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Baby Shower Timeline         Timeline Home Week-by-Week before the shower Week 10 Week 9 Week 8 Week 7 Week 6 Week 5 Week 4 Week 3 Week 2 Week 1 For the day of the shower, see step #10 of our great Good Hostess's Guide to Surviving a Baby Shower Planning worksheets Free baby shower planning worksheets For a complete planning guide 8 Steps to the Perfect Baby Shower

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Ten Weeks Before the Baby Shower

You have decided to host a baby shower for a close friend or family member or maybe you have even been elected to host a shower for some distant relative or co-worker.  At this point, you have nothing planned, nothing figured out, and you may already be receiving the odd request for specific things such as a specialty themed party.  The baby isn’t due for another 16 to 18 weeks - remember you want to set the date for 8 to 6 weeks before baby’s arrival so you aren’t feeling that frenzy of nerves with having to get everything done before the birth.

Now is not the time to sit back and relax since much of the main planning needs to be done right now.  You will have time to put your legs up around the middle of the planning stage so save your quiet moments for that time.

This is the week where you will be figuring out your budget, deciding on your theme, and thinking about your venue.  If you are deciding to do it at home, you will also have to decide on whether you will have a caterer, order the food, or make it yourself.  This is all the set up stage, and it is one of my least favorite parts about planning a baby shower.

Things you need to do:

Download the Baby-Shower.com Planning Timeline and fill it out, plus any other worksheets that you might find useful.

Decide on the type of shower you are having, whether it is a women’s only shower or a couple’s shower.  Also decide on whether children will be allowed.

Decide on a venue, if you are having it outside of the home, phone around for prices and also on reservation policies.  Many places can be reserved a few weeks or even a week ahead of time but a good rule of thumb is to have all the reservations done by week 8.

Plan out the budget.  This is a horrible task and it can get pretty sticky if you have to ask other people to contribute, even if they volunteered.  The best plan is to have a piggy bank or bank account for the shower and to collect the funds now so it is sitting there ready and waiting.  This way you don’t have to go back several times for contributions, people who have volunteered to contribute won’t be able to back out at the last minute, and you will know exactly what kind of budget you have to play with.  A helpful tool for planning your budget, besides a calculator, is our Budget Plan worksheet.

Figure out your theme and do a little research into how hard it will be to accomplish.  Many childhood favorites come and go in popularity so a shower centered around Hobby Hobbit may be easily achieved one year but next to impossible the next.

Go to Week 9 >>