hope you have a lovely time:) .


ah yes, thanks EAsterlily. i like that idea, considering at least half of the guests if not more have all had children :)

she deserves a lovely day, shes had a few scares with this bubby, but things are prgoressing nicely now.

[shed]

I don't know if I am having one or not. I hate being the centre of attention, it stresses me out more than I enjoy it and my cousin is due just before me anyway, so I dunno because she's the only one that would probably host it for me.

But I threw one for a friend of mine about ten years ago (oh my god, it can't be ten years already?) and I just invited whoever she asked me to and they all came round and I had food out for them and I can't remember if we played any games but I vaguely remember something about pegs?

Everyone just sat around and talked and my friend opened the presents and we all ate and it was good. No one seemed to expect much, they were quite happy just having a girly day.

[MissSparkle]

I went to a baby shower the other day and as part of a game everyone had to decorate a hard boiled egg as a baby and carry it around all day. If u put it down someone else can kidnap it from u. At the end of the day however still has their egg baby wins.

At my baby shower I had a hardback diary that every one wrote in. It was really nice.

[Seekrit]

I just had my bebeshower, waay early I know but my sister was in town for a week before shooting off to Ireland for a year so Pukkles organised it ! :smiliedance:

We had a ball.
Foodwise - Everyone bought a plate. We had snackables on the table the whole time, then played a few games, then Puk put out hot/lunchish food. Played a few more games and then put out sweets and stuff :D Everyone brought a good assortments of food.

There were chocolates bought for the guests as winners of the games!

Games we played were Word Scramble, Name Nugget, Memory, Guess the Number of Jellybabies in the Jar, and then, blindfolded we had to scoop cotton balls from one mixing bowl to the other with a serving spoon. that was so funny and harder than it looked :D

We had so much fun, there were about 15 of us there :)

[Faithcomesinnumbers]

thanks Faithcomesinnumbers

my cousins 10 year old daughter wants to arrange the games, so i'll put these on the list for her

No probs. Hope it helped with a few ideas.;)