How to Throw a Baby Shower on a Budget

If you have a baby shower to plan and you are working with a limited amount of money then you will want to read this post on How to Throw a Baby Shower on a Budget.

How to Throw a Baby Shower on a Budget | Dollar Store favors, handmade decorations, desserts and free printables

This past weekend we celebrated the upcoming arrival of my sister’s TWINS with a baby shower. Now, this wasn’t just your ordinary baby shower. My sister and her husband have chosen NOT to find out the sex of the babies (What?!?!?) so we had to plan a gender neutral baby shower. We went with yellows and greens (of course) but we threw in some pinks and blues too. Why not, right? We also had limited resources and managed to pull off a beautiful event soI’m going to share with you how to throw a baby shower on a budget. We did it and so can you!

RELATED: 6 Nursery Wall Prints that you can download for FREE and frame for the perfect baby shower gift!

I’m the youngest of 4 girls and sister #1 couldn’t make it to the shower so it was up to me and sister #2 to take care of all things crafty. We both love to DIY (I keep telling her she needs to start a blog!) so we had a ton of fun planning this event. Plus mom-to-be, Kate, has been on a rough road to get to this point so we were overjoyed to be able to FINALLY plan a baby shower for her.

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INVITATIONS

First things first: The invitation. Since I love to design printables, I created this baby shower invitation and used Vista Print to print them out. Of course you don’t have to go this route. You can find a bunch of adorable invites at your local Target or Walmart and hand write them out. You can also choose to send and Evite instead this way you are saving money on stamps too.

Twins Baby Shower Invitation

FOOD

When we were thinking of how to throw a baby shower on a budget my mind went right to food and what would be the most affordable method. We went with a dessert shower! If you plan it for around 2 pm most  people would probably already have eaten lunch and would be ready for a little snack. If you have a Costco or Sam’s Club or BJ’s nearby you can pick up cookie trays, cupcakes, baked goods and delicious cakes for cheap. If you have any bakers in the family, you can also add some delicious homemade goodies.

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Desserts5

Our Menu

Cake Pops in Blue and Pink

Chocolate Covered Pretzels with crushed M&Ms on top

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes

Fruit Cups

Yogurt, fruit and granola parfaits

Chocolate Trifle

M&M Cookies (each cookie had a different color M&M in it; light blue, light green, yellow and pink)

Crumb Cake

Individual Cheesecakes

Anisette Cookies (made by my grandmother who couldn’t be there)

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Desserts3

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Desserts4

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Desserts2

Cake

As soon as my sister announced that she was pregnant, my cousin messaged me on Facebook and offered to make the baby shower cake. Ummm……..this girl DELIVERED! Holy cow! Never in my life have I seen a cake like this. The detail and the size of it were incredible! And it was delicious!!! The animals are made out of rice krispies! I know. Ridiculous. She spared no details. It’s amazing! If you live in the NJ or Long Island area, you NEED to reach out to her for your next event. She kind of just does this as a hobby but would love to eventually open up a business. I can get you her info if you want it. Just leave a comment on this post. šŸ™‚

If you don’t have a talented family member or friend who can make a cake for you, order one from BJ’s or any of the wholesale stores I mentioned earlier. Their cakes are sooooo yummy and super affordable!

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Cake

DECORATIONS

We used plain colored paper plates, cups and table cloths that we picked up from the dollar store and added chevron wrapping paper as table runners and some cute chevron napkins to add a pop of color. Tissue Paper Pompoms and Circle Punch Garland adorned our dessert table and those were easy (and cheap!) to make.

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Decorations2

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Decorations1

DIAPER CAKE CENTERPIECES

For the centerpieces I made single layer diaper cakes. I used about 8-10 diapers for each one, wrapped (and hot glued) chevron ribbon around the “cake” and hot glued adorable wooden animals that I got from Hobby Lobby for under $1 each. I also made small tissue paper pompom flowers for the top. So cute and very budget-friendly!

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Centerpieces1

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Centerpieces

Table Setting

As I mentioned for the tables we used white paper table cloths and chevron runners. We also used chevron napkins (from Hobby Lobby) on the tables along with some cute “She’s About to Pop” printables stuck in cups of popcorn.

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Table

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Popcorn

GAMES

We decided to go with Baby Shower Bingo and Price is Right. Since we were not having a full menu, we needed to fill some of the time so we went with games. The guests had a great time playing and we had fun picking winners! I made these games myself and download links are at the bottom of this post.

Printable Baby Shower Games, Baby Shower Bingo and Baby Shower Price is Right

BABY SHOWER FAVORS ON A BUDGET

My sister, Meri, made the adorable onesie favor tags with her Silhouette Cameo and we decided to go with pink and blue hand soaps that were purchased at the dollar store. We had a table set up on the way out and we had a few little helpers (my girls and my niece) pass them out as people went home.

I made Printable Favor Tags for Twins in case anyone does not have access to a Cameo or another cutting machine. You can grab those HERE

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Favors3

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Favors2

Gender Neutral Baby Shower-Favors1

I plan on sharing all of the printables I created for this gender neutral baby shower in a separate post soon! It will include the baby shower bingo and price is right games as well as the “she’s about to pop” tags.

The day was truly a success even a midst the snow and the stressful ride home in a snow storm! Now, we wait. Her due date is April 22 (our dad’s birthday) but she will most likely have them in March. My birthday is March 31………just sayin!

UPDATE:

My sister gave birth to 2 identical, healthy BOYS on April 2 at 37 weeks, 1 day. Michael Robert weighed in at 6 lbs, 4 oz and James Anthony weighed in at 5 lbs, 12 oz. Here they are (James, left, Michael, right)

James and Michael

It’s taken me awhile but I finally shared the FREE printable Baby Shower Games. Woot!!

Free Printable Baby Shower Games - Download Baby Shower Price is Right , Baby Shower Bingo or BOTH!

If you’re looking for nursery decor on a budget, you’ll love this collection of 6 Printable Nursery Wall Art Designs – perfect for baby’s new room.

Free Printable Nursery Wall Art | Minimalist Nursery Decor | Kids Bedroom Wall Art | Nursery Prints

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20 Comments

  1. Nice baby shower preparation, you guys organized baby shower very well although a little confusing due to unknown sex of the twin. By the way congratulation to your sister for twin baby boys.

  2. This post caught my attention on Pinterest, I just recently had twins too! Congrats to your sister and to you on becoming an Aunt. Honestly you pulled a great shower together, good photography too!

    1. Aww, thank you so much, Kasey!! And congratulations to you too! I’d love to see a pic of your little bundles. Do you have a blog? XO

  3. Sheryl Long says:

    Where can I find the printables?

    1. I haven’t share them yet. šŸ™ Time just got away from me. I will try to soon.

  4. Love what you’ve done. Can you please post the tags for the popcorn as soon as you can? I’d love to try them out. Thank you.

    1. Hey Nicole! Since creating this post I actually came across some information about the text/quote “She’s About to Pop”. It has actually been trademarked and I’m unsure if I’m able to use it for blog purposes. I’m in the process of turning the labels into blank ones so that you can open them in PicMonkey and add the text yourself if you’d like. I should hopefully have it up on the blog in the next day or so. Please let me know if you have any other questions. šŸ™‚ P.S. I’ll also be sharing the baby shower game printables too.

  5. Meg Vassar says:

    Diana,
    I’m throwing a shower, in three weeks and I love your printable. Could I buy this from your edited with my details? Obviously would need a fast turnaround to get these printed this week. let me know if this is feasible. Thanks!

  6. Hi, what a beautiful job on the baby shower. Did you share the printable twin invitation?

  7. You did a beautiful job on the baby shower. I am currently preg with twins and on a budget for my baby shower. I was wondering if you were able to share your twin invitation printable? If so, where can I find it?
    Thank you

    1. Hi Yomi – I’m sorry but the invitation is not available in an editable format. Congratulations on the upcoming birth of your twins.:) XO

  8. What did you do for prizes for the winners of the games? I need inexpensive prize ideas!

  9. Hi can you share where you got the printable tags for the favors please ?
    Thanks

    1. Hey Andrea! One of my sister’s actually made the tags using her Silhouette Cameo. You inspired me to create a printable version of them so pop by tomorrow (June 14) and you can grab the free tags then. šŸ™‚ XO

  10. Renee Walker says:

    Hi! I’m Renee! I am pregnant with twins and I have looked everywhere for cute, yet affordable, baby shower invitations for multiples. I love yours! Can you tell me how you “made” them? I know how to use Vistaprint but I don’t know how to create my own design. HELP! Thanks so much! -Renee

    1. Hey Renee! Congratulations on the upcoming arrival of your twins! Exciting times! I designed the invitations myself with a graphics program called Paint Shop Pro. I just edited the invite to remove all of the personal info so if are familiar with a site called PicMonkey and want to personalize it yourself and then print via Vista Print, let me know and I can send it to you. XO

  11. Lori Quigley says:

    Can you please send me the link for the vista print invitation above??? My neice is having twins and she really loves this invitation, I however am NOT as creative as you when it comes to this, so I was hoping you would share the link or however that works. Your help is much appreciated.

  12. Beautiful job, these are great ideas and you executed them all beautifully!

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