Shower invitations

I am having a baby shower for my best friend and have a few questions.
How far in advance should I send invitations? What are some good games
to play? And last, but not least . . . I want to serve ONE alcholic
fun drink in addition to the decaf iced tea and sparkling water. Any
ideas? TIA - Liza

I think generally it's a good idea to send invitations about 3 weeks in
advance, with maybe a verbal heads up sooner for people from out of town
who may need to make arrangements to stay overnight.

I personally hate any and all party games and strongly discourage their
occurance at any party to do with me, but a common one I've seen at
baby showers is a memory game. You make a tray of miscellaneous baby
gizmos and gadgets, show it around the room for a limited period of
time, then everyone gets a paper and pencil and has a certain amount of
time to write down as many things they can remember were on the tray.
Person with the most correct answers wins a prize. There can be a
definite age gap/parenting style gap in this game though, so consider
your audience when choosing items. I was at one shower with a bunch of
older women from one of the gramma's church, and they didn't have a clue
what some of the items even were, never mind remember them to write them
down. Also if your friend and most of her friends are of the more
crunchy/earthy variety (inclined to breastfeed, cloth diaper,
homeopathic meds, etc.) they also may not recognize a tray full of
mainstream stuff. (I was in with the gramma bunch at that one party,
there was all kinds of stuff I had never seen before, and I had a toddler.)

A beautiful punch bowl with a nice champagne punch would be lovely. I'm
sure you could find a recipe online easily.

-Karen, mom to Henry 3 3/4 and someone due rather soonish-

I am having a baby shower for my best friend and have a few questions.
How far in advance should I send invitations? What are some good games
to play? And last, but not least . . . I want to serve ONE alcholic
fun drink in addition to the decaf iced tea and sparkling water. Any
ideas? TIA - Liza


Shower invitations are normally sent anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 weeks before
the event. Depends on when and where the party is, whether any guests are
expected to travel, whether you need a firm headcount in advance for catering
or other purposes, and so on.

"Good" games to play depends on what sort of things the people on the guest
list enjoy. Do you want "traditional" silly shower games (like guess what baby
food is in the unlabelled jar), or something more like what you'd do at any
party (volleyball for an afternoon picnic, board games for an evening indoor
party)? Will the crowd like pencil-and-paper games, a craft project? Or will
they resist any organized game and prefer to just chat and nosh?

Also think about whether the guest of honor will object to any activity that
might be embarrassing or put too much of a spotlight on her. For example, I
went to one shower at which the mom-to-be was made to change a diaper (on a
realistic baby doll) blindfolded; while this sort of thing can be fun for some
women, for others it would be really uncomfortable.

Can't help with the drinks -- my beverage repertoire is mostly limited to
things that come in cans and bottles. :-)

Holly
Mom to Camden, 3yo
EDD #2 6/8/04

I remember another game from a co-ed baby shower. A roll of toilet paper
was passed around the room to the men. They had to estimate by sight the
girth of the pregnant woman and remove from the roll the amount of tp
they think would fit around her belly. Whoever got the closest
size/amount won a prize. The men were not allowed to receive any help in
guessing from their female partners, and there was much laughter at the
ridiculously small and egregiously large estimates.

-K-

I personally hate any and all party games and strongly discourage their
occurance at any party to do with me, but a common one I've seen at
baby showers is a memory game.

I tend to agree, but I wanted to have just a couple of games. My
friend loves that stuff.

Also if your friend and most of her friends are of the more
crunchy/earthy variety (inclined to breastfeed, cloth diaper,
homeopathic meds, etc.) they also may not recognize a tray full of
mainstream stuff. (I was in with the gramma bunch at that one party,
there was all kinds of stuff I had never seen before, and I had a toddler.)

There is definitely a cross-section of folks that will be invited -
some crunchy, some not, so I guess that would make the game more
interesting.

A beautiful punch bowl with a nice champagne punch would be lovely. I'm
sure you could find a recipe online easily.

Good idea. Thank you.

-Karen, mom to Henry 3 3/4 and someone due rather soonish-

Here's to a wonderful birth!! -Liza

My friend threw in a game at my bridal shower, which could be used at a baby
shower...It begins as the memory game, where they walk around with the tray
full of items that everyone tries to concentrate on. Then after the time is up
and before people have a chance to write anything down, my friend said, "Okay,
now that you've seen the tray, what is Christine wearing?" The person who
could remember the most details won the game. Just a cute variation I thought
I'd share!