GUEST LIST AND INVITES

In order to keep the virtual baby shower manageable, we ended up having two separate showers. One for our friends and one for our family. This kept each shower at a manageable number, under 20 guests per each shower. Any more than that and things could get a little bit too difficult with everyone talking over each other. If your guest list consists of many people unfamiliar with Zoom (or whichever platform you choose), allow yourself (or your host) an extra 10-15 minutes at the start of the shower incase you have to field phone calls to troubleshoot joining the meeting. The good thing is, we could put a time limit on the shower as well. We did not exceed 1.5 hours. Being that the shower is virtual, it only makes sense to send out e-vites. We used Paperless Post, as this is a go-to platform we’ve used through the years and it holds our guest lists from previous events.

DECOR

Choose a theme or color scheme to go throughout the invites, decor, party favors and even the thank you cards. We chose to go with a nature inspired greenery theme. We thought it would be a nod to Spring and new beginnings. For decor, you don’t need much, just a simple background behind you and possibly a bouquet of flowers near you. For our backdrop, we opted for fresh white flowers taped to the wall and a pair of oversized white balloons with green garland attached. We also had a small bouquet of flowers on the table in front of us, but it was low and didn’t block our faces from the camera. It was perfect. Our invites, thank you notes, cocktails and cookies all followed suit. That way, even though there wasn’t an actual, physical event, there was a common thread bringing everything together.

PARTY FAVORS

Our hosts wanted to send something to each guest for them to enjoy during the shower and feel more connected. For our friends’ shower, our host sent custom cookies and cocktail kits to each guest. The rosemary mint mojito kit included a small can of seltzer, rosemary infused simple syrup, a fresh lime, and freeze dried rosemary and mint. Guests could add their alcohol of choice, or go without and drink it as a mocktail, like I did. For our family shower, our host sent custom cookies and artisanal tea with honey stir sticks.

GIFTS

Another bonus of having a virtual shower, is that you don’t have to open your gifts in front of everyone. We did our online registry with Thankful (an easy registry site that you can pull items from all over the web) and included the link on the e-vite. Gifts arrived well before the shower (and some are still arriving after). When we received the gifts, we opened them and put a post it note on each gift with the name of the person who gave it to us. On the day of the virtual shower, we simply did a quick show and tell and thanked everyone individually for their generosity. This was a great way for everyone to see what we received, without having to go through the painstaking time to unwrap everything.

GAMES

Games were a little trickier than usual, but a great way for everyone to connect. For our friends’ shower we asked guests to send in their baby photos and then Dermot and I had to guess who was in each photo. It was a lot harder than we expected and a lot of fun.

For our family shower, we made small signs with graphics on them to indicate Dermot or Christina. We used one of Dermot’s skateboarding pizza characters for his and a photo of me wearing a DE SMET dress for mine. We each had a set of ‘Dermot and Christinas’ and each guest asked us a question about who would be the parent who…. We had to hold up our answer and see if our answers matched each other. Some questions included “Who will be the one to give the birds and bees talk?” and “Who will take the most photos of the baby?” and “Who will be the first to get the baby out of the crib when he is crying?” This game was a perfect conversation starter among our guests. Some people shared their birth stories and others gave great advice.

Another fun thing our host did for the family shower is she sent out cards to everyone that stated “On those days/nights when Baby Reddan isn’t onboard with the daily routine, please give a note of encouragement, parenting tip or some comic relief to Christina and Dermot. When they read your message, they will email you with a response of gratitude. Thank you!” She enclosed a self-address, stamped envelope so they could send them right to us. We are still receiving them and putting them in a safe spot for when we need a little extra love and encouragement.

THANK YOUS

Even though the shower and e-vites were virtual, we hand wrote thank you cards to each guest. It meant so much to us that everyone came together to celebrate, even during the pandemic. In order to keep the nature theme going, we chose blank cards with greenery around the edges instead of traditional thank you cards. We were so full of love after each shower and we couldn’t be more excited for our baby boy to arrive.