Here are 6 baby shower tips to help the hostess. Hosting baby showers is an extremely satisfying experience. The word 'baby' alone puts one in a joyous mood. Add to it a party, your best friends and gifts and you really cannot go wrong. However, babyshowers can be expensive affairs for the hostess. Once you add the cost of invitations, decorations, games, food, gifts and favors the total can become rather daunting.
However, that does not mean you have to completely opt out of hosting them. Some of the best things in life are free! So here are some great baby shower tips on planning on a budget.
Tip #1
If most of the guests have emails and are connected to the Internet send e-invitations. You can log on to one of the many free invitation sites and send as many invites as you want. It saves time and doesn't cost you a penny. The invitations for babyshowers are ultra cute to boot.
Baby Shower Tip #2
For decorations try and think up ways in which you can make them do double duty. For instance: for a centerpiece for the food table create a lovely Red Watermelon Pram Salad or Cake-A-Blocks. The idea is to make the centerpiece by serving the food itself attractively. So in effect, you just do up the food and save yourself the trouble of creating just an 'attractive' centerpiece.
Baby Shower Tip #3
Get the guests to pitch in with the without them realizing it. You can have a 'best baby chef' contest. Ask each guest to prepare a 'baby food' and bring along the recipe. The guest who brings the tastiest 'baby food' wins a prize. Serve the 'baby foods' as refreshments and save yourself the food bill. Some guests may even want to prepare jars of baby food that can be stored for 4-6 months without spoiling and make a gift of it to the mother-to-be.
Baby Shower Tip #4
For entertainment, research all the free baby shower games online and play the ones that don't require too many accessories. Playing games that need a bottle or bib for each guest to compete, or that require you to buy a lot of baby accessories can increase the cost of your party. One way to reduce the cost is to buy a complete hamper of baby products and use it for the memory game. Then you can make a gift of the hamper to the mother-to-be.
Tip #5
Party favors can also cost a pretty penny. While DIY favors are obviously the cheapest option you have, it is not always the easiest. If you prefer to buy favors then look for undecorated items that you can pretty up yourself. So buy a batch of baby cookies and then tie up 5 cookies each in pink or blue tulle with a golden ribbon. The batch of cookies will be much cheaper than buying 5 cookie favors.
Tip #6
Again, you can also make the favors do double duty as decorations. Get small cookie bouquets and use them as centerpieces and as favors to hand out when the guests are leaving. Get a polaroid camera and click pictures of all the guests with the mother-to-be. Hand out as party favors at the end of the party.
With a little ingenuity and creative thinking with the help of these tips, baby showers need not cost a fortune and can still be great fun!
Author Resource:
Samet Yahya Bilir is is a freelance writer who writes about home and family topics such as homemade baby shower centerpiece recipes and balloon decorations for weddings .