Whether you’ve offered to throw a baby shower for your sister or best friend, or were roped into hosting one for your third cousin, Yvonne Wolf offers answers and advice to help make it easy to create a wonderful, memorable celebration. And you might just have fun while you’re at it!

Just as the reasons have changed over time for hosting a shower (from helping expectant parents, to welcoming an adoptive baby, to supporting a single parent), so have the ways in which baby showers are planned. Gone are the days of using the stork as the only mode of décor, and playing games like guessing how much the baby will weigh.

There are no more hard and fast rules to celebrate the impending arrival of a new little person. How you choose to celebrate the occasion is up to you, and all that matters is that you create a memorable day for the guest of honor. (Bonus points if your guests enjoy themselves, too!)

Below are answers to common baby shower questions:

Q: Who Can Host a Shower?
As long as the parents-to-be are not the hosts of the party, there is no specific rule to follow. The party can have one, two, or multiple hosts. The hosts can be friends, co-workers, social groups, i.e., book club friends, immediate family, or relatives.

Q: Who Should be Invited?
It can be a women-only event or a co-ed party. You can also decide whether or not to include children.

Q: How Many Guests Should be Invited?
Anything goes. You can create a small and intimate gathering or a large and loud shindig!

Q: When Should the Shower Take Place?
Typically, showers should take place one to two months before the baby is due. For adopted children, the shower can take place prior to – or after – the adoption.

Q: Where Should the Shower Take Place?
The options are limitless, but here are some ideas:

• Someone’s home
• A tea house
• A hotel
• Restaurant (with or without a private room)
• Country club or tennis club
• Somewhere related to the expectant parent's hobbies or passions such as a bowling alley, equestrian center, dance hall, church, synagogue, etc.

Once you figure out the who and where, it's time to move onto:
Planning a Baby Shower: Timeline