Once you know how many people are attending and you know your venue you can buy decorations and food. If you had a theme for your invites, then you can follow it through your decorations and also maybe use it for the cake as well. You can order baby shower decorations from pretty much any party decs stockist now, and most party shops have them as well. As far as food goes, you are only having a 2-3hr party so you only need finger food with some nibbly bits really. crisps, sandwiches, dips,. Just pickybits will be fine. Don't forget napkins and plates and also cups for the drinks. As far as drinks go I always keep it sober. If the guest of honor can't drink why should anyone else??. I do virgin cocktails and soft drinks, also teas and coffees. A cake is usually called for at these events, you can get some brilliant ones now. A few of the ones I have had for friends are scattered around the page.

5. Entertainment

There are loads of games you can play that are baby shower related. Here is a few that are easy to put together and people enjoy playing. I usually do 3 games 2 before eating as well as the vest decorating for the first few to arrive, then 1 after eating, then open gifts and have cake and read out advice or promises. Get some little prizes. bags of sweets are fine people aren't expecting magnums of champagne. I usually in addition to the games give people a piece of paper when they come in and ask them to write a piece of advice or promise to the the mum 2 be or baby. They dont have to do it straight away they can have a while to think about it as you won't be reading them out until you break from the games for food or later for cake. This fills the gap where people have to make small talk when eating and gets people talking as usually they start saying about how that piece of advice helped them.

- Unscramble the baby related word - Just list 10-15 words related to babies then scramble them up
So maternity becomes yterniamt
Nappy becomes yapnn Print off one per person or print one and photo copy it and the first person to unscrammble them all wins a prize.

- Guess the celeb parent and baby - really simple just use an internet search for images of celebs and their babies or mags are always doing features on celebrity parents. Just gather a few put them on the page and print one page, then either take a black marker and scribble out the faces or just put something over it if your handy on the comp. Then again copy enough for your guests to have one each. The first one to finish shouts, then just read out the answers. who ever gets the most wins a prize. you could even get them to shout out a baby related word if they finish first.

-Baby Related cross word -really simple just fill a grid with letters and hide some baby related words in the grid. Write the words they need to find on the page and the first one to finish gets a prize.

-Baby Chirades - write down a load of films which are pregnancy/baby related or have the word in the title. Split into 2 teams. Put the films in a hat or bag etc so there is about 5 each or less or more what ever you like then. Then one person from each team takes it in turns to stand up in front of their team and act out the title to make their team guess. If the team guesses correctly then they win a point if they don't guess correctly or within the time frame (2 mins) then it gets passed to the other team to guess if they then guess correctly they steal the point.
You can do another version of this instead of acting out the film title they have to draw it on a flip chart or a3 piece of paper attached to the back of the door or something.

- Guess the missing word from the nursery ryhme - grab a book or use the internet and get some nursery ryhmes. Take a line from a well known verse and write it down then blank out a word or 2. People then have to fill in the blank word. write out about 10 and print enough copies for each person, again the first one to shout ends the game and the answers are read out, if they haven't got all of them right just check no one has more than them and then give out the prize to the appropriate person.

- Guess the nappy contents - Split the group into 2 teams and have 4 nappies or jars for each team filled with baby food of different varieties.
give 4 mins to each team to guess and write down the contents of the nappy/jar then swap with the other team for another 4 mins then write down again what they think each one is. Then you can reveal what the contents are and the winning team gets a prize. You can fill the nappies with all sorts of disgusting things, apple sauce, choccy pudding, vegetable puree. Just buy a few little baby food jars and fill the nappies with that or just wrap tape or foil round the jar and take it off to reveal the contents.

-Decorate you own vest for the baby- buy a few packs of vests or bibs in bulk you can get them from most supermarkets, then from your local craft shop or online gets some t-shirt writing pens, as the first few people start arriving give them a pen and a vest/bib and let them design their own one for mum 2 be to keep or use if she needs to. (have somewhere to hang them though as they do take a while to dry) don't give one to everyone just the first few who arrive so you aren't all stood around expecting the guest of honor to keep the convo going because she is the only one anyone knows.

-Guess the Baby pic-Just for a bit of fun and as an ice breaker get people to bring along a baby pic & put their name on the back of it. Put them on the wall, door or stick them to a piece of paper. Give people a sheet of paper with everyones names on and number the pics. Through out the shower they can look at the pics then write the number down next to the name of the person they think that pic belongs to. Read out the correct answers at the end, people will laugh at the answers, it's good fun as no one ever gets them all right.