No, this doesn’t mean that you have to hire a professional to throw your shower, or that you have to go into business for yourself. Instead, professional showers enfold one or both parent’s job into the planning of the baby shower. It can be a fun way to set your baby shower apart, while recognizing Mom and/or Dad’s chosen line of work.
Travel
Do you know someone who works in the travel industry? Maybe Mom or Dad flies for a major airline, or works for a travel agency? What about people that work as travel agents, writers or bloggers? This type of shower can be a lot of fun.
You can go several ways announcing this theme in the invitation. Think about phrases such as “Oh, the places we’ll go!” Or, “(Parent’s names) are embarking on a new adventure!” You can set up the invitation as a “Passport to Parenthood,” and give each guest a “boarding pass” with all the particulars of the party.
Speaking of passports, give each of your guests a passport when they arrive. As they participate in different activities and crafts, they can stamp a page in their passport, and keep it when they leave. Some fun travel-themed activities include a passport photo booth, or “Name the Baby, world edition.” In this game, you provide guests with the word “baby” in a variety of languages. They have to guess which language goes with which word.
Food can be a lot of fun too. Consider having a cake made that looks like a globe, a ship or a plane. You can also offer guests food in tiny packages as “in-flight snacks.”
Finally, send your guests home after they visit their own personal baggage claim. Simply purchase small bags, boxes or even glass cases that look like tiny luggage and fill each container with small candies or cookies.
Law Enforcement
You can throw an arresting shower for your favorite police officer or deputy. Start with an invitation that lets all your guests know that there will be a new sheriff in the house, or a new chief will be calling the shots. It can be extra fun to fold a gender reveal into the party. Simply put out bowls of either plastic toy badges or little pink bows. Ask your guests whether they think the baby will be a boy or girl and take the appropriate decoration.
Decorate the house with plenty of “police tape,” marking off sections for eating, games and gifts. There are a lot of fun games that are specific to a law enforcement shower. For example, You can split your guests into teams and ask them to come up with “codes” specific to the new baby. Some examples might be “4445” (The upside-down digital version of Shhh) for “the baby is sleeping,” or “Code brown” for a poopy diaper.
You can serve a cake shaped like a squad car if you have that kind of talent. However, you can also add a toy police car to any cake that you choose. And, of course, you should serve doughnuts.
Send your guests home with cookies or candies packed in police car boxes or gift bags. You can also offer your guests cookie or candy badges to enjoy on their way home. Finally, for a more DIY favor, why not purchase white candles in glass jars and paint your own “Thin Blue Line” around the bottle in glass paint. Every time your guest lights the candle they will think of those who serve and protect.
Medical
Do you have a favorite doctor or nurse that’s expecting? Throw a baby shower that touches the heart. One word of warning: don’t fall into the trap that girls are nurses while boys are doctors, especially if you are having a gender reveal. If your parent is a doctor, celebrate doctors. If your parent is a nurse, celebrate nurses. Both positions are vital to health care and are professions to be proud of.
Start by sending out invitations with a medical theme. You might send out an invitation that lets your guests know that they have an “appointment” to celebrate the new parent. You might want to add words about how they can “check-up” the gift registry before they arrive at their “prescription” for fun.
Decorate your party space with a medical look. You can hang eye charts, medical posters and even health charts. Pull that plastic skeleton out of the Halloween decorations and set it up in the corner. Set up a small cart to resemble hospital carts, and wheel it around to provide food and drink to your guests.
Many activities lend themselves well to a medical theme. You can set aside one area as the “X-ray” photobooth with lots of fun props. Print out the pictures and send them home in envelopes marked “Medical Records.” Ask your guests to guess the vital stats of the baby birth, including date, time, and place as well as weight and length. You can offer small prizes to the winners. You can make it more fun by offering wild, outlandish prizes to the wildest guesses. For example, you can promise a llama to the person that wins if the baby is born at 12:01 at the top of a Peruvian mountain.
There are lots of fun ways to incorporate food into your medial theme. You can add a strip of icing in the center of a lady finger to make “bandages.” After dipping pretzel rods into white chocolate, add small, red marks along each side to make “thermometers.” And of course, you must have coffee, lots and lots of coffee! Just make sure some is decaf for the expectant mom.
Send your guests home with “samples” that they will love. You might fill clean prescription bottles with candies and stick a “prescription” on the front that instructs the guest to take whenever they feel the need of a sugar rush. You can also wrap specific roll candies in pink or blue netting with the tag to celebrate a new generation of “Lifesavers.” Finally, you can simply purchase small bottles of hand sanitizer and lotion and cover the labels with a label thanking the guest for attending the shower.