Baby Shower: Virtual Edition
Before we get going, do not worry, I did not throw myself a baby shower LOL. My little sister is pregnant with her first sweet babe and unfortunately when we began planning the restrictions were very tight and we did not want to risk planning anything that could not actually happen. We of course wanted to keep the old pregnant ladies safe so we decided to go virtual for this shower. Now before you say it, yes, we are all over the novelty of virtual anything but I did not want her to miss out on having a baby shower to celebrate her baby girl so we just went with it. In deciding to host a virtual shower I realized I had no idea what this actually entailed from simply created a zoom link to what you actually do at a virtual shower. I thought it might be nice to share some details with y’all in case one of these is in your future. I will say it was nice being able to have everyone there because we do have lots of family and friends that live near and far, it allows everyone to be included and that is one benefit to the virtual aspect of life right now, no matter where you are in the world you can be included in special moments for your loved ones.
I decided to keep things short and sweet so when I started googling “How to throw a virtual baby shower” and was not getting exactly the results I wanted so I decided to just wing it. One thing before I share more, if everyone had been in town, or close by, I would have done a food drop off for everyone which I think is an awesome touch but unfortunately some of our guests were countries apart so that just did not work in this case. But highly recommend if your guests are all within driving distance to do a little pre-shower food drop off, include some cookies, mini sandwiches, anything you’d see at an in person event. Just a cute touch!
Alright first, the zoom link. Turns out these are incredibly easy to create so gold star to me for figuring out the basic technology we have all been using for the last 2 years. I sent out an email invitation with the details and the link to everyone and away we went. I wanted to make sure despite not having everyone in one space that we still had decorations and made it feel “shower” like. I grabbed the decorations off of amazon as they had super quick and easy boxes with everything we needed to make a backdrop for the zoom. Normally I would go all out for a theme but again since no one could be there to enjoy it I decided to keep it simple and went with “it’s a girl” as the theme. Plus I love pink and cannot guarantee I will ever be able to pink up my own parties LOL.
For the actual shower activities I was a little lost as to what to do but I think it turned out great and allowed everyone to be included in the zoom. I created a short trivia style, true or false game, literally just random true or false questions with facts about babies. We had a tie breaker question in case anyone tied (which there was a three way tie at the end). We used the honour system and let everyone share how many they got correct, seemed like a trustworthy bunch haha. The tie-breaker question was to guess the weight of the heaviest baby born on record. Google it, it is horrifying. The winner got a starbucks card on me (always on brand over here). After the initial hellos and game, Amanda was able to open some gifts that were so graciously sent over by her guests. That was another part of the invitation. I included her registry and offered some other suggestions (like sending diapers, such a huge help to new parents!) and we were able to still have a “gift opening” bit as you would during an in person shower. It is never not fun seeing cute little baby things, am I right?!
We ended off the call having a little catch up with everyone, letting anyone say anything to the mom to be (words of wisdom, congratulations, etc) which was a nice way to end the day. I really enjoyed still being able to make this happen for her in a way that was safe and not unbearably long. That would be my number one tip in hosting anything virtual, keep it short and sweet. Less is more. Allow people the opportunity to have screen if they want and don’t call anyone out who doesn’t perhaps feel as comfortable talking to the group. The main point of this was just to ensure, despite the circumstances, we were able to celebrate Amanda and her baby girl which I think was accomplished!
I am so curious what everyone thinks of hosting and attending virtual events. Head over to the gram to see what her day looked like and share your opinions and experiences on your own virtual parties. What do you think, did we do an okay job? Hopefully, if you have to host something virtually, this was a little bit helpful for your own experience. See y’all on insta! Have a fab week babes.
xo