How to Throw a Baby Shower on a Budget

If you have a baby shower to plan and you are working with a limited amount of money then you will want to read this post on How to Throw a Baby Shower on a Budget.

This past weekend we celebrated the upcoming arrival of my sister’s TWINS with a baby shower. Now, this wasn’t just your ordinary baby shower. My sister and her husband have chosen NOT to find out the sex of the babies (What?!?!?) so we had to plan a gender neutral baby shower. We went with yellows and greens (of course) but we threw in some pinks and blues too. Why not, right? We also had limited resources and managed to pull off a beautiful event soI’m going to share with you how to throw a baby shower on a budget. We did it and so can you!

RELATED: 6 Nursery Wall Prints that you can download for FREE and frame for the perfect baby shower gift!

I’m the youngest of 4 girls and sister #1 couldn’t make it to the shower so it was up to me and sister #2 to take care of all things crafty. We both love to DIY (I keep telling her she needs to start a blog!) so we had a ton of fun planning this event. Plus mom-to-be, Kate, has been on a rough road to get to this point so we were overjoyed to be able to FINALLY plan a baby shower for her.

INVITATIONS

First things first: The invitation. Since I love to design printables, I created this baby shower invitation and used Vista Print to print them out. Of course you don’t have to go this route. You can find a bunch of adorable invites at your local Target or Walmart and hand write them out. You can also choose to send and Evite instead this way you are saving money on stamps too.

FOOD

When we were thinking of how to throw a baby shower on a budget my mind went right to food and what would be the most affordable method. We went with a dessert shower! If you plan it for around 2 pm most  people would probably already have eaten lunch and would be ready for a little snack. If you have a Costco or Sam’s Club or BJ’s nearby you can pick up cookie trays, cupcakes, baked goods and delicious cakes for cheap. If you have any bakers in the family, you can also add some delicious homemade goodies.

Our Menu

Cake Pops in Blue and Pink

Chocolate Covered Pretzels with crushed M&Ms on top

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes

Fruit Cups

Yogurt, fruit and granola parfaits

Chocolate Trifle

M&M Cookies (each cookie had a different color M&M in it; light blue, light green, yellow and pink)

Crumb Cake

Individual Cheesecakes

Anisette Cookies (made by my grandmother who couldn’t be there)

Cake

As soon as my sister announced that she was pregnant, my cousin messaged me on Facebook and offered to make the baby shower cake. Ummm……..this girl DELIVERED! Holy cow! Never in my life have I seen a cake like this. The detail and the size of it were incredible! And it was delicious!!! The animals are made out of rice krispies! I know. Ridiculous. She spared no details. It’s amazing! If you live in the NJ or Long Island area, you NEED to reach out to her for your next event. She kind of just does this as a hobby but would love to eventually open up a business. I can get you her info if you want it. Just leave a comment on this post. 🙂

If you don’t have a talented family member or friend who can make a cake for you, order one from BJ’s or any of the wholesale stores I mentioned earlier. Their cakes are sooooo yummy and super affordable!

DECORATIONS

We used plain colored paper plates, cups and table cloths that we picked up from the dollar store and added chevron wrapping paper as table runners and some cute chevron napkins to add a pop of color. Tissue Paper Pompoms and Circle Punch Garland adorned our dessert table and those were easy (and cheap!) to make.

DIAPER CAKE CENTERPIECES

For the centerpieces I made single layer diaper cakes. I used about 8-10 diapers for each one, wrapped (and hot glued) chevron ribbon around the “cake” and hot glued adorable wooden animals that I got from Hobby Lobby for under $1 each. I also made small tissue paper pompom flowers for the top. So cute and very budget-friendly!

Table Setting

As I mentioned for the tables we used white paper table cloths and chevron runners. We also used chevron napkins (from Hobby Lobby) on the tables along with some cute “She’s About to Pop” printables stuck in cups of popcorn.

GAMES

We decided to go with Baby Shower Bingo and Price is Right. Since we were not having a full menu, we needed to fill some of the time so we went with games. The guests had a great time playing and we had fun picking winners! I made these games myself and download links are at the bottom of this post.

BABY SHOWER FAVORS ON A BUDGET

My sister, Meri, made the adorable onesie favor tags with her Silhouette Cameo and we decided to go with pink and blue hand soaps that were purchased at the dollar store. We had a table set up on the way out and we had a few little helpers (my girls and my niece) pass them out as people went home.

I made Printable Favor Tags for Twins in case anyone does not have access to a Cameo or another cutting machine. You can grab those HERE. 

I plan on sharing all of the printables I created for this gender neutral baby shower in a separate post soon! It will include the baby shower bingo and price is right games as well as the “she’s about to pop” tags.

The day was truly a success even a midst the snow and the stressful ride home in a snow storm! Now, we wait. Her due date is April 22 (our dad’s birthday) but she will most likely have them in March. My birthday is March 31………just sayin!

UPDATE:

My sister gave birth to 2 identical, healthy BOYS on April 2 at 37 weeks, 1 day. Michael Robert weighed in at 6 lbs, 4 oz and James Anthony weighed in at 5 lbs, 12 oz. Here they are (James, left, Michael, right)

It’s taken me awhile but I finally shared the FREE printable Baby Shower Games. Woot!!

If you’re looking for nursery decor on a budget, you’ll love this collection of 6 Printable Nursery Wall Art Designs – perfect for baby’s new room.