My little nephew is more than a month old and I’m finally getting around to sharing the last installment of the party we had in his (and his mom’s) honor. These tips can be used or modified for a bridal shower or any party, so don’t feel like you have to skip it if you don’t plan to throw a baby shower.

Activities

I’ve been to parties where some guests groaned over the announcement of “game time” and others where everyone is just looking to keep the activities going. It’s good to gauge your guests to see if they would want to do games or activities and if so, which kind. Overall, I find them to be a great ice breaker.

I tend to prefer doing short, uncomplicated games that encourage conversation. For example, at Megan’s bridal shower, we gave guests a paper plate, pen and a minute to draw the dress on the plate – on the top of their heads. Once everyone saw their “creations” they instantly compared and laughed. Megan quickly chose a winner and it was all done in five minutes. Another idea for a quieter group would be doing a raffle or guessing game that people can do at their leisure.

For an outgoing group or a group of people attending the event, maybe put them up to the task of providing entertainment: a skit, funny song, etc. If your guest is a good sport, consider putting them up to a fun test. Remember, the goal is to have fun, not to embarrass the guest of honor or to make them feel uncomfortable.

If games aren’t your thing, it’s still a good idea to find a way to encourage some mingling. At Sarah’s shower, my mom made sure that each guest had a name tag with their relation to the baby. In opening up the party, she had everyone go around and introduce themselves, and share a fun thought, story, or some family history. It was a nice segue into praying for the food and for Sarah and then we ate the yummy food.

Flow

While not one of the more “fun” parts of throwing a party, space planning and logistics are an important way to make a good event. You want to make sure there is a good flow for traffic and dedicated conversation areas.

Here's a rough sketch of the layout and flow of the party.

Above you’ll see a general layout of the space we were working with. We had some challenges when it came to outdoor accessibility and shade, and chair formation since we skipped the tables to save some money. For every few cluster of chairs (the small circles), we put up smaller side tables where people could set their drinks down. There were also several ways to get to the party area from the front of the house. It was a hot day and thankfully we had an area of shade. So just imagine that those circles representing chairs moved up under the overhang.

Here's the view from the party. It's the view from the lower left of the diagram, if that helps. And do you see Megan's cute bunting?

Tips

• Be flexible. As I said, it got very hot. We needed to move people into the shade and bring the drinks to them to make sure they stayed hydrated. Sometimes people show up late or you might forget something – really, it’s not that huge a deal. Being flexible will keep you sane and in a clear mind to solve any problems.
• Ask for help. If you go the do-it-yourself route, you’ll need extra hands. We had three of us working beforehand and ended up with a cleaning crew of about five. These people were invaluable and really moved things along.
• Move things along. Start with a basic schedule for the party and stick to it as best you can. The fun of a party can easily wear out once you feel you are stuck there for hours on end. They should stay because they want to, not because they feel obligated.
• Designate a photographer. I was supposed to be our photographer, but only got a few shots because I was so busy doing other things. If you want pictures, it usually best to ask someone ahead of time as a hostess doesn’t have a lot of extra time to do this.
• Be sure the guest of honor is comfortable. The best spot for Sarah to open presents turned out to be in the direct heat. Whoops. I made sure to keep her water glass full and she said she didn’t mind, but really we should have been sure to accommodate her better.

Poor Sarah and Megan are in the direct sun all day. Whoops!

• Don’t forget the veggies. To make sure all guests feel warm and welcome, be sure to accommodate their food preferences. Have a veggie option and maybe put those bacon bits in your pasta salad on the side instead of directly in it. You may also want to have guests make note of allergies/preferences when they RSVP.

Do you have any other party planning tips to share?

I spent the last couple days with little Austin, which reminded me that I should do another post about the baby shower in his honor. Last time, we went over the initial stages of party planning, including deciding a theme, creating a menu and coming up with a guest list.

Now that you have taken the first steps, it’s time to forge ahead with the party planning.

Figure out basic logistics

Find your venue and start to plan the layout of your party. We were lucky enough to have my grandmother host at her house. We wanted it to be outside, but knew there was ample space indoors if the weather wasn’t cooperating. The food set-up was inside, with seating outside. Opting to forego tables, we set up seats in clusters in a basic circle shape with TV tray tables scattered throughout to hold drinks and plates. With the decisions made, take time to visualize the day. Try and think of every detail: will you use plastic cutlery, do you have enough plates and glasses? Where will the presents go? What will the timeline be like?

Other options could be to have food served instead of buffet style, have tables with linens and centerpieces, rent out a room at a favorite restaurant… the options are endless. A lot of these decisions are made with the next step in mind: the budget.

Set your budget

This is especially important if you’re working with a group of people. Start with a lump sum, and designate the money towards categories of importance. Do your research instead of assuming the cost of something and make sure to have your logistics in place.

I don’t have specifics of our budget, since my mom did most of the décor shopping and we split up the food duties. We are a frugal group and did our best to keep costs down. We used what we already had. Our colors were blue, white and yellow, so I grabbed what I could find from our home to use: vases, tablecloths, etc. My mom borrowed some décor items used by a friend, and used coupons for other items, like a drink bucket that we plan to use in the future.

Set your theme and start shopping

If possible, it’s good to start shopping as early as possible. The days leading up to the party are hectic enough to have to worry about going from store to store, or paying a ton in shipping.

We decided on a rubber ducky theme and began keeping our eyes open for ducky items, as well as anything in our color scheme: blue, yellow and white. My mom tracked down rubber duckies at Michael’s and nearly cleared them out of their stock. We used these to float in the buckets mentioned above. Oriental Trading Company also had some cute mini duckies that we decided to put on top of cupcakes.

Finalize your menu

It’s also good to shop for food items as early in advance and figure out when you’re going to make everything. Our menu pretty much stayed the same from the beginning: two kinds of sandwiches, two kinds of salads, punch, water, dessert. This was for about 30 people and we ended up having a bunch of food leftover.

Specifically, we had bruschetta-like sandwiches on French bread, croissant sandwiches, pasta salad from Pioneer Woman, and a Chinese chicken salad. For dessert, there were two types of cupcakes, French vanilla and lemon with cream cheese frosting and See’s candies.

Hope that is helpful for anyone planning a shower or party. I’ll be back soon with more tips on planning a baby shower. Until next time!

As much fun as it is to play hostess, it’s a challenging task to plan a party from start to finish. It’s a good thing that I love to do it! My most recent opportunity to throw a party was for my sister-in-law Sarah who is expecting their first child — who also happens to be the first grandbaby for our generation in my family.

Most of you reading things, either newlyweds or just women in general, you will probably be asked to throw a shower or other party. So I thought I would share the process we went through to plan a fun baby shower. The “we” in this case was mostly my mom and me, but I don’t want to discount Megan who was also a huge help that day.

Me, Megan and Sarah (pre-baby) at a friend's wedding.

Decide a theme or style

Sometimes you want to be fun and themey, other times you want to stay low on the cheese-factor scale. Either way, you’ll want to have something to start with. Once you have a foundation, you have a basis in making your decisions. Keep in mind colors, level of formality, how these elements could be used in decorating, etc. Ideally, you would start this 2 to 4 months in advance on this.

Create a menu

When I hosted a shower for Megan, we had a friend with a catering company help out. We planned out the basic elements like having a salad, a couple types of sandwiches and punch, and how to incorporate a theme or style into the food if we wanted. Working with a caterer or ordering from a restaurant is good for someone planning by themselves and/or who wants to be more involved in the party during the day.

If you’re up for it, you can make food yourself (and also bribe people into making a dish or two or five is possible, too). This go around, we decided to make our own food and planning the menu came about pretty simply. We chose foods based on what we knew we could make, what could be easy, having dishes offer a variety of flavors, that could be easily served and, of course, what would taste good! Another way to decide what to serve and how much is by imagining what your plate would look like at a buffet-style party. If you start offering too many dishes, some of them aren’t going to get eaten, unless you provide your guests with platters to fill up instead of plates.

While the menu may change as time goes on, having some basic decisions made on what you’ll be serving makes for a less-stressful party planning experience.

Come up with a guest list

Is your party celebrating a particular person? Don’t forget to ask them who they would want to invite. Sarah lives in Southern California and we wanted to be sure that any friends or family living up in Northern California would have the opportunity to attend.

It’s best to keep track of the guest list — including checks that invitations have been sent and who has RSVP’d — on a spreadsheet. Keeping track of guest addresses is helpful, too, in case you may want to host a similar party again.

Once you have the list finalized (or close to it), start thinking about invitations. You’ll want to have the guest list done about 2 months in advance, in time to make or order the invites and mail them out at least a month in advance. This may be too long of notice for some, but considering you’ll want people to RSVP about a week before the party, it’s really only three weeks notice.

That’s it for my first installment of how to host a baby shower — or most any party for that matter. Do you host parties very often? What are your tips?