Baby Shower Etiquette .

I've never had one,and never hosted one. So when the topic came up, I had to make some decisions. Since all my family(including Jeff's) live in Canada or out of state, this includes most of my close friends also, I was kinda left to try and figure things out. I was pretty sure one does not usually host a shower by themselves, but who would host mine? I decided to call Susanne, yes Susanne in Oregon, and ask if she would be willing to do the honors of being the host. Again I am pretty sure one does not usually ask another to throw them a shower but I wasn't sure what else to do. She happily said yes.

I'll try and make a long story short. The shower is this Sat, June 16th. When it came time to buy and send out the invites I had a REALLY hard time. Who do you or don't you invite. Do you invite people you know can't make it because they live so far away? Do you invite those you don't know very well but would love to get together with? At what point do your invites appear to look like you just want gifts? Sigh. I had a lot of ruff decisions to make and in the end I'm not sure if I did the right thing. This whole post is pretty much me thinking out loud, and maybe something I should have asked a long time ago...LOL.

Here's the thing...I had a few friends I didn't invite because I knew they wouldn't be able to make it and I didn't want them to feel bad **coughCari&Lindsaycough**. But now I wonder if they will be more upset knowing they didn't get an invite? Then there are those whom I don't know very well but would love to get together with or even meet in person, just because it's a party, for example my faithful blog readers, Erin, Genevieve, Christina, my loyal stocker(whom has been very quiet lately...hehe). And I can't leave out the Scrap Yard girls whom have always been so sweet to me over the years but they are all in Oregon also, so again not likely to make it. And lastly I cannot forget Suzy and some of the other Garage Girls (Erin can join this group too...LOL)whom are always so friendly and great company during the few times we have been able to get together, but again, at what point does it just seem weird to send invites to those you don't know all that well? So this large group of people did not get invites mostly for fear of people perceiving me as odd or even greedy to invite so many people I don't really know. Now if showers didn't come with the gift factor, I would have sent out more invites as all I really want is a party and to play lots of games, which we do indeed have!! Teehee!

Now with that all said I sent out about 20 invites, only one person actually RSVP until I called around and asked because I wasn't going to let Susanne spend money on an airline ticket if there would only be 3 of us! I pretty much only called the local people and as of now we are a whopping party of seven...LOL. Still many of those invited never acknowledged the invite, granted they may live far away, but a simple reply would have been nice. I seriously don't understand the lack or RSVP's anymore. Do people not know what that means? Are we really that inconsiderate of a society that we can't be bothered? Regardless of the occasion actual planning DOES have to take place and a head count can make a huge difference. But hey that's a whole other rant that I don't need to get into.

I guess my point in all this is that all of you were thought of, not forgotten. I don't want anyone feeling like they were left out. I seriously just wasn't sure on the proper etiquette regarding this whole thing. And hey if any of you local girls are free on Sat and want to come to a party, shoot me an email. I would love to have you here....and please no gift is necessary, just a smile and some fun! We are soooo gunna ROCK the Poopy Diaper game!!

**Edited to add: In no way was this post meant as a way to try and snag more gifts...Oh My God, do you see how paranoid I am? I actually debated deleting this whole thing! I'm just gunna blame it on pregnancy hormones!