# of Attendees at Shower

gsancho

So a work acquaintance says she's expecting 200 people at her baby shower.  Is that normal??  Trying not to be judgy on the subject - it's not like I have much experience with baby showers...or maybe I'm just jealous I don't have that many friends.  The list of invites I put together for my friend has 16 so far.  What's the average number of people that usually attend?  I keep picturing her having to open presents with a mic on!

sabriel1

I couldn't imagine a 200 person shower being fun for anyone, just think of how long the gift opening would take. I had about 15-20 people I believe at mine, very close friends and family who lived close enough to get an invite.

littlecookie

Whoa! I had about 20-25 at mine.

fitzgirl17

I only had 1 shower and have a pretty small family and friends.  I think there was 15 of us.I would say between 10-30.  Also how is that even fun and do you play games and open gifts or just mingle for a few hours then leave?

Sarahbmcd

If you combine all of mine probably like 50 our more. But my mom's side is having one, My dad's side, my husband's family, and friends.

ETA: After thinking about it there will probably be a combined more than 50. Bit we both have very large families (his mom is one of 13)

kj808

That seems like a TON. I think we had about 40 at mine.

gsancho

I can see a higher number with a co-ed shower.  Maybe that's what she's doing - I didn't ask.  I guess if it really was that many people, maybe they wouldn't open presents.  Although it would be funny to picture it.  Lordy - it's so awkward for me to open presents in front of people, I can't image in front of 200.  

I just wanted to make sure I'm not a lonely dork with my 10-15 girlfriends!

Pintobean39

My best friend had a very large baby shower, she has lots of friends and 2 big families and she didn't even have that many, maybe 100. To have 209 show up you'd have to invite much more than that. That's CRAZY!!! She must have invited everyone she knew. I have to judge that one.

djm31012

We had 50 at mine. 200 is a lot but some people have very large families and include everyone, so its definitely not out of the wrelm of possibilities.

MAdams728

Good grief! Showers are not weddings, you don't invite every acquaintance you have! I feel sorry for the people throwing it for her.
I had around 40 at mine, and I thought that was a little excessive.

texasmama15

My wedding only had 80 people, I've never heard of a shower that large. I can't even imagine all the planning going into it. Geez, louise. 

gsancho

@Pintobean39 The shower is still a month away, so I wonder if she even has the confirmed attendee list.  She never had a formal wedding so they're either making up for it now, or she didn't learn through wedding planning that just b/c you invite 200 people, they don't all come.    

Who knows...it could end up being a good time, but I get stressed out with that many people and personalities in one place.  

texasmama15

GFJ48 said:

We are at 60 people with just including my family & DH's family. We don't invite "acquaintances"

That's a huge family!!

mpiemont

Mine had about 40 or so.

jbj 7497

my cousin had a huge one with about 120 people.  It was in a banquet room at this huge hotel, and she was just opening presents the entire time.  It was more than 3 hours, I was exhausted!  There was nothing personal about it...

Mine was about 50 people and it's only because i play on quite a few sports teams and have a lot of college friends and family that came into town for it.  That still seemed like too much to me, but I only had 1.

rivieramaya

That is more people than we had at our wedding! I think there were about 25 people at my baby shower.

Honda13

My cousin had probably close to that many her baby shower. I swear she invited anyone she had ever met in her life. (Don't get me wrong I love her). It was pretty much an all day event, that ran out of food, and it took about 2-3 hours for her to get through all her gifts. So yeah I've seen it, but it was a bit much for me personally.

tinyjoys

We had one shower for when I was pregnant with our son & it was for both sides, plus friends & I think my guest list was around 60 people, couldn't have been no more than 70. Around 40 showed up.

EntropicEpona

Holy crap!

I had maybe 8? at mine, but it was co-ed and wasn't a shower so much as it was a "WTF? You guys are actually having a baby?!" shindig where everyone just ate cupcakes and drank cocktails. No presents. 

dj99

I would not attend a shower that big, there's nothing personal about it and it screams I want free stuff. My wedding shower had less than 50 people, family and close friends.

OnceInLoveWithAmy

gsancho said:

 She never had a formal wedding so they're either making up for it now, or she didn't learn through wedding planning that just b/c you invite 200 people, they don't all come.    

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I actually know of someone who had a similar situation-- she wasn't married and didn't have plans on getting married, so she had this gargantuan baby shower with hundreds of people.  

Personally, I only had about 120 at my wedding.  The idea of 200 people at a shower seems overwhelming.  I hope it's a display shower, because that would take forever to open all those gifts.  I had two showers; my mother hosted and there were about 20 people and my MIL hosted a coed shower with about 35-40.  

a316b

We invited about 165 to my bridal and baby showers, about 120 attended each. I had one bridal shower. One baby shower.

(We also invited 800 to our wedding....)

Depends on your family size, plus friends and any co workers you care to invite.

mrshall1027

There will probably be about 50 people at my shower, but it will be co-ed. My close family is about 35 and the rest will be friends. 200 seems way crazy to me!

Ballet80

Good Lawd!!! 200 people! We will probably just have a coed shower, maybe like 50 people max. I don't like making a big deal about things and I really don't care about getting gifts. I'm shy!

JandL23

We invited 100 women all family and very close friends to my baby shower I want to say 95 showed up 5 were from our of town and not able to make it. We have very large families. I also only invited relatives that I talk to And the friends that showed up are people I'm close to.

JandL23

I didn't take long opening gifts I want to say maybe 30 minutes to an hour. I opened them while the guest were being served their food so they had something to do instead of just look at me lol.

AidanMarlene

I haven't had a baby shower yet, but I have been to one. There was around 15 people. I do not think mine will be more than 15 people. Since I can't take my anti-anxiety medicine anymore, I don't think having too many people will be that good for me. Plus, I don't know a lot of people.

morgansWed105148

Maybe is it coed?

Lezzie82

Don't be jealous of not having 200+ friends..

Trust me NO one has that many real friends, and you'll be lucky to have two or three people you can call your best friends, and a small handful of people you hang with on occasion.  And that's ok.

I personally think that is ridiculous, but to each their own and it's her life... But I wouldn't expect a huge buttload of people, and there's always two or three jerks that cancel day of.

ghetto24ass

I think 200 is very large! I think I'm having pretty large showers ... 

- MIL one will be co-ed because they never get together and that will be like 20 

- My mom's family and my local friends coworkers will probably be about 50

- Dad's family thrown by my Godmother will probably be no more than 20

I can't imagine paying for all that food! 

maritimeme

Yup, that's bigger than my guest list for my wedding.

We had about 15 people to my baby shower, and that included little kiddos.

EDIT: Spelling fail

abbalish

200 seems crazy to me!

Can I ask a slightly off-topic question?  May ladies, at this point has someone already offered to hold a shower for you?  Or when would someone typically make that offer?  H and I were talking about things we needed to do to get ready and I mentioned registering, and then we realized that maybe we don't need to register since no one has said anything about a shower.  Which would be fine....I just didn't know if I'd normally know anything at this stage in the game anyway.

gsancho

@abbalish My best friend mentioned it fairly early, but no one else has mentioned anything about showers, yet.  She lives far away and just wanted to get a head start.  So I think most people don't think about it until around 5 months?  That's just my guess.  

daniilovesyouu1

I don't even know close to 200 people! Lol that would be so uncomfortable for me. I'm currently 15 weeks & not sure at the moment when I'm going to have my baby shower but when I do it's probably only going to be about 15-20 people there..

laur1020

There will probably be only 15 or so invited to my shower. I only have 2 aunts here and a handful of friends. Everyone else is back in NJ where I'm from. DH doesn't have anyone here. Oh geez, I sound pathetic.

AidanMarlene

abbalish said:

200 seems crazy to me!

Can I ask a slightly off-topic question?  May ladies, at this point has someone already offered to hold a shower for you?  Or when would someone typically make that offer?  H and I were talking about things we needed to do to get ready and I mentioned registering, and then we realized that maybe we don't need to register since no one has said anything about a shower.  Which would be fine....I just didn't know if I'd normally know anything at this stage in the game anyway.

My God mother offered me one when I first told her that I was pregnant a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what's the norm though. I haven't started a registry. I need to look more into it since it's new to me.

rubi898

I wish the baby shower was a 'thing' in the UK! Not a lot of people do it and I feel like we miss out on the girly niceness of it all! 200 sounds like a lot of work though.

mabrams28

We are doing coed and looking at inviting about 80 to 85 people. We both have big families and a big group of friends. I'm figuring we will end up with about 60 who can actually make it.

Pintobean39

@abbalish‌ I had a friend ask right after I told her. I imagine with the holidays coming up many won't even mention it until after the 1st of the year. Normally showers aren't held until your 3rd trimester anyway.

pilar311

I have about 15 people on my list, mostly close friends who live nearby. A close friend asked me what I'm doing for my shower last week and offered to do it when I said I wasn't sure. She's lives about 4 hours away so her sister, who lives near me and is also my friend, is helping her plan. My mom might help them too. I heard that it's good to start planning 4 months before your due date and hold it 2 months before your due date.

Ndracer

@abbalish‌ nobody has offered to throw me one either. I hope someone does because we are having twins and can use any help we can get. Plus honestly I've waited so long for this I want a shower. Heck if someone would host it I'd pay for it! But my best friends live in other states. I am honestly a bit afraid that nobody will offer.