8+ Tips for Throwing a Co-ed Baby Shower
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 the guests of honor with a fun co-ed baby shower.
We kept things co-ed 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 non traditional baby shower for friends and family. I hope these co-ed baby shower ideas are helpful with your planning!
8+ Tips for Throwing a Co-ed Baby Shower
Co-ed Baby Shower Invites
I used Canva to create a simple graphic invite and texted it to friends on the guest list along with sharing it in a Facebook event page for our cozy group of baby shower guests.
Food for a Fun & Inexpensive Co-ed 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)
- 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 for our vegan guests
- 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 Co-ed Baby Shower
Given that we had a co-ed group and the mom and dad enjoy craft beer (obviously the mother was not partaking at this time!) I served alcohol along with soft beverages. This included:
- A bottle of rum
- Rose wine (since this was summertime, rose felt appropriate)
- Sparkling water and Coca-Cola for mixing or enjoying on their own
- 12-pack Domestic beer (especially important for one of the games we played!)
- Some craft beers for the beer snobs
Co-ed Baby Shower Decoration Ideas
The expectant 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 baby shower decor kits.
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 a good price that still have days of freshness left.
The Best Games for Hosting a Co-ed Baby Shower
These co ed baby shower games will be a hit for the entire group!
Diaper Pong
- I regret not having a photo of this for you all so I’ll share this inspiration from Pinterest.
- Get a tri-fold board and cover it with wrapping paper or colorful construction paper that matches the theme
- Add size 2 or larger diapers to the board with super glue or a hot glue gun
- Glue the diapers across the board in 3 rows, using 5-9 diapers ( it depends on the size of your tri-fold board)
- “Open” the diapers and use the tabs so the leg holes are somewhat closed
- Get ping pong balls and have participants take turns shooting to make a basket aka a diaper!
- You can play in teams or individually
- For scoring – assign points to each diaper and then let each participant take 10 shots and the person with the highest score is the winner!
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 – especially given it felt like our really tall friend was holding one of our short friends like a baby doll. LOL.
Board Games!
We had Jenga, What Do You Meme and Bananagrams because we always like playing games when we get together.
Baby Food Tasting Game
Select a variety of jarred baby food and remove the labels. Have participants try to guess the flavor of each jar. Whoever guesses the most wins!
Baby Bottle Bowling
Get 10 simple baby bottles and arrange them like a set of bowling pins either on the floor or at the end of a table. Give guests a small ball, like a ping pong ball and have them roll at the bottles to try and knock them down. Whoever gets the most bottles knocked down after two tries is the winner.
Baby Shower Favors and Prizes
I knew my group well and got small “baby” bottles of liquor for favors and prizes (to pair with small soda cans.) Can you tell we were in our 20s when we hosted this party?! While I still think that’s a fun party favor, here are 19 more shower prizes & favor ideas for baby & bridal showers. And you can never go wrong with gift cards!
Co-ed Baby Shower Gifts
The parents had an online registry so guests were able to use that to pick out items for the baby. However, for some additional baby shower gifts ideas, I will always recommend Frida Baby kits – they’re very popular and cover the essentials for new parents.
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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