Plan the perfect meeting-room baby shower for your co-worker with these easy tips and DIY ideas!
Just because your co-workers (or your) baby shower is going to be in an office, doesn't mean it can't be decorated lavishly while sticking to a budget. Some top tips to get started:
1. Talk with the mama-to-be about preferences.
This first step is crucial! Since it is all about the mother to be, you want them to be as comfortable as possible with the event. Some important topics to cover:
Invites - Discuss with them if they want the father or partner to be invited, if co-workers outside of the department should be invited
Planning - How much do they want to be involved with the planning process? Some mom's might want to be heavily involved, and others might just want the calendar request! Ask the mom if they have a vision for the theme, and confirm any dates that may or may not work with their schedule.
Games - Not everyone likes shower games! To be real - not all games are enjoyable for mother and party guests alike. Make sure you absolutely know the mother's opinion!
2. Get others involved.
Getting two to three others involved with fine detail planning will help you tremendously. Make sure you get people involved that want to be involved, don't just assign someone to help. The way I went about this was contact a couple of coworkers that were closest with the mama, to see if they were interested first. Past that, I asked coworkers that tended to be involved with other party planning activities.
3. Plan!
The planning time should be fun and not stressful! It may be best to create a Pinterest vision board prior to meeting with others, and then adding the group to the planning page during the first planning meeting. When you meet with the group - set up a lunch time meeting to get things started. If possible, don't book a conference room that people use frequently. Use a smaller or less used conference room, someone's office, a break room, or go out to lunch for an off-site appointment. Bring a notebook and writing utensil with you or a laptop and charging cord. Just like any other meeting, having a meeting outline can enhance the flow of the meeting, and be an efficient use of time. Creating a Google Doc will keep these details organized and accessible.
Important details to go over:
Theme and decorations.
How will each person contribute.
Food & beverage.
Picking a gift from the baby registry and collecting funds for a gift.
Logistics like picking a room.
3. The Event
Prior to the shower, you should map out the event space to determine how you will set up tables and decorations. For this jungle themed shower I recommend hanging these DIY boom-chicka-boom inspired trees from the ceiling tiles.
What you'll need:
Gold streamers
Brown balloons
Green butcher craft paper (the kind that they have on rolls at public schools)
Tape
Paperclips (for hanging).
How To:
Cut 3 large leaves out of the green butcher paper per each tree you'll be making. Iron these out so that they are flat - carefully making sure that you don't burn the paper!!
Blow up 2 balloons (per each tree you'll be making) only partway so that they resemble the size of coconuts.
Trim the gold streamers so that they're the height of the room they'll be hanging in. I had used 2 streamers per tree.
Assembly:
Tape the three leaves together at the center from both sides. Two of the balloons and streamers get taped to the underneath side of the leaves.
Take the paperclip and unwind it so that you can hook one half of the clip into the tree, and the other half can hold the tree up between the ceiling tiles.
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