Baby Shower Tea or Baby Shower?
by Donna Gorenflo

Baby showers are an extremely important occasion in a soon to be mother's life. A baby shower is always a great way to allow your families and close friends of the mother-to-be to show their love and devotion to her. A clever option to your classic shower is the baby shower tea. A baby shower tea is a much more formal affair which provides the attendees and mother to be a different form of fun.

With traditional showers, the invitations can be generally informal. Often they're communicated via word of mouth or e-mail. Baby showers usually include close families and friends, so they can often simply tell one another the appropriate arrival time. With a baby shower tea, however, is better served by distributing proper invitations that show more formality. This isn't to make the baby shower tea feel pretentious, instead to help create a much more formal atmosphere to the overall event. Likewise, the number of people to attend ought to be less. When holding a more classic shower a hostess can invite a large number of guests since large groups tend to work well with the average shower games and activities. A baby shower tea, however is better served with a small guest list. You ordinarily don't want any more guests at a baby shower tea than can sit at a small table. Games are not typically played and, intimacy and closeness is the key.

A traditional shower can be hosted almost anywhere. Most often the baby shower is in your home of the hostess, but it can also take place in a restaurant, favorite hang out, or a hall. The location needs to be based on what the mom to be wants, so if she happens to have a favorite restaurant or hang out then that could be a perfect place. Baby shower teas, on the other hand, need to be hosted in a more formal place. Most often this means they are held in a private home, however it can just as well be located in a tea room. The decor for the event location should be classy and formal, although that doesn't mean the celebration should be pretentious or that the house needs servants to be fitting.

You can hold baby showers at essentially any time of day but are typically during the weekend or at night since many people work during the day. Perhaps if none of the guests work during the day, a shower can be held while kids are in school. A baby shower tea is most suited for the afternoon, since this is the most fitting time for a tea party. However, some might prefer to hold the baby shower late in the morning. For a baby shower, almost any cuisine could be served, but at a baby shower tea, the appropriate choice is scones and tea sandwiches. Gifts and baby shower favors are usually a very big part of a traditional baby shower, but at a baby shower tea, gifts don't need to be exchanged and favors should be relevant to the party or cut out completely. Now some baby showers include the new dad and sometimes guests give gifts for dad, but at baby shower teas the guest list should be strictly women.

Both celebrations have pros and cons, but a expecting mother can have them both if she decides to. Celebrating a new baby should be a wonderful event.  Whether you bring together friends and family for a traditional baby shower or a formal baby shower tea, you can't go wrong if you just make it intimate, special and uniquely yours!

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Looking for some help in planning a shower party?  Bama Babies and Birthdays provides party hosts with unique shower favors, decorations and baby gift ideas as well as many great resources in helping you design either a fun or formal function.