A good baby shower host will be able to keep track of who's been sent an invitation, who's responded with their RSVP and who will be helping on the day of the baby shower with things like bringing in the ice cream cake before it melts in the sun or setting the table at least a half hour before the shower begins.
Breaking Taboos
If you're like many pregnant women, a few good-intentioned people may have come forward offering to throw your shower, though they may not have the organizational skills to make it happen. Therefore, if your highly-organized friends or family members are too far away or too busy to help, go ahead and do it yourself. While this may seem taboo, it happens more and more nowadays. For example, the pregnant woman can organize the list of attendees' names, phone numbers and addresses, fill out the paper invitations or create an email invitation, then forward this information to another person to send out from her address. This way, all of the baby shower ducks are in a row, and nobody will even know the expectant mother organized a thing.Thinking Through the Basics
The first consideration when planning any baby shower is the location. While throwing the shower at someone's home is traditional, consider how much easier the clean-up will be if you hold the shower at a beautiful local park. Paper plates, napkins, tablecloths and gift wrap can all be thrown away in the nearby trash can and no one has to wash a single dish. Outdoor barbecues are surely going to make a hungry mama happy, and will offer the guys (who can also attend!) a reason to man the grill under a shaded tree in the park.Any baby shower will require a standard list of supplies, including: tablecloths (held down with scotch tape, especially if hosting outdoors), decorations (go minimal if you're on a budget; dollar stores are great for this), a cake (check out the cheap deals and cool styles at your local grocer), some food (barbecues are a no-brainer that feed everyone for cheap), and of course, games to play with family and friends.
Having fun at your baby shower doesn't require a lot of money. Look online to find lists of baby shower games to consider and choose those that seem easy to reproduce. Most baby shower games take very few materials to play, such as the classic game where all attendees try to "measure the mama" with either a piece of string or toilet paper. Ask participants to cut off a length of string or guess how many toilet paper squares in a row will wrap around the expectant mama's tummy; you may be surprised at the results when everyone guesses much bigger than the mommy's tummy really is!
The duties of the host don't end when the baby shower does; instead, the host should stay to clean up the mess and ensure that the pregnant woman isn't left carrying everything back to the car. A gracious baby shower host will even assist with writing down who gave what gift and fill out thank you cards, to the relief of the already tired mommy-to-be.