Sweet “Bee” Baby Shower Plus Tips and Tricks for Staying on Budget

  I hosted a baby shower this past week for two lovely ladies, Erin and Maureen, from my bible study group. Erin actually had her baby prior to the shower (sweet little Clara arrived healthy and happy a couple weeks early) and she is perfection!! The ladies were thrilled to meet Clara and she was the life of the party. Maureen is due soon. She has not found out her baby’s gender and although I feel that not finding out is the ultimate surprise, I was never able to do it myself, which may be why I enjoy planning gender-neutral showers so much. Erin and Maureen are wonderful mothers and spiritually kind women so I wanted to shower them with love and celebrate their new babies. Here are my tips and tricks for throwing a party and keeping it on budget.

Throwing a party can get really expensive especially if you are like me and your ideas are bigger than your budget. I have planned many parties over the years and have come up with a few tricks to ensure my parties look amazing but don’t break the bank. The first trick is to come up with a theme where you already have some materials on hand. I found some bee themed fabric and a few small bee party props left over from my “Queen B” baby shower that Amy threw while I was pregnant with Atlas {click here to see my AMAZING baby shower}. If you can manage to utilize what you have on hand, it will save you a small fortune. Another tip is to hit your local dollar store. I am always surprised by what you can find there. They had square plates (they are quite popular right now and usually run about $4.00/package), napkins and a plastic table cloth all in the shade of yellow I was looking for. They also had this roll of  black and white damask wrapping paper (located in the wedding aisle) which I ended up using as a table runner.   The damask runner made the table look elegant, even with the plastic cloth underneath, and the runner and cloth only only cost me $2.00. I do suggest using your fine china, crystal, decorative serving platters and pottery when hosting any event because it will always make your table look elegant and your guests feel extra special. If you don’t have a lot of serve ware, hit your local thrift store; again, you will be amazed at what you can find. Try to stick with the same color palette so you can use what you purchase at future events and buy white and/or clear glass as it goes with everything.

The last thing I do to tie and event together is search the web for free printables. I found two sets of free printables that I choose for this bee themed baby shower. The first came from Seshalyn Party Ideas and included a flag banner, a polka dot flower banner, cupcake toppers and bottled water wraps.  It was all free minus your personal cost for printing. I only used the banners for this party since I didn’t serve bottled water or cupcakes and thus used about 20 sheets of paper. The second free printable came from Daydream Believers. It fit my theme perfectly and I simply framed it as part of my table decor.

My final tip for planning a party on a budget is to make it pot luck. I have found over the years that people really want to help and contribute. Allowing guests to bring a side dish makes them feel important and a part of the celebration. If you have a hard time letting go, provide a list of sides that you need help with (muffins, egg dish, breakfast breads); this way you can still control how your party turns out without planning, prepping and paying for it all.

Thanks for stopping by~