How to plan an office baby shower on a budget

Your colleague just sent an email letting you know she’s expecting and your coworkers start talking about throwing an office baby shower. But…where do you begin? What’s the protocol? How do you celebrate the big news? Don’t fret! The party specialists at Evite are here to share our top tips and tricks to planning an office baby shower on a budget including going in on a gift. Keep reading for everything you need to know when planning an office baby shower.

The decor

If you’re unsure of the baby’s gender (or even if you already know!), consider choosing a gender-neutral theme and opt for bright, bold colors like blue and yellow. You may be at work, but you can still spruce up your space with some brightly-colored banners, balloons, and streamers. Not only are they cost-effective, but they’re easy options to transform any conference room space. Fresh flowers are another fun and festive way to decorate that won’t break the bank. Purchasing pre-arranged bouquets from a florist can be expensive, so an easy way to save is by buying your own flowers from the grocery store and arranging them yourself. Your guests won’t notice the difference and the flowers will add a bright burst of color!

The menu

Since you’ll be hosting your shower during office hours, you may want to consider doing so during your lunch hour so you don’t have to plan around afternoon meetings. Set up a food and drink station where guests can serve themselves and mix and mingle with coworkers while they eat. Office baby showers tend to be on the shorter side, so keep the menu light by serving bite-sized finger foods–think sliders, finger sandwiches, skewers, salad, and cheese and crackers.

For office showers on a budget, instead of placing individual food orders for each guest, have the shower catered by a local restaurant that everyone enjoys or pick up snacks, apps, and dessert from a nearby grocery store and arrange everything on serving trays for added elegance.

For dessert, serve mini sweets like macarons, fruit tarts and cupcakes.

Since this is an office event, you’ll want to serve non-alcoholic drinks, like sparkling water or lemonade. If you want to feel extra fancy, you can serve drinks in cocktail glasses or with paper straws.

The games

Keep things fun and festive by having a game for everyone to play. The Baby Trait Game is a budget-friendly baby game that’s fun for everyone. You can find printable playing cards online and print one for everyone at work. Then, give each guest a piece of paper and a pencil to mark off which trait they think the baby will inherit from each parent.

The gifts

Giving gifts to parents-to-be can be quite personal and if you don’t know your co-worker well, you may find yourself struggling to find something that feels right. Instead of playing a guessing game when it comes to gifts, help the new parents out by having everyone bring a box of diapers to your office shower. Not only does it make it easy on office guests, but it saves money for the parents-to-be in the first few months when they’ll need diapers most. But don't forget to ask around to see if they have a registry as well—if it isn't a surprise party, you can even include a link to their registry right on the invitation!

The favors

Thank guests for joining the mom-to-be at her shower by sending them home with a sweet gift. A succulent or small jar of flowers is a great gift to send home with guests because it’s something they can easily take home with them, or keep on their desk. Plus, if you’re on a budget, fresh flowers can do double-duty as decor during the party, then act as favors after the party ends. And, for just a few dollars, you can make your own flower arrangements for guests.

Purchase paint and mini mason jars from your local craft store and flowers from a local grocery store or flower market, then paint the exterior of the mason jar to match your decor. Trim the stems of the flowers to fit the mason jars, then arrange each one on the end of your baby shower station.

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