Event management -- Planning a Baby Shower

Birth of a baby is the biggest event in the lives of expecting parents. Leading upto this is the shower for mommy to be. I planned a budget friendly baby shower that my gueststhorughly enjoyed and liked . I think you can go really elaborate and spend a big amount . Or you can stay within a tight budget, be creative and crafty.either way you can end up with a spectacular baby shower. (Of note I chose the later route ) Here are some party planning basics that were on my checklist . I think these helped to make the celebration a success. 

1.Invitations

I kept it simple since it was a casual baby shower .I used evite.com . I picked up a design that spoke to both the would be parents ( and of course the one that was free ).



2.Theme

Since I had to arrange a gender neutral baby shower I chose yellow and green. These two colors came to mind immediately since the baby is due in spring. The colors were an interpretation of sunshine in the lives of the parents to be .

3.Decor

Since we had a fireplace as the focal point at the venue of the baby shower I decided to adorn the mantle. I had two similar vases with fresh yellow flowers on either end of the mantle. With my love for crafts I made these pompoms. I had planned to make a large garland with onesie cutouts to hang from the mantle. But we could not use tape or push pins as per  the rental hall agreement. So I used the readymade garland from party city. And then added the small onesie garland that my friend made. I also personalized the mantle decor with gifts that the mom had already received.

Table decor looked so co-ordianted with the theme. Center piece for the tables was my favorite project. Not original but definitely worth DIY inspired by pinterest. And again my theme color yellow co-ordinating perfectly here. 

I had some cut outs of baby related things like stroller, pacifier etc all over the hall to add to my decor. 



4.Games

We played very traditional baby shower games. We incorporated the theme colors in every way we could while creating supplies for the games. We had some personalized papers and notes to write advice for parents. We had fun playing the following games ...
Baby Bingo
Price is Right
What's in your purse
Spotters
Guess the Gender
.
"Guess the gender" was a huge hit. My crafty friend made these girl and boy cutouts. We had all guests take a picture using the cut outs, predicting the gender of the baby to come. It was in a way the "photobooth."

5. Food

Food is a huge part of any Indian gatherings. We had catered delicious homemade Indian food. Keeping in mind the theme colors I also had  grapes, pineapples and orange juice.The kids enjoyed the fruits as well. (Not to mention having Costco membership certainly helps when your guest list is long ).

I had nailed down the details of the baby shower two weeks before the event. I already had all the decor, return gifts and food orders taken care of. Planning every single detail helped hugely. In the end the baby shower was spectacular and everyone was engaged and well entertained. I enjoyed the event myself as well. So what is your take when it comes to arranging a baby shower ? How do you plan a party ?