To prepare for my friend Pati's baby shower I started months before the planned event day. I started with "scrapbooked" save the date, which I made and posted at work (since mostly work people were invited) and emailed a picture I took of the save the date to the people not invited from work. I did this about 2 months before the event. Here is the save the date below.
Next I started on the invitation which included more details than the save the date. On the "scrapbooked" invitation I added a pocket where I put reminder cards with directions to the party. I posted this one month before the party and sent out a e-vite (electronic invitation) the same time.
I came up with a game to play gift Bingo. While Pati opened her gifts people marked corresponding Bingo spaces for the gift opened. This was a big hit, people got very into what she was opening and were very involved in the process. I wish I had said only one box marked per gift because I think it would have kept the game going a little longer. I had prizes for all the games too! We also played the guess the mom's belly size using sting. The winner came within 1 cm away!
While out and about over the two months of planning I picked up drinks, paper goods, decorations, prizes as to not leave it all to the last minute. It really helped to keep things simple the last 2 days before the shower so I could focus on all the fresh food for the day of!
The dessert preperations I started early as well. For the favors I wanted to make decorated sugar cookies. I found a sugar cookie recipie from another blog I came across and made it and froze the dough 2 weeks ahead. A week before the shower I transfered it to the refridgerator and then the next day rolled it out, cut the cookies using onesie, pram and rubber duckie cookie cutters, and then baked immediately. After cooling, I placed back in freezer ziplock bag and placed the cookies back in the freezer. A few days before the shower I took the cookies out of the freezer to start the decorating process.
I also made cupcakes in batches and placed in the freezer and then frosted them the day before the shower and left them room temperature.
I also made carmel, chopped almond and chocolate drizzle covered pretzel rods. These were made just under a week away from the shower and after the carmel hardened and chocolate dried, they were placed in a ziplock bag to keep fresh til the shower.
The day before I made a very easy carmel brownie recipie from Cooking Light Magazine.
All the food, but ESPECIALLY the sweets were enjoyed by all, I'm so thankful I started early.
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