Now that my friends and I are quite a few years out of college, the occurrence of baby showers and weddings is becoming a regular thing. Two of my closest friends recently brought a cute baby into the world and we all gathered beforehand to celebrate with a fun coed baby shower. We kept things coed because we’re all close with each other and why shouldn’t the dad get to celebrate too?! Here’s my experience and tips for throwing a coed baby shower.
Invites for Coed Baby Showers
Since the parents were having smaller showers back in their hometowns with their families, I didn’t feel the need to have any paper invites. Our group is all millennials with a Facebook presence so I was able to throw up a Facebook party invite and also texted people as needed to make sure everyone had all necessary info.
Food for a Fun & Inexpensive Coed Baby Shower
For a coed shower, keep things easy and approachable for all palates. One of our friends is vegan so we worked a few vegan items into the menu and had plenty of snacks so any picky eaters were happy. I kept things easy by opting for store-bought where it made sense and using my slow cookers for some big batch entrees.
A “Snack Board”
Charcuterie boards can be pricey, so instead of just having meat and cheese, I opted to mix in some other snacks for more variety. And I knew we’d be hanging out for several hours so I wanted to offer food for grazing.
For the snack board, we had:
- 2 blocks of Kroger brand cheese (cheddar and colby jack)
- Store bought hummus
- Apple slices
- Chips
- Crackers
- Mixed nuts
- Kroger brand salami & pepperoni
- Veggies (celery, baby carrots, tomatoes)
- 2 small cheese blocks from the “Under $5” section at my local Murray’s Cheese stand at Kroger (Manchego & havarti dill)
- Store-bought cookies (the couple aren’t cake people so I skipped cake/cupcakes)
For the main meal I served:
- Shredded BBQ Chicken w/ slider buns | Recipe via Plain Chicken.
- Slow Cooker BBQ Meatballs | Recipe via I Heart Naptime. This is a super easy slow cooker recipe. You literally just buy frozen meatballs and add 2 items. I made them once for a NYE and people freaked out over them LOL
- Pre-made veggie burgers
- Store-bought cole slaw (always so good with BBQ imo!)
- Salad kit
- Homemade Vinegar-Based Potato Salad| Recipe via Foodie Crush.
Drinks For Hosting a Coed Baby Shower
I raided my own liquor cabinet. ? I’m not much of a drinker so I had a lot leftover to use.
- A few bottles of rum & bourbon (we didn’t finish these! you could easily opt not to have these, but I just pulled from our liquor cabinet stash)
- Rose wine (since this was summertime, rose felt appropriate)
- Seltzer & a few sodas
- Domestic beer (especially important for one of the games we played!)
- A few six-packs (courtesy of my brother who is close friends with the parents. Thanks, Dan!)
Decorations for Coed Gender Neutral Baby Showers
The parents didn’t know the sex of the child and aren’t really into strong themes, so we kept it simple and gender neutral.
Amazon has great curated sets for baby showers. I loved this one.
If you want fresh flowers, I recommend checking out the clearance section at your local grocery store (Kroger for me) because I always find great bouquets for cheap there that will still be fresh for several days.
The Best Games for Hosting a Coed Baby Shower
- Diaper Pong
- Baby Bottle Chugging Contest
- Purchase inexpensive baby bottles (Dollar Tree works!) and some cheap beer (like Bud Light). Split the group up into teams of two (excluding the pregnant mama or anyone underage – unless you want to give them an NA option).
- Each team shares a bottle
- Say go! And the the teams “chug” from the baby bottle and split it evenly (doesn’t need to be exact)
- For an extra twist, the person chugging couldn’t hold the bottle – the other person had to hold it so they were basically “bottle feeding” each other. Each person was only drinking a few ounces so it went quick but we were all cracking up.
- Board Games! I brought some Jenga, What Do You Meme and Bananagrams because we always like playing games when we get together.
Costs of Hosting a Baby Shower
- Food: around $75
- Decorations: $30
- Alcohol (excluding beer): $30
- Games: ~$15 (I built the baby pong, ordered cheap baby bottles for the chugging contest)
- Prizes: ~$15-20 (Candles, airplane bottles of liquor!)
- Venue – Free! Thankfully a friend had an entertainment space in their building that we were allowed to rent for a few hours.
- Other free or low-cost options: a friend or relatives home, a brewery (SO many people host events at breweries + you can bring in your own food), Pins Mechanical (in Cincinnati, but some bars/bowling alleys like this might let you reserve a space for free + bring in food), or a restaurant in between lunch & dinner hours (just order a round of drinks + some apps to keep costs on the lower end).
- Our group was around 12 people
There you have it! That was my experience hosting a coed baby shower. With some DIY and some store-bought food & decor, it kept things really easy, but still a fun celebration. What are your tips for hosting a baby shower?
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