Beauty From Chaos

Sunday was my Sister’s baby shower.

I wanted to make sure it was the best it could be, but obviously I had a budget to stick to. There were a few things that made it easier to be a great shower without spending a ton of money.

One of the biggest things was that we divided the responsibilities up between 4-5 people. One person was in charge of the cake, sending out the invitations for the father’s side, and the sandwiches.

Three people were responsible for decorations, the drinks and some light food, as well as invitations for the people in the church.

One person was responsible for the plates, cups, napkins and utensils.

And one person was responsible for the invitations for the mother’s side, the veggie tray, chips and dip, games and prizes.

That last person is me. I had a lot on my tray, so I knew I needed to do something to save money.

One way we saved money was using the invitations that were provided by Babies R Us. In case you don’t know, when you register there they give you free invitations. We also saved money by mailing about 7 invitations in one big envelope to her aunts and uncles who all lived close to each other, then the aunt we mailed them to delivered them personally.

For the prizes I made yummy treats (Chocolate chip cookies). The games I kept simple so we didn’t need to spend a lot of money on those. There are many sites that list free shower games, including printable games and directions for active games. These free sites also list a ton of ideas and hints to help plan showers. Just google “baby shower ideas” and you’ll be amazed at all that will show up.

I looked around and found the best deals on the veggies, and bought sour cream to make my own dip. I also bough store brand plain chips, they taste just as good, and they were in a bowl so no one knew I didn’t buy Lays or Ruffles. I did splurge and I bought Doritos, because no generic brand comes close to the taste of those!

Much of the supplies came from the Dollar Tree (where everything costs a dollar) including the bowls, ribbon and thank you cards- as well as all the plates, cups and plasticware.

I really had no clue that little details of showers could cost that much money, I am very glad we divided the list up. Although we spent more than we had planned I know if we would have just gone to a party store and bought everything we would have spent about 5 times that much.

Although it wasn’t the best baby shower ever, there was plenty of food, fun and presents! Not to mention no one spent their life savings to throw it.