The thought of planning a baby shower was incredibly overwhelming to me. I really wanted to get together with family and friends and celebrate my pregnancy. But all the hard work and money it would take to plan my baby shower was not something I was looking forward to. I wanted something simple and laid back. Which is why I felt like a budget DIY baby shower was the perfect choice for me!

Although I wanted a laid back baby shower, planning a baby shower is still a big responsibility. There are tons of small details to sort out. You have to think about decorations, food, entertainment, and gifts. After all, you want to make sure things are as special for your guests as they are for you!

With all of these little details, expenses can quickly add up. And before you know it, your baby shower is much more expensive than you wanted. (Hey, that sounds JUST like my wedding!)

However, you should know that you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg to have a great baby shower. Bust out your craft supplies and spend a few hours working on homemade decorations and you are guaranteed to save money!

Keep reading to learn a few great ideas to create your own decorations and prepare a fun, cheap DIY baby shower without spending any more money than you need to.

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1 – Create a DIY Diaper Centerpiece

Creating a great centerpiece is the perfect way to impress your guests right when they step in the door. Plus, it’s a great way for your baby shower to be memorable to everyone. However, paying for one can be incredibly expensive. To save money (AND make something you can use later), put together a diaper centerpiece.

These are super simple to make and look amazing! Open a pack of diapers and roll them into little tubes. Then arrange them into a cake shape and tie everything together with your ribbon. You can add cute little decorations like pacifiers, stuffed animals, and flowers. Honestly, you can add anything to personalize it even more and truly make it a show stopper. And after the baby shower, you’ll have a whole stock of extra diapers to use when your baby arrives.

Pro-Tip: If you’re wanting to create a tiered diaper centerpiece, I’ve heard that it’s best to use larger size diapers in the base of your cake and smaller diapers in the top layers. This helps it to look more natural and be more sturdy for you.

2 – Make a Banner

Adding a cute banner behind your cake and gifts is the easiest way to make your baby shower decorations really stand out. And you can make these on your own instead of rushing to the store or paying someone to make them for you.

Once you pick your theme and the colors you want to use, cut out pieces of paper into the size that you want. Then you can cut out letters with your baby’s name, “Welcome Baby!,” or any other phrase that works for you! Glue on the letters. Then add your paper to a piece of string to finish your easy DIY baby shower banner.

If you’re lazy like me and this is just a bit too much work, you can check out this post. You can find free downloads for some great banners and also get tons of ideas for baby shower games, invitations, and more. My favorite is the Harry Potter set, which we will definitely be using with baby number 2!

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3 – Add in a Few Giant Baby Blocks

If you want to add in even more and create an awesome decoration everyone will rave about, make your own giant baby blocks. These are the perfect baby shower decoration and they’re so simple to make. I think these giant blocks have a fun nostalgic look that everyone will love. I secretly want to add in a few around my house because they look so good!

To make them, all you’ll need is some old cardboard boxes (preferably big, square ones) and some spray paint or colored paper. If you choose to spray paint, first you create a template of your letters. Then tape it to your box and spray in the letters. Remove the paper once it’s dry and you’ve got awesome baby blocks! If you don’t want to use spray paint, you can also cut out the letters on colored paper and tape those to your box instead.

This is such an affordable way to elevate your DIY baby shower and add in a few more simple decorations for your party. Plus it could serve as a great spot for a photo opportunity!

Pro-Tip: Although the spray paint method is messier, you end up with a better looking finished product than when you tape the letters on. 

4 – Think About Party Favors You Can Give to Your Guests

I think it’s such a nice token of appreciation when moms-to-be gift everyone a small little gift. It’s a great way to say thank you for coming. Plus it will remind them of the fun they had celebrating with you! Unfortunately, party favors can be super expensive and your goal is to have an affordable baby shower.

Luckily, you can easily make tons of different baby shower gifts that are super sweet and affordable. At the last baby shower I went to, the mom-to-be worked with her mom and mother-in-law to create homemade bars of soap. It’s so cool, I almost hate to use it and I think of her every time I see it.

Another great idea is to create a mug that you can share with all of your guests. If you have a Cricut, or any other vinyl cutting machine, you can follow these steps to make a homemade coffee mug with any saying that you want! You can even personalize it for each guest if you’re feeling extra ambitious.

As you can see, throwing a great baby shower doesn’t have to mean spending loads of money.

If you use these simple DIY decorations or check out even more ideas on Pinterest (seriously, the sky is the limit!), you can have a fantastic, affordable baby shower and save money for when your baby gets here.

Also, I’ll let you in on a quick little secret. I actually missed out on a baby shower with my baby. Yup! I was too sick throughout my third trimester and we weren’t sure how quickly I’d recover after he got here. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to make my own cute little decorations and host a fun party. Instead, I had a super laid back and informal baby shower every time people came over to visit my new baby!

Although I missed out on my first baby shower, I’m glad I’ve learned so much about ways to make my next baby shower easy, laid back, and affordable. And I can’t wait to plan for an affordable DIY baby shower with my next baby!

Did you have a baby shower? What were your favorite decorations that you had at your party?

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