NBR: Baby Shower Advice

MrsJenE

I'm planning a baby shower and I have no idea what to do for the guests to sign in. I don't want to use a plain guest book. I might want to do a photo guest book. I don't know. Thoughts? Suggestions? Fun things you've seen before?

RevJen

I just saw something about a wish tree for a wedding.  Maybe you could do something similar?

Jen748

What about a small scrapbook in which the guests could write little notes of advice or a favorite thing about parenting?

booknerd226

I saw where the host had guests write notes or advice on newborn diapers for the parents to read during changing. An example was "This one's for daddy!"

For my sister's shower we had guests fill out cards for this cute little wooden box that the baby's name was carved in. Each card asked for one piece of advice for baby, one for parents, and one hope for the baby's future. It was so sweet.

EliStar

At my shower, my mom had guests write messages for the baby in a hardcover of "On the Night You Were Born", which is my favorite baby book ever. I treasure it! And I read all the messages to Liam on the day we came home from the hospital. 

InLovewSB

I was at a bridal shower where someone had made a small quilt/a lap quilt and then everyone signed an open space with a special, fine tip fabric marker.  It was really neat!

But honestly, I can't remember the last time I was at a baby shower with a guest book. Usually, we just 'sign in' by writing our names and addresses on Thank You card envelopes.

RiverPlate

I don't think I've been at a baby shower recently with a sign-in book either.  I love photobooks, but they can get pricey and are a lot of work if you are having to collect photos from others (says the woman who has family members are upset they weren't in a baby book because I asked repeatedly for photos and they never gave any).

A recent baby shower I went to asked each person to bring story listing a book they as children or their kids loved and a couple sentences of a memory with the book, and read it aloud to the group, then the stories went into a memory box.  We weren't asked to give a copy of the book to the mother but the instructions were confusing and most did.

fabk

My sis had everyone right messages ina copy of the book Alligator Pie.
For my other sisters shower J cut a whole pile of wooden blocks qhich we sanded and painted to the colours of the shower theme (breakfast at Tiffanys). All the guests decorated blocks and signed them with messages. They turned out fantastic!(we only used kid friendly paint etc)

Shepherdjel

This could be pricey but for my sisters shower we had everyone decorate plain white onsies...It was really cute! They could sign their name on them...

SusieBW

I love the idea of picking a classic kids book and having everyone write messages to the baby in there.

I've never been to a shower with any kind of guest book, but I've been to plenty that had us decorating onesies, writing notes to baby and parents-to-be, and various other little wishes or hopes or advice things.  Only one where I was asked to fill out my own thank you note envelope, and frankly, I think it's kind of tacky and reminded me of how when I go to the gynocologist, they have me address my own pap results postcard.  Decorating plain white onesies was really fun, though, and I love the idea of decorating wooden blocks!

At my shower, my mom had everyone give me a list of their favorite names.  I think it was absolutely killing her that we were unwilling to pick a name until DD was born.

Adjudi-Kate

I was at a shower where everyone was ask to write a message in a children's story book.  The book they used was related to the theme of the shower. (Fairytales, I think.) 

I've also been asked to decorate a plain white bib with fabric markers.

I don't really see the purpose of a sign in sheet.  The mom will probably compile a list of everyone who brought her presents so she can write thank you notes.   It would be nice to take a photo of each guest with the mom-to-be and put them in an album.  With digital cameras and printers nowadays, you could even print all the pics that day and stick them in an album right away.

sneetches

SusieBW said:

  Only one where I was asked to fill out my own thank you note envelope, and frankly, I think it's kind of tacky

I completely agree with this!

Raeily

At my baby shower my MIL got a blank piggy bank and paint pens that could right on it and everyone wrote little messages to Amelia on it. I thought it was super cute.

MrsJenE

Thanks for all of the great ideas!  I'm going to run some of them by someone else who is helping me out!

Super_Librarian

For my BFF's shower, we had guests write messages to the baby in a copy of Where the Wild Things Are. She loved it!