How to Plan a Baby Shower: Your Ultimate Checklist

Three–Four Months Before Baby’s Arrival

• Decide if/when you want a baby shower

It’s totally up to you whether your baby shower is before or after your baby arrives, the proximity to baby’s arrival date or if you have a shower at all.

• Create your baby registry

You may have started your registry already, in which case, good for you for getting on that early! Your registry doesn’t necessarily have to be finished at this point, but you should feel pretty good about what you’ve registered for by the time your baby shower invites go out, because that’s when friends and family will start thinking about what gift to get you.

• Create a guest list

It’s your party and you can invite who you want to. Adults only? Kids allowed? Mixed gender? The only limitation to keep in mind is the venue’s capacity, so ask whoever is hosting the baby shower what sort of venue they plan on using.

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The Day of the Baby Shower

• Just relax—you’re the guest of honor!

Unless you really want to give the host a hand with things (or if you’re hosting your own shower), all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the celebration—it’s a party for you, after all. If the shower isn’t at your home, just be sure you’ve arranged a way to take all your gifts with you.

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One–Two Weeks After the Baby Shower

• Send thank you cards

It’s good etiquette to send thank you cards in general, and when it comes to baby shower thank yous, the sooner the better—especially if your shower was pre-baby, because you’ll have a lot less time and energy for writing cards once your little one arrives.

Two Months Before the Baby Shower

• Decide who will host the shower

While tradition says it should be a close friend who hosts, we think it’s totally okay for the party to be hosted by a family member or co-worker, too, as long as it’s someone close to the parent(s). It’s also totally fine for expectant parents to host their own shower, if that’s what works for them! Keep in mind, too, that one or two extra people to help with planning can come in handy, so consider hosting as a group.

• Set the budget

Planning a baby shower often means decorations and food for guests, which also means spending money. If you’re going to hire services like a caterer or an event planner, or if you’re going to buy everything yourself, we recommend setting a budget early on so you don’t accidentally go overboard.

If you’re looking to track costs as you go, plus keep tabs on every other aspect of baby shower planning, this Excel template keeps all the party info in one convenient spot.

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Six Weeks Before the Baby Shower

• Set the date

Whether the celebration takes place before or after baby’s arrival should be determined by the parent(s). When planning the exact date of the shower, take into consideration the parents’ schedules as well as guests’ schedules (especially if anyone is traveling for the occasion)—that should help you decide if a weekday or weekend would be better, and what time of day.

It’s important to have the date set well in advance, or at least have a couple in mind, if you’re planning on reserving a venue.

• Set the theme

Baby showers don’t have to have a theme, so if traditional pastel/neutral colors, pacifiers and baby bottles are more your speed, you’re sure to find plenty of matching decor. But if you’re thinking of doing something more trendy or unique, we recommend deciding on that pretty early, since the style of party could have some influence on where you have the shower. And since you already have your budget, now is a good time to start thinking about decor, games and party favors that will fit the theme.

• Set the location

Once you know your theme, it can help determine what kind of space you need. Are you throwing an elegant afternoon tea that requires an intimate indoor space? Or is it a large, casual gathering in someone’s backyard? Or maybe it’s some mix of the two. Whatever venue you decide on, be sure to clue in the parents so they know how many guests the space will allow for. If it’s a surprise shower, you can work with others close to the parents to devise an appropriate guest list. And once you know how many people the location will hold, make sure there’s enough room for the guests to sit and eat and have the guest of honor open gifts.

• Order invitations

We know how exciting it can be to finally let everyone know about the party you’ve been painstakingly planning, but don’t order the invitations until you have all the crucial information gathered, especially the date, time and location. It’s also a good idea to include yourself or a co-host as the contact person for RSVPs, the RSVP deadline, baby registry information and directions to the party.

If there are guests coming from out of town who would rather send their gift ahead of time, list the address where shower gifts can be received (preferably not the parents’ house, since that might spoil the surprise; have them sent to someone who can bring them on the day of the shower).

Ordering invitations about six weeks before the shower really only applies if you’re ordering custom printed ones online. If you’re buying pre-designed invitation cards from a store, then you only need to reserve as much time as it will take to fill them out by hand. If you’re emailing invitations, it’ll take even less time (we recommend going the email route if you’re pressed for time or concerned about environmental impact).

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One Month Before the Baby Shower

• Send invitations

Regardless of whether you’re emailing invites or snail-mailing, it’s customary to send them out four weeks before the baby shower. This leaves enough time for guests to mark it on their calendars and, if necessary, take time off from work or plan for their travel.

• Plan food and drinks

No matter what type of party or what time of day, the partygoers are probably going to want refreshments of some kind. It’s a good idea to start planning the menu ahead of time so you can secure catering or ask for friends’ and family’s help with food and drinks.

A potluck can make a shower menu fun and easy if a lot of the guests want to pitch in. If the guest of honor is pregnant, be sure to include pregnancy-friendly foods like mocktails, veggie sushi and pasteurized cheeses for a charcuterie board. It’s also a good idea to check with any guests for food allergies.

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One–Two Weeks Before the Baby Shower

• Finalize headcount/confirm RSVPs

There’s always a good chance that one or two invitees won’t RSVP by the deadline—check in on those few stragglers and finalize the headcount a week or two out to ensure there’s enough time to adjust any reservations if needed.

• Confirm reservations for location and/or food

If you’ve booked a venue, catering or any other service, it’s a good idea to confirm the reservation about a week out. If the shower is at a friend’s or relative’s house, or if guests will be bringing food, double check with them.

• Get decor, favors and everything you need for the games

The baby shower’s theme should be solidly in place by now and represented in the invitations, venue, food and drinks, but you can really bring it to life through decorations, party favors and fun games to entertain all the guests.

If buying a bunch of decor and favors isn’t in your budget, we fully support going the homemade route. Origami baby clothes? Adorable. No-sew bunting? Easy peasy. A stack of wrapped diaper boxes with letters that spell out baby’s name? Genius.

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The Day of the Baby Shower

• Prep snacks or any food that isn’t ordered

We suggest making a grocery run one to two days before the shower, especially if you’re doing any cooking or baking. If food can be prepped the day before the party, that means less for you to do day-of—but small, ready-made snacks can wait until just before the shower starts. And if you plan to serve cold drinks, put them in the fridge or on ice at least four hours before guests arrive.

• Set up/decorate party space

If you can take a look at the party space beforehand, even better. And if possible, it’s a nice touch to have some decorations like balloons outside to make the location really noticeable for guests.

• Assign someone to keep track of/write down gifts

If the parents don’t have a baby keepsake book yet, or if someone purchased one off of the registry, assign a willing guest to write down the gifts inside the baby book. A lot of baby books have a special page or two just for baby shower gifts, but if it doesn’t—or you don’t have a book—you can always write the gifts down on a separate paper.

• Assign one or two people to take photos

Some people are really great at remembering to photograph memorable events. Others, not so much. If you fall into the latter category, then you can ensure pictures will get taken if you designate a photographer or two. If hiring a professional isn’t in your budget, your photographer can be any partygoer with a camera or smartphone. And the baby shower itself doesn’t have to be particularly Instagram-worthy—but the parents are going to want to document those memories.