What is a Co-Ed Baby Shower?
Planning your baby shower and looking for something a little different and more exciting? Why not host a Co-ed Baby Shower? What co-educational means Co-educational allows husbands and significant others to participate, participate, join, and feel welcome!
Sometimes called a Jack and Jill Baby Shower or Couples Baby Shower, Co-Ed Baby Showers include both sexes!
Just like traditional girls-only Baby Showers, Co-ed Baby Showers are filled with games, food, friends, family, and fun.
How to plan a Co-Ed Baby Shower?
Planning a Co-ed Baby Shower is so much fun and encourages you to really mix things up a bit!
You want to start with an invitation that stands out, one that conveys the idea of a Co-ed or Couples Baby Shower and shares the theme of your shower.
Set the tone for your Co-ed Shower with an invitation that grabs the attention of your girl and boy friends. When navigating to find your perfect theme choice for your invitation, go ahead and ditch the pastel colors and shake up the theme with bright green plants or leaves and warm taupe browns or gorgeous grays and luxurious white. And when you ditch the baby blues and pinks, you’ll make your partner happy by making him feel accepted and included.
Co-Ed Baby Shower themes
Trade out the old custom Noah’s Arc theme for beer mugs, martini glasses, and baby bottle themes. Try a bold red and black barbecue theme, consider a nautical theme with navy and off white or cream. Or go for a vibrant yellow sunflower and green masculine vine.
Another invitation idea is a boho theme with musical instruments or cloth diapers hanging on a clothesline. Juicy green cucumber slices or luscious lemons also make unique invitation themes for your shower. Take your Baby Shower to the pineapple themed islands. Creating your special invitation is just part one of the process of planning your cool Co-ed Baby Shower.
Once you have the general color scheme and theme down, you can expand your thoughts and figure out how you want to set up your Couples Baby Shower. Where you choose your venue will be key to developing your theme and bringing it to life. Should your shower be done indoors or outdoors? Do you want to be brave or stay calm? Elegant and fancy or sweet and cozy? After you’ve chosen the perfect venue for your Jack and Jill Baby Shower you can start adding details to your decor.
Co-Ed Baby Shower food and drink
Splash your Jack and Jill Baby Shower with a sophisticated lemonade bar that displays large clear canisters of different flavors of lemonade. Top your tables with white tablecloths and alternate centerpieces with a clear vase filled with overflowing lemons and then a clear vase tied with twine and potted plants.
Fly on this Co-ed adventure and decorate with fancy silver ice buckets filled with wine and champagne, set up a fruit cheese station. Top your tables with silver or gray cloths and add flameless candles, white flowers in vases with sprigs of green scattered around.
Have Baby Q!
A stylish barbecue station with a red checkered tablecloth and 3 onesies with the word BBQ pinned to the front will get you started on your barbecue themed Co-ed Baby Shower. Bring a hay bail or two and place them near your food and drink stations. Choose black tablecloths and top them with a cluster of white baby bottles and red pacifiers as your centerpieces.
Bask in the sturdy beer stations grab beer mugs in simple baskets and scatter straws under them, place cocktails on cork boards with wild flowers lining the planks and of course, don’t forget Mocktails for mommy and pregnant and breastfeeding guests.
Go Boho…
Go Boho and decorate with bamboo trees and eucalyptus leaves musical instruments placed around the room, harps etc., playing flute and folk music, flower arrangements for female guests, tambourines and maracas for to male guests. Decorate your tables with burlap cloth and add subtle pops of color as an overlay. Top each table with either a small instrument or flameless candles and a large vase of wildflowers tied with cloth napkins with twine.
Surprise your guests with a juice bar! Have your juicer make freshly squeezed juice to order. Serve cucumber slices in water glasses, Display large fresh cut fruit stations. Let your decor showcase the vibrant colors that each fruit represents.
Keep it simple…
Choose your cuisine! Finger foods are great for any party. The appetizers and starters are the best! Keep it simple with crustless cucumber sandwiches, mini quiches, sliders, individual seven-layer chip and dip cups, sliced fruit and cheese and crackers. If you’re looking for them there are all kinds of cutsie foods specifically for baby showers like newborn baby deviled eggs, dirty diapers, baby shower muddy buddy puppy chow, and the list goes on! Find your favorites and go from there. Or you can choose to make an impression at a chef station! Let the chef carve meat and cheese for crackers, prepare dim sum, or cook a pasta dish to order for your guests.
Co-Ed Baby Shower Cake
Choosing your baby shower cake is always a fun and memorable moment to share with your partner. Whether you choose traditional cakes, cake pops, or cupcakes, be sure to decorate them with light, vibrant colors like peony pink, minty green, soft yellow, cloud blue, and pastel purple. Fruit, custard, or candy filled cakes are always a nice unexpected surprise, and you can’t go wrong with a delicious buttercream or fondant icing. Writing a meaningful phrase on the cake with icing is always an option as well.
What do you do at a Co-Ed Baby Shower?
There are so many awesome games that your guests will absolutely love to play especially when the spouses are involved! Baby Shower Mad Libs are a great ice breaker event. Either mom or dad will read the place or object choices and each guest fills in the blanks. Then the expectant mother or father reads the story with blanks added. And the room will be filled with laughter within minutes!
Next, it’s time to show off with a diaper changing, baby swaddling relay race. First, you will need to pair up and line up some baby dolls on one side of the room and diapers and blankets on the other side of the room. The person on the side of the room with the baby doll has to race the person on the opposite side of the room with the diaper, get the diaper, go back to the baby, diaper the baby, and then bring the baby to the partner, then the partner must diaper the baby Whichever team finishes first wins!
More fun Couples Baby Shower game
Play “What Am I?” You will need: Plain note cards, pens, and safety pins for each guest. How to play: Make a card for each guest, and write a baby item on each card ¾ for example, dirty diapers, baby pacifiers, and other themed items. As guests arrive, pin a card to their back, and let them mingle, asking each other a series of yes or no questions to try to identify the item on their back. After correctly guessing a person, the card can be pinned to the face or removed.
Make a splash in this super fun game! Don’t break Mommy’s Water is a perfect game for your Co-Ed baby shower! Gather your guests and head outside and get ready to get wet. Pair everyone up and have them line up facing each other. Pass out water balloons in any color or you can choose gender-specific colors. Start close and throw to their partner. Whenever the others catch it, they take a step back. Do this until Mommy’s Water Breaks. Whoever is the last pair to have a full water balloon wins! Mix up partners and this game can go on and on for constant mixing and fun!
Are Co-Ed Baby Showers Common?
Co-ed Baby Showers are pretty unique and coming soon. They are definitely not like the classic girls only Baby Showers. Co-ed Baby Showers also known as Couples Baby Showers or Jack and Jill Baby Showers are becoming more popular. Eventually, girls-only Baby Showers will disappear, and Co-ed or Couples Showers will become completely mainstream. Who wants to leave their man out of the equation? Most modern men and women enjoy sharing responsibilities and experiences together now more than ever. Couples Baby Showers bring expectant dads together giving them a chance to meet and talk with other experienced dads. Co-ed Showers also ease the stress of expecting moms.
Final Note
Embrace the family experience and include the man in your life in your Baby Shower. Power up your educational party for the family! Co-ed Showers also called Jack and Jill Baby Showers are really double the fun. You are able to focus on both mommy and daddy.
Celebrate as a tribe, community, village, and make it a Co-ed or Couples Baby Shower!
About the Author
Jane Sheriff is the founder, creative director, party planner and mother of three. She started Darling Celebrations in 2012 to share easy and beautiful ideas for celebrating life’s special events.
