Plan a Creative Baby Shower in 3 Easy Steps
Baby showers can be exhausting to plan and expensive to host. This is not necessary, however to have a great celebration for the new mom, her friends and family. The basic planning details like invitations, venue, decorations, games, gifts, favors and food have been addressed thoroughly in other articles. Here, the creativity behind a truly fun baby shower will be outlined in three easy steps.Think of Audio, Visual and Tactile elements as the main ingredients for a creative and memorable event.
Do You Hear What I Hear?
The sound of a party can make or break the event, and this is probably the most overlooked part of the planning. If the baby shower is held at a restaurant, or other public venue, the music or other audio element cannot be controlled. However, the auditory experience of the participants at a privately held party can set the tone (no pun intended) for the entire event. This is the perfect opportunity to personalize the baby shower to the growing family. Music for almost any popular children’s show can be found on iTunes or Amazon. A compilation of music from any of the following will serve as a great backdrop to the corresponding baby shower theme:
- Music from The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh can be used for a shower highlighting the bear with very little brain.
- A compilation of songs from the many Disney movies featuring princesses can work for a baby girl party.
- Music from The Nutcracker could compliment a baby girl shower held around the holidays
- The Lion Sleeps Tonight, along with Jungle Book music or Rain Forest sounds could be perfect for a Noah’s Ark baby shower.
Background music isn’t the only audio consideration for guests of the party. Pay attention to the possible noise level during the event. Having several possible gathering spots for participants will cut down on the shouting matches that might occur for conversations to be heard.
Do You See What I See?
There are many ways to structure the elements of a successful baby shower visually around any theme. Invitations and decorations are plentiful at any party store for Winnie-the-Pooh, for instance, but what if money is tight, or the party is hosted at a restaurant? Consistent visual elements can support Pooh Bear without the need to see his face on everything. Orange card stock with dark red print for the invitations along with orange and red balloons and bows for the chairs or flowers for the centerpieces can make any baby shower pop with this theme without overwhelming everyone with the bear and his friends.
These colors can be carried through to the food/dessert and favors. Specialty bakeries and chain grocery stores alike make custom cakes for any occasion. Use this visual color palette to be creative with the food. For instance, a Christopher Robin “growing up” could be used for the party favors. Orange and Red M&M’s can be ordered with baby’s name at MyMMs, and small clay plant pots, or orange clay look-alike pots can be planted with a few red flowering plant seeds as a memorable gift for party-goers.
Using two or three visual elements or colors will make a few well-chosen centerpieces of the party stand out even more. A Winnie-the-Pooh banner and large stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh with a bow around his neck sitting at the gift table will draw every eye when the rest of the shower has red and orange accents. A baby boy party could be accented visually using blue and yellow with sports or cowboy centerpieces, or a princess baby shower could have lilac and silver accents around blinged-out crowns or castles. The idea of “Less is More” gives the decorations a more couture feel.
Very Touchy
Since audio, visual and tactile are the three main ways adults and children learn and remember, the kinesthetic (touch or movement) can only add to this memorable event. This can be as simple as passing around a Woody action figure to the next person in line to answer questions during a game at a baby boy party, or as complex as a tag attached to each person’s drink glass with a question they must ask during a game at a Toile decorated elegant baby shower.
Including something participants must hold, or touch or physically do during a specific part of the party will make the baby shower that much more memorable. An easy and very common technique for the touchy part of a creative baby shower would be for the hostess to require each participant attending the event to create a scrapbook page for a book that will be presented to the new mom. This step can also be used to create one of the most unique keepsakes of any baby shower – a belly painting or belly cast! The belly painting can compliment the color scheme of the party, and the belly cast can remind the new mom (and dad) how big her bump actually grew!
Using these three techniques will change a basic party designed to equip a new first time mom with the baby essentials into a truly unique, fun, memorable celebration of new life. The planning of such an event is usually just as fun as attending it…more so when the compliments start flowing!
