Baby Shower Essentials
California has so many options available for expecting moms looking to host the most beautiful baby shower. Whether you’re looking for a rustic, round-table affair or something a little more elegant and modern, the golden state has it all.
Scrolling through your Instagram feed as a pregnant mother may seem daunting, but in reality a baby shower will help you relax and have you feeling a lot less overwhelmed, while providing you with many of the things you’ll need when your new-born arrives.
Being a new parent is stressful enough, so we’ve created a simple and effective checklist of all the essentials for throwing the perfect baby shower in California, and to take some of the stress out of planning the whole thing.
Date and time
This is the most important first step, and will be the benchmark for most of the essentials that follow. Depending on the time of year, you can even use this as the theme or inspiration for your shower’s theme – Wrapping up for Winter (think fondues, hot chocolate, warm winter sweaters), the magic of Spring (floral themes, lemonade by the pool, watermelon slices), etc.
Budget and guest list
Everything becomes clearer when you’ve established what your budget will be, and the number of guests you’re inviting. With this foundation in place, your choice of venue, décor and food will be much simpler and far more straightforward.
Venue and invitations
You really want the venue you choose to be a reflection of your style and the mood you want to create for the shower. This will help determine the look and feel for your invites and set the tone for the event, giving your guests something to really look forward to! To get you started, we’ve provided a helpful link below to some of the best baby shower venues in California, and the best part is that you can do everything online!
Décor
Décor for a Californian baby shower can be whatever you want it to be, but keeping it simple and classy is always a good approach. Go for something more minimal if you choose an outdoor venue, or go all-out indoors with flowers, balloons and streamers. There are so many places to find inspiration, so draw from the things you love (social media pages on Pinterest and Instagram are a great source of inspo!) to make it unique. You may want to consider hiring someone to assist you in decorating and setting everything up, or a cleaner to clean everything up at the end.
Food
Let’s be honest, what’s a good party without good food? This is such a great platform to be creative – Fun finger foods, shared meze platters, themed cuisine or fine dining. Make sure you get these details nailed down about three to four weeks before the shower.
Agenda and gifts
Baby showers have really evolved, so it is up to you if you want to have traditional games, go for something more creative, or skip the games entirely (check out this helpful site for some fun game ideas: https://www.beau-coup.com/baby_shower_games.htm).
Gifts are central to the event so bare this in mind when planning and make sure you include party favors or thank-you notes for all your attendees. A helpful tip here would be to get a gift registry going on, check out some of the below sites that will help your guests choose a gift. This way you get everything you need and nobody wastes their time or money.
https://www.target.com/gift-registry/baby-registry
At the end of the day, your baby shower should cultivate an energy that makes you feel good, there are no rules but we hope this checklist helps take some of the pressure off!
