The show must go on, or rather the party, and while it’s not as great as the “real thing”, a virtual baby shower is a wonderful way to celebrate your baby’s upcoming birth and to bring everyone together.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to planning a virtual shower:
Decide on the best platform
Just like choosing a location, you’ll need to decide on the best digital platform to host your shower. Your options include:
- Zoom: up to 100 friends can chat for up to 40 minutes for free, and longer and with more people with a paid subscription (with Zoom, you can also record the party to watch with your child one day!).
- FaceTime: up to 32 people can speak together, but they will all need an Apple device.
- Google Hangouts: up to 25 friends can chat together. Everyone needs a Gmail account.
- Skype: up to 50 friends can speak for up to four hours.
Send out invitations
You can create an awesome invitation in Canva, for example, and send via email or WhatsApp (there are so many other things you can do in Canva too, so it’s well worth looking at).
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There are platforms for sending out e-invites too with them – we like Evite and Paperless Post. If you’re having your baby shower on Zoom, Paperless Post also has Zoom backgrounds to match your shower theme.
A brilliant baby shower platform is WebBabyShower, where you can create invitations, a virtual guestbook, private albums, quizzes and scoreboard. It costs $80 to use it, but if you think about all the money being saved on the actual shower, it might be worthwhile.
Set up a virtual baby registry
If you haven’t done so already, you can create an online baby registry. Try the likes of Babies R Us, Baby City, Baby Boom, My Baby Online, Mr Price Home, Faithful to Nature and Wrapistry.
Decorate
You don’t have to decorate, but it might make things feel more festive if you do. One BabyYumYum reader, Monica, had a bunny theme for her virtual shower and a friend gifted her with the décor setup – balloon arrangements, serviettes, paper plates and bunting – which she had delivered. Monica not only had minimal “work” to do, but she also felt like it was a festive shower with the décor.
There are lots of online party shops with beautiful products – just Google to find what you’re after.
Just because you’re not physically surrounded by your gift–givers, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still open your presents.
Get everyone to dress up
While most people might attend your virtual party in PJs or loungewear (the new term for fancier PJs), why not ask them to dress up for the occasion? It could be all pink for a girl, or crazy hats, or even smart wear.
Arrange a feast
Is it a party without food? You don’t need to make platters or dishes yourself, but you can either order from the likes of Uber Eats or Mr D, or if someone offers, they can drop off a snack platter or meal. Don’t forget some bubbly – the non-alcoholic type. Do whatever you can to make it feel like a real celebration, which it most certainly is!
At most baby showers, there would be a cake or cupcakes, and even if it’s just you and your partner, you can still go “big” with beautifully decorated goods.
Open gifts as you usually would
Just because you’re not physically surrounded by your gift–givers, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still open your presents. People love seeing your gifts and “oohing” and “aahing” over the cute clothing, so try to include unwrapping your presents as part of your baby shower.
Arrange some entertainment
There are lots of online games you can play. You can ask a friend to run the games and choose winners (if you want to give out prizes, you can get online vouchers). Guests can write down answers and hold them up to the screen after each game or send them to the host privately.
- Guess the number: The host holds up a jar filled with sweets and the guests need to guess how many are inside.
- Guess the baby: The host shares everyone’s baby pics (these will need to be sent before the event) and guests must guess who they are (don’t worry if not everyone knows each other – they’ll see each other onscreen and will be able to guess by looking).
- Name the baby song: The host plays clips of lullabies or nursery rhymes and the guests need to guess the name.
- Create a shared Google document: Ask guests to guess the name of your baby and their estimated birth date.
- Ask guests to fill out the form below and send it to you. You can print it out and keep it in your baby’s journal.
Take some pics
Don’t forget to take screenshots of your online event. Ask every guest to take a selfie of themselves, which you can make into a collage and even print out.
