**Your Guide to Compiling a Complete Baby Shower Guest List!**

You should start thinking about your baby shower guest list approximately five to six weeks before the date of the baby shower. Remember that you want to make sure your guests get your baby shower invitations at least three to four weeks in advance and even further in advance if you are holding the shower on a weekend. One of the trickiest parts of organizing a baby shower is compiling a guest list, especially if the shower is a surprise for the new mom or expecting mother. If the shower is not a surprise you can simply ask the mother of honour for a list of friends and relatives and their contact information.

If the shower is a surprise you will have to be creative and resourceful. Here are a few ways to get a list of guests compiled:

If it is not a co-ed shower ask the new father or expecting daddy for a list of relatives and any friends that he knows of that the new mother would like to invite.
Ask a close girlfriend for a list of the mother’s friends and their contact information. You can then contact a couple of the friends on that list who may have additional friends and their contact information to add on to the previous list of guests.
Contact a family member such as the baby’s grandparents and ask for a list of close relatives. If it is the baby’s grandmother you are talking to she may even know some of the mother’s friend’s to contact.

If it is a co-ed shower chances are it will be a surprise for both the mother and the father. For co-ed surprise baby showers you can try the following:

Contact the couple’s parents and accumulate a list of close relatives. These parents will probably know the names of some friends of the couple.
Once you have the names of one friend couple you can contact them to get a list of other couples to invite.
Again, you can use the above list to grow your list of friends by contacting people within that list to see if they have more names to add.

Please keep in mind that the new mother or the new parents may be given showers by different groups of people such as one with co-workers, one with her/their church friends, and another with relatives only. Therefore, it is a good idea to do as much detective work to find out what is being planned and what baby showers have already taken place.