Before the COVID19 crisis, I had everything planned out for the perfect baby shower. The date was planned, invites were ordered, a Publix catering booklet on my dining table circled with our food choices for the event. Everything would be perfect.

That was until social distancing took over and we had to make the tough decision to not have a shower after all. Not going to lie, I was a little heartbroken but I knew the safety of ourselves and our families and friends was way more important than a party.

A few weeks went by and I stared at the registry I had created months in advance. (I’m a planner- I can’t help it.) I was so worried we wouldn’t get any help with diapers, swaddles, bedding, etc. Babies are expensive y’all! 

A Virtual Shower, Really?

Then one day, my coworker threw out the idea of a virtual shower. I brushed it off because I thought WHO would want to attend a virtual shower? Who wants to buy baby supplies without food and cupcakes in return?

Well.. it turns out a lot of people do!

See, this global pandemic that we’re facing right now can take a lot from us if we let it, but what it can’t take is the support and love from our family and friends, especially when it involves a new baby. 

Jenny took the lead on planning this virtual shower. She invited all of our coworkers and together they gave me the best virtual  shower I could’ve asked for! My husband was let in on the planning so he grabbed the balloons and cupcakes for the day and Annette, another coworker took care of all of the games. 

So let’s talk about how exactly we made this shower happen.

1. Choose a Virtual Venue

Our company uses Zoom on the regular so we decided to host the shower on Zoom. Zoom is one of the leading video conferencing software apps on the market. It allows you to virtually interact with people when in-person meetings aren’t possible. With Zoom, you can host up to 500 participants (if you purchase the “large meeting” add-on). The free plan, however, allows you to host video conferences of up to 40 minutes and up to 100 participants.

2. Set Up Your Virtual Invite

Jenny is a creative at heart, so she made the most adorable virtual  invitation and created a Facebook event to invite everybody. Facebook is free and almost everyone is on it, so I think this is the most perfect way to send out an invite. 

You could also opt for an email invitation but I prefer a Facebook event. A Facebook event will send out event reminders and allow people to post questions and conversate about the event. 

I highly suggest Adobe Photoshop for creating your virtual invitation but if you’re not good at graphics, Canva is a free tool that offers templates and easy to edit graphics.

3. Setting Up Your Space

Since I was the one being showered, I thought it would be smart to create a pretty camera space. I pulled out my ring light to make sure I had the best lighting, I caked on the makeup and did my hair and then I also chose the best place in the house that wouldn’t have a distracting background. (Even though you’ll see there was something else a little distracting in my photos- peep the second group shot below!)

4. Games and Entertainment

Annette took care of our games and entertainment for the shower. She found a ton of ideas from Pinterest and sent me questionnaires the night before. We also did a super cool game that involved everyone invited which I think is nice for your guests.

To play this game, Annette had everyone send in a baby photo of themselves and then we all had to guess who was who. That was so much fun! Jenny also made it a point to award one of the games with a $10 Starbucks Gift Card!

5. Gifts

As far as gifts go, I sent out my registry to everyone ahead of time and it was also linked in the Facebook event invite. My mom also sent out the baby registry link to our entire family when we found out we wouldn’t be having a shower and I am so so grateful to say that we got almost everything we registered for.

I think if you needed to pass time, you could definitely open your gifts with everyone on the screen. For me- I get really bad anxiety opening gifts in front of people so I did NOT do this, HAHA! But had it been like grandmas and aunts, I probably would’ve done that to make them happy.

All in all, the shower lasted about two hours. We spent time mingling, talking about the baby room, and playing baby shower games.

How to Plan a Virtual or Online Baby Shower during a Global Pandemic

So there you have it! How to plan a virtual or online baby shower during a global pandemic. All it takes is a few friends or family, a video camera, and some wifi. Although nothing beats celebrating in person, this virtual shower truly meant so much to me and my husband and I could not be more grateful for our tribe!

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