Friday, October 3, 2008

Tips and Tricks for Hosting a Baby Shower Everyone Will Enjoy

Hosting a well planned baby shower can be just as much fun for you as it is for the mother to be. It's a great feeling to see your friend or coworker surrounded by all of her favorite people and feeling like the center of attention for an afternoon. Whether you've planned 100 parties or have never planned a party in your life, there is always the fear that no one will attend or that the guests won't enjoy themselves. In this article, we'll take a look at some sure-fire ways to ensure a successful shower.

Tip #1: Make your invitations stand out by including a unique baby shower favor
After you've gathered a list of all of the contact info of the friends and family of the mother to be, it's time to get people interested with an invitation that gets people excited about the upcoming party. Try sending a unique shower favor inside the invitation like a personalized tea favor with the name of the new mom and the date of the shower.

Tea favors are a unique way to keep the date fresh in your guests' minds, and also inexpensive - around 90 cents a piece online. By extending some generosity in the form of a unique favor, you'll get people excited about returning the favor by showing up to celebrate the festivities. To ensure the best attendance, make sure to follow up with a phone call about a week before the baby shower to confirm attendance.

Tip #2: Keep the energy high with fun activities

There's a fine line between having too much scheduling at a party and not enough. The way to avoid this is by having a game plan in mind, but not being afraid to go with the flow if things naturally take a different turn. If your games and activities are fun and rewarding, guests will be excited about playing along, naturally creating a high-energy environment.

Try promoting friendly competition by offering a baby shower favor as a prize for the winners of the games and activities. How about an adorable little basket, fill with all of those extra personalized tea favors, baby shower sugar cookies, or cute little jars of sweet "Mommy to Bee" honey personalized with the new mother's name and the date of the shower. Add a pretty organza bow and this unique shower favor makes being an active participant that much more exciting.

Tip #3: Offer lots of different types of food

At a baby shower, people tend to "sample". While there may be one specific time to eat, you'll want to have a wide variety of finger foods available for people to sample throughout the course of the party.

Some ideas are platters of deli sliced lunch meats and cheeses, fruit salads, veggies, a variety of unique dips, wedges of focaccia bread, and sliced sandwich wraps.

Half of the appeal of your party food is in the way that you present it. Dress up your platters with pretty pastel ribbons or embellish the edges of the platters with pacifiers. The food table is another great place for guests to find a shower favor. Try placing a bowl of personalized chocolate bar favors in a bowl on the table. This unique favor is not only scrumptious to eat, but the pretty, personalized wrapper is the ideal baby shower keepsake.
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