Professional Talent and Entertainment at a Baby Shower

August 7, 2009 by  
Filed under Baby Shower

Modern baby shower parties are much different than they used to be. Formerly, they were very intimate gatherings involving the closest of friends and family, typically held in the host’s home. Today, guests lists tend to include everyone from old classmates to co-workers, and can become quite large and stressful to manage.

If the baby shower party you’re planning is to be quite elaborate, you most likely will want to incorporate special entertainment and menu items only seen at wedding receptions. It may also make sense to outsource some of your responsibility, and hiring a professional entertainer or group can at least reduce a little of your stress.

So, what types of talent might you consider that will be appropriate for a baby shower? Well, the choices are virtually limitless, and you can be very creative in making this decision. You may hire caterers, professional bakeries, decorators, musical talent, magicians, photographers, bartenders, servers, planners, printers, and even professional activity coordinators to help in pulling off the ideal baby shower party.

Of course, this will all depend upon your budget. Some professionals may be quite affordable if you determine a few areas where you can save quite a bit. Also consider the value of your time involved. Is it really worth it for you to spend hours on end in the kitchen preparing the menu? You may decide that paying a couple hundred bucks to a caterer to prepare and/or serve the food would better serve your resources.

Budgets for a baby shower should be determined almost immediately after deciding to host it. If you know the party is likely to be large, you may want to partner with a few friends and host the party as a group. This will help with both costs involved and the necessary details in planning the baby shower.

Hiring talent is also a planning stage in and of itself. Get together with any other members of the host party, and make a list of everything each of you would like to participate in or plan, as well as any other tasks that need to be taken care of. This will give you an idea of which areas a professional service may be able to help you.

Finding referrals from friends and family is the most reliable way to find a reputable professional service to hire for the baby shower. These will tell you much more information than what is included in the yellow pages listings! Ask for both great service and reasonable pricing, and you should come up with at least a few different possibilities.

After hiring the necessary talent to help you pull off the baby shower, ensure you have a contract in place and a copy of it, and reaffirm the talent 1 or 2 weeks ahead of time. Also contact them again 1 or 2 days prior to the baby shower, to ensure no last-minute problems have arisen. This way, at least you’ll have some time to make alternate plans if an emergency situation prevents the talent from holding up their end of the bargain.