How many guests is too many for a baby shower?

bd77690 · June 2017

After I told my best friend that I was pregnant, she offered to host/plan a baby shower for me. I'm still REALLY early in my pregnancy; just had the 1st US yesterday, and I'm about 7 weeks. However, now that my friend has asked me to get everyone's addresses together so she has them for later, I realized how many people would actually be on that list! Is 50ish guests too many for a shower? The home we're having it at is large enough to accommodate that many.

Myself and my partner decided on a coed baby shower, as he wanted some of his close friends there to celebrate with us as well, which I love. We aren't inviting every single person we know, but I have a pretty large family. I was extremely close with my one aunt & uncle and their 6 kids growing up, so I did want to invite them... but being that they're all grown, and have kids of their own now, that adds about 26 people alone if they were to bring all the kids and everyone came. The others we're inviting are parents, very close friends (this only adds maybe 5 people, IF all of them can make it), and other close family (my brother & sister, possibly a couple of his aunts/uncles and cousins).

Is this way too many people for a baby shower? I'm sure my cousins won't bring all their kids, and not everyone will be able to make it, so it would realistically be 35-40, but I've always heard 20 or less. Thanks

This is my first and everything is so confusing, haha.

delujm0 · June 2017

The right amount of people to invite is the amount of people that the person hosting has told you they can accomodate. 50 people would not be cheap. Possibly you'll have to do multiple events. Ask your friend how many people she wants to host and go from there. Assuming she can host 50 people when she may not be able to afford that is going to be stressful for the both of you.

If she offers to host 25 or something, maybe have your smaller "friend shower" with her and then one of your family members will offer to host a second event for family members. It's not bad to have multiple events so long as the guest lists are separate.

OliveOyl2014 · June 2017

I agree with PP. Ask her how many she is able to host. 50 is a larger amount of people. Most hosts wouldn't be able to use their home if they wanted to, so it possibly adds an extra expense to rent out a place.

dufferoo · June 2017

I'll be honest, I think 50 is too many, regardless of whether the hostess can physically host them. For one, it kills the intimacy of the event: you can't possibly have meaningful interactions with all those different prople in the 2-3 hour timeframe of a showe. Also, it makes the gift-opening either ridiculously tedious or crassly assembly-line-like. I'd stick with closest family only (parents and siblings) and your close friends whom you socialize with regularly.

SnarkasaurusRex · June 2017

Agree with all PPs. This is a conversation you need to have with your host. I would suggest paring down your guest list to just close friends and family that you associate with on the regular.

kaitlinliz · June 2017

Our family is quite large too...mine isn't coed and we have 60 people invited. The house it's going to be at can hold about 50. We assume with the time frame that it'll be that no more than 50 will come...this includes children. My host is all for it. It really does depend on the size of your family. Some people don't have large families and don't really comprehend that many people coming. I had 50 people off the top of my head and that didn't even include friends! I'd talk to whoevers hosting and see what they're comfortable with. I asked mine more times than I can count if she's OK with that number just so I didn't feel bad later on. I just threw hers earlier this year and we had 40 people at that one ..it still felt intimate with the setting being at her in-laws house.

neverblushed · June 2017

I think you are right to suspect that 50 is stretching the limits. However, if you are doing a co-ed shower at which you will invite both friends and family of both parents, you could easily get to 50 pretty quickly.

When, or before, you give your host the guest list, you might want to talk about what she can handle. If she's footing the bill for a shower for 50 people, it could get quite costly. Does she have a place where 50 can gather comfortably or will it be a tight squeeze? Are there other friends or family members who would be willing to co-host with her, thus relieving some of the burden for a fairly big event?

vivizoka1 · December 2017

both my friend and MIL asked to host something, so each will host one shower--MIL for family and friend for friends. If not, I'd have more than 50 people (big family :P)

msmonalisavito · December 2017

mamabearcj · April 2018

My mom is planning to throw me a shower and inviting all the women in DH and Is family and friend groups is over 100 ladies she wants to invite.... we know a large majority wont go and do probably send gifts or money instead which is why she plans to send most of them an invite but I can still see easily over 50, 60 people coming to the shower...

How many guests is too many for a baby shower?

Re: How many guests is too many for a baby shower?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards