Congratulations, mama! You must be in the planning stages of your or a friend’s baby shower, and I’m so excited for you. This is the stuff that makes life FUN!

Sit down and grab a warm cup of coffee (because warm cups of coffee don’t exist when your little one is *finally* here!), and let’s dive in.

WHEN TO SEND YOUR ECO-FRIENDLY BABY SHOWER INVITATION

So first thing’s first - the typical baby shower should take place around your sixth or seventh month of pregnancy. A great time frame to send your invitations is roughly four weeks beforehand. 

This means you're looking at sending invites our at the five- or six-month pregnancy mark. The truth is that if you send the invitation any earlier than that, your guests might forget (insert eye rolling emoji here, haha).

HOW A MINIMALIST MOM SENDS HER BABY SHOWER INVITE

How about we keep this baby shower as eco-friendly as possible? Consider going green and asking whoever is planning your baby shower to send paperless, e-invites to your guests!

This will allow you to skip the paper invitations, envelopes and stamps, while also saving money. 

If you want something with a little more flair than a simple email, use a free website to design and send your invites. Sites such asPaperless Post allows you to send out really gorgeous and creative e-invitations of your choosing! Then your guests can RSVP easily or reply with any questions..

If you DO want to send your guests a paper invitation, I recommend checking outPaper Culture. They’re a certified California Green Business and California Climate Leader Award winner that uses 100% recycled paper. Plus,like us,Paper Culture plants one tree with every order!

CREATE AN ECO-FRIENDLY BABY REGISTRY

Remember that by the time you or your friend sends out your shower invites, you should already have registered for the gifts that you actually want! It’s likely that guests will probably immediately start browsing your gift list once they receive the invite.

Avoid the frustration of unwanted baby gifts and a pile of returns to deal with by creating an all natural, eco-friendly baby registry featuring safe and high quality items you actually want! If you’re crunchy like me, do your best to keep all plastic off the registry so your eager gift-givers will get the hint.

We have an entire blog post dedicated tofive brands that crunchy moms should have on their baby registry that you can check out for more inspo. And it’s super easy to start your own all zero waste baby registry for free atBabyList.

Also, I have a feeling you’re also interested inbecoming a minimalist mom. We’ve got a blog for that to help you figure out what minimalism looks like for you.

A LIGHT-HEARTED “PLASTIC-FREE, PLEASE” RHYME FOR ECO-FRIENDLY BABY SHOWER INVITES

So your baby registry is plastic-free, and you’re hoping people will get the hint.  But let’s get real: to be certain your plastic-free preference is clear, you need to explicitly say so to your family and friends. I know, this is a tricky thing.  You don’t want to come across as demanding, too picky, or (gasp!) too crunchy, but youalsodon’t want to get a bunch of poor quality, plastic toys that won’t last.  

Remove the guessing game (and social awkwardness) from the situation with our “plastic-free, please” rhyme for your eco-friendly baby shower invitations:

“If you’re thinking of giving a gift for our new little one,

We’d be thrilled to receive something that’s

natural, safe, and of course, fun!

Plastic-free are the types of toys we desire,

If you’d like to know more, please enquire.

Because what better way to celebrate this birth,

Than with toys that last and don’t harm the earth?

Check out our all natural baby registry at

[REGISTRY NAME OR LINK]."

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As a minimalist mom, when it comes to your baby shower invitations - forget about what a traditional baby shower “should be like.”

Feel free to get creative with your green ideas. Get a little crunchy, my friend! Because caring for the earth goes hand-in-hand with caring for your little ones. You (or your bestie) can plan the eco-friendly baby shower of your dreams, if you just think outside of the “big-box store”.

Have you approached the “plastic-free, please” topic with your gift-giving family and friends? Comment below to let us know how it went!