When to send baby shower invitations
Send baby shower invitations four to six weeks before the shower. Most showers are held in the third trimester, commonly between about 28 and 32 weeks, so that usually means sending them somewhere around weeks 22 to 28. Set the RSVP deadline about a week before the date, which is late enough that most people have answered without being chased and early enough to give a caterer or a venue a number. If guests are travelling, go to eight weeks and send a save the date first.
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The usual timing
Four to six weeks is where nearly every etiquette guide lands, and the reason is practical rather than traditional. Under three weeks and you are competing with plans people have already made; over eight and the date goes into a mental drawer nobody opens again.
Send the invitation six weeks ahead if you can, four at the latest for a local weekend shower. Put the RSVP deadline a week before the day. Two or three days before, send everybody who said yes a short note with the address and the parking — not a second invitation, just the thing that saves six phone calls on the morning.
When to send earlier
Three situations move the timing, all in the same direction. When they apply, send a save the date first so the invitation itself can still go out at the normal time with the real details on it.
If guests are travelling, send the invitation eight weeks ahead and a save the date two to three months ahead: a flight and a night away are decisions people make once. In a holiday season, go to eight weeks too, because December weekends are spoken for by October. And for a surprise shower send earlier still, with a plain line asking people not to mention it — surprise showers fail by text message more often than any other way.
Why the shower is in the third trimester
Showers sit late in the pregnancy for two practical reasons: by then the pregnancy is openly the point of the party, and the gifts are useful within weeks rather than months. The common advice is to leave four to six weeks between the shower and the due date, which is what puts most of them between about weeks 28 and 32.
Much earlier and some families are still being careful about who knows. Much later, past about 36 weeks, and you are planning around a date that can move without notice. A sprinkle for a second baby usually follows the same timing on a smaller scale.
Posted or digital
Posted invitations need about a week in hand for printing and the post, so the send date moves earlier while the shower does not: order seven weeks out, post six weeks out. Digital invitations remove that week and change the deadline from something you chase to something you can read, because the replies arrive where you can count them.
Plenty of hosts do both — a digital invitation for everyone and a printed copy posted to the handful of relatives who will keep it on the fridge.
If you are sending digitally, a tinynewlife page is the invitation and the reply list at one address. Guests reply without making an account, so nobody is stopped at a sign-up screen, and the headcount counts people rather than replies — a yes that brings two others counts as three. See a baby shower page.
Questions
How far in advance should baby shower invitations be sent?
Four to six weeks before the shower. Go to eight weeks if guests are travelling or it falls in a holiday season, and send a save the date two to three months ahead in those cases.
When should the RSVP date be for a baby shower?
About one week before the shower. That is late enough that most people have answered without being chased and early enough to confirm numbers with a caterer or a venue.
Is four weeks enough notice for a baby shower?
Yes, for a local shower with no travel involved. It is the short end of the normal range rather than late.
How many weeks pregnant should you be for a baby shower?
Most showers are held between about 28 and 32 weeks, which leaves four to six weeks before the due date — late enough that the gifts are used soon, early enough not to be planning around a date that can move.
Who sends out baby shower invitations?
Whoever is hosting. Traditionally that was a friend or relative rather than the parents, but that convention has largely faded and many parents host their own; the host is simply whoever is handling the guest list.
The rest of the journey
The same address carries a family from the first guess to the first birthday. Whichever of these you are planning now, the others are the same page later.