We are throwing my close friend from college a baby shower. She is an older first-time mom (37). The shower is a brunch at a restaurant in our hometown. Our college friends are coming in from all over the country, so this is also a bit of a reunion.
I want to make this a special occasion, without the typical shower games. We are putting together a scrapbook to remember the shower, but I would love some other creative ideas.
My friend is fairly wealthy, but misses her friends since many of us have moved from our home state. So for her the experience and celebration are more important than us helping her buy the nursery necessities.
What about having everyone email you reasons why they love your friend? You could put it together in a book about "what makes your mommy special". Or take portions of their comments and include them in the scrapbook. I'll keep thinking!
I'm more into the memories and at my baby shower my friend made the theme of the shower something about books - not sure of the name, bue she asked all the guests to bring a book for the baby's library. She created labels and included them in the invite. The labels read:
For "baby's name" library with love from:
then she added the date of the baby shower. I thought it was great because that started his library for reading every night. When my husband or I read our son a book, we start with the label.
Another idea given to me from a family member that lives in St. Thomas was to ensure that our son looked at pictures of family & friends since he doesn't get to see them often (they all live in FL). That being said, try to make it a point to take a college friend portrait that she could frame and keep in the nursery.
I'm looking forward to reading the other responses too!
Have fun!
Wow, I love these responses... You could also have each guest write a story to place in your scrap book about special memories you have with each one of them, or how they know you and special times they spent with baby's "mom" before the baby was a twinkle in her eye!
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I'm not real big on shower games, either. However, for my sister's, I found a game that I really liked. It only works, though, if the parents have decided on a name, are willing to share it, but haven't told anyone at the shower yet. I filled enough balloons for the number of people there with little scraps of paper. One had the name on it. The others had a "smart" something written on it--like, "Ooops, not a winner, but maybe you can change a diaper as a consolation prize" or something like that. Everyone chooses a balloon and pops them all at the same time. The one with the name on it is the winner, gets a prize and gets to share the name with everyone. It was a cute way to reveal the name.
Otherwise, you could have several diapers on a table with a basket next to the diapers. Everyone writes a message for mom on at least one diaper and puts it in the basket. That was done at my first baby shower, and the messages always brought me a smile, even at 2am!
