how to plan: costco wholesale baby shower
a guide to plan a baby shower for costco lovers like ourselves
we are costco lovers, and you can find us there on most fridays! we were inspired by jasmine pak’s costco-themed birthday party, so we thought we could adapt this for a baby shower. this guide provides you a timeline, template, & tips to plan your own costco-themed baby shower.
timeline
1 - 2 months before the baby shower
create your baby registry: this is optional. we centralized our baby registry at www.babylist.com, which included items from the direct website, amazon, and target.
determine date & location: we did our baby shower 3 weeks prior to our expected delivery date, although if we had to re-do it again, we would recommend at least 1 month prior. towards our expected delivery date, we didn’t realize how many to-dos (e.g., preparing the baby room) we still had remaining. we also decided to do it at our home because i wanted to be in a place where i could easily access a bathroom (small bladder pregnancy problems 😝).
create & collect guest list emails: we created a guest list in google sheet and collected any emails we didn’t have.
create & send out invites: we used paperless post to create and send out invites.
2 weeks before the baby shower
finalize headcount: we sent a reminder through paperless post for those who had not RSVP’ed. because we were hosting at our own home and getting food & drinks from costco, we were not too concerned about potential fluctuations in the headcount.
send a google calendar invite: this is optional. i love to manage events in my google calendar, so i sent a google calendar invite to those who had RSVP’ed (with additional logistical information like parking).
purchase costco attire & other items: we wanted to dress up as costco employees, so we kept it simple by purchasing a red apron (which we affixed a costco employee name tag) and opted to not have a hat or hair net. we also didn’t have much decor, so other items were limited to purchasing name badge holders for our guests to hold their costco name tags, a red tray to hold the supplies, & baby bottles for a baby drinking game.
1 week before the baby shower
determine food & drinks: we determined what types of costco food we wanted and what drinks to get.
submit request for the cake & croissant platter and get drinks: because we happened to be at costco for our weekly grocery shopping, i submitted a request for a cake in the bakery section and croissant platter in the deli section; however, costco only needs 1 day in advance for these requests. we also got drinks.
print out templates: we printed templates including: costco name tags, food signs, and a welcome sign. below in the template section, i have left printable pdfs for you. ☺️
day of the baby shower
order & pick-up food: our event started at 12:30 pm, so i called costco to order hot dogs & pizza for an 11:00 am pick-up. once ready, we picked them up along with the cake and croissant platter.
set-up the space: we set-up food with the respective food signs and laid out the costco name tags.
take photos & videos: i often forget to do this, so we reminded ourselves to take photos and videos of the day!
2 - 3 days after the baby shower
send thank you texts: we tagged team sending out thank you texts to all those who came as well as those who could not but gifted something for the baby.
templates
tips
our planning & shopping list: we had a total headcount of 40 and purchased majority of our items at amazon and costco, allowing us flexibility to order items closer to the baby shower date.
ordering cake & deli items (e.g., croissant platter) at costco is easy, and employees in respective departments can answer your questions.
for cake, there is kiosk in the bakery department where you can fill out and drop-off a form.
for deli items (e.g., croissant platter), there is a request kiosk in the deli department where you can fill out and drop-off a form.
