Making Final Preparations for the Baby Shower

By this point the guest list should be settled, the venue confirmed, and the food, decorations, favours and cake bought or ordered. What remains is assembly, and the main risk is trying to do all of it on the morning.

How much can be done in advance

This depends entirely on where the shower is being held, and it is the difference between a calm morning and a frantic one.

At home, most of the setting up can happen two days ahead. Furniture moved, decorations up, the gift table arranged, anything that freezes or keeps prepared and put away. The day before is for finishing the food, finishing the cleaning, and putting out bins and bags for wrapping paper.

At a hired room, none of that is possible until the venue opens its doors. Everything compresses into whatever setting-up window was agreed at the time of booking — which is why that window is one of the things worth confirming in writing when the room is reserved. Two hours is a reasonable allowance for decorating a room from scratch. One is not.

The morning

A written order of tasks is worth more than a good memory, particularly for the items with their own timing. Something that needs several hours to defrost is the classic thing to remember at eleven o'clock.

Roughly, in order:

• Collect the cake, the flowers and any balloons that were ordered
• Set out tables and seating, if not already done, and dress them
• Decorate the food and drink areas and the gift table, not only the main room
• Put up streamers, banners and balloons, within whatever the venue permits
• Lay out food, with a serving spoon or tongs for every dish
• Put out drinks, fill ice buckets, make coffee and tea
• Gather the game materials and the prizes in one place
• Mark the entrance with balloons or a sign, so guests know they have the right address
• Put out bins, and a bag for wrapping paper

On the cake: it is collected on the day, not baked on it. Most bakeries decorate the day before, and anything ordered to a theme will have been made further ahead than that. Somebody needs to be named as responsible for collecting it and getting it there intact.

Jobs to give away

The most common failure at a baby shower is a host who spends the afternoon in the kitchen and sees none of it. Each of the following is a discrete job that somebody else can hold:

• Answering the door and taking coats
• Keeping drinks topped up
• Photographs and video
• Writing down each gift and who gave it, as they are opened
• Managing anyone joining by video call
• Clearing plates as the afternoon goes on, so the end is not a mountain

Asking people in advance works. Asking on the day, while holding a tray, does not.

The guest of honour

One chair, comfortable, positioned where everyone can see her and she can see everyone. Somewhere to put a drink. A footstool if there is one going. She should not be standing for two hours, and she should not be carrying anything.

She also should not be the one keeping an eye on the time, the food or the guests, however capable she is and however much she offers.

When it is over

Two things need arranging before the day rather than during it. Somebody packs up the gifts and gets them to the parents' home — there will be more than arrived, and often more than fits in one car. And somebody gets the guest of honour home.

At a hired venue, clearing and returning the room to the state it was found in is usually a condition of the booking, and sometimes of getting a cleaning deposit back. Hired chairs, glassware or linen need returning within whatever period was agreed. Neither is a job for the host alone at six in the evening, and both are much easier with two or three people who were asked in advance to stay behind.