Stack the whole host budget: venue, food, decor, games, favors
| Category | Typical Range | 25-Guest Example |
|---|---|---|
| Venue | $0 (home) – $500 | $250 – park district room, community hall |
| Food & drink | $10–$30 per guest | $450 at $18/guest, catered lunch spread |
| Cake & desserts | $30–$150 | $100 half-sheet plus cookies |
| Decorations | $50–$300 | $150 balloon garland, table settings, banner |
| Games & prizes | $20–$75 | $50 supplies plus 4 small prizes |
| Favors | $3–$8 per guest | $125 candles or seed packets |
| Invitations | $0 (digital) – $75 | $45 printed sets |
Ranges reflect typical party-planning-site guidance for 2025–2026; big-city venues and caterers run higher. The three presets in the calculator (backyard $565, typical $1,170, venue brunch $1,820 at 25 guests) are built from the middle of these bands.
Every baby shower budget is the same seven buckets wearing different price tags. The venue, the food, the cake, the decorations, the games, the favors, and the invitations scale differently: food and favors move with the guest count while the rest are mostly fixed. This calculator keeps them separate so you can see which lever to pull when the number gets uncomfortable, then totals it per guest so you can sanity-check against the typical $25-to-$75-a-head band.
Pick the preset closest to your plan and the fields fill with mid-range values. Adjust anything: drop the venue to zero for a backyard party, raise food to $25 for catered service, zero the invitations if you're going digital. Editing a field flips the preset to Custom, and the bar chart rebalances as you type.
Twenty-five guests, a $250 community-room rental, $18 a head for a catered lunch spread ($450), a $100 half-sheet cake, $150 of decorations, $50 of games and prizes, $5 favors ($125), and $45 of printed invitations. Total: $1,170, or $46.80 a guest. Venue plus food is $700, 60% of the budget, which is why those two lines are where hosts economize first. The same shower moved to a backyard with a $12-a-head potluck spread drops to $565, and upgrading to a $450 venue with a $28 brunch plate lands at $1,820.
Trimming from the typical preset: digital invites save $45, skipping favors saves $125, and a diaper-raffle game instead of prize gifts saves most of $50. That's $200 off before anyone notices a difference in the party.
Most showers land between $500 and $1,800 depending on guest count and venue. A backyard shower for 25 guests runs around $565 ($23 a head), a typical hosted shower with a modest venue around $1,170 ($47 a head), and a venue brunch with catering passes $1,800 ($73 a head). Food and venue together are usually more than half the budget.
The host pays. Classically that was a friend or the grandmother-to-be, precisely so the parents weren't funding their own party. Today co-hosted showers are common, with two or three people splitting the venue, food, and decorations, which is where a per-category budget like this one keeps the split honest.
Planning guides typically suggest $10 to $30 per guest depending on style: $10 to $15 for light bites and sweets at home, $18 to $25 for a catered lunch spread, $28 and up for a seated restaurant or venue brunch. For a two-to-three-hour party, plan roughly 8 to 12 bites and one to two drinks per guest per hour.
15 to 40 is the common range, with mid-twenties a frequent target. The guest-of-honor's list should drive it, but budget drives the ceiling: every extra guest adds food, favors, and possibly tables and chairs, so 15 additional guests add $345 at the typical preset and $525 at venue-brunch prices.
Weeks 28 to 32 of the pregnancy is the usual window: late enough that the parents-to-be know what they still need from the registry, early enough that an early arrival doesn't scramble the plan. Book the venue six to eight weeks ahead and send invitations three to four weeks out.