A baby shower invitation has a short list of jobs: say who the shower is for, who is hosting it, when and where, how to reply, and — the two things most cards leave out — what time it finishes and whether partners and children are included. Get those on the card and almost nothing needs following up by message. The sections below cover the wording, the timing and the one question every host asks, which is where to put the registry.
A note on the file format before you download. These twelve designs were made in Microsoft Publisher, and Microsoft has retired it: Publisher was removed from Microsoft 365 subscriptions after 1 October 2026, and support for the one-time-purchase version ended on 13 October 2026. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription you will probably not be able to open a .pub file at all. If you have an older perpetual Office installation that still includes Publisher, the files will open normally. Where you cannot open them, Microsoft’s own suggested replacements for cards and invitations are Word or PowerPoint — PowerPoint handles a graphic-heavy card better than Word does.
12Invitation designs
Publisher.pub — see note above
3−6 wksSend before the shower
FreeNo sign-up, no email
When to send them
Two lead times stack up, and the invitation sits in the middle of them.
Milestone
Timing
The shower itself
Usually four to six weeks before the due date — close enough to feel imminent, with enough margin that an early arrival does not cancel it.
Invitations go out
Three to six weeks before the shower. Six if people are travelling, three at the very least.
Reply-by date on the card
About two weeks before the shower, so numbers can be confirmed with a venue or caterer.
Working backwards, that means the guest list has to be settled around seven to twelve weeks before the due date — earlier than almost anyone expects, and mostly because collecting addresses takes longer than collecting names. The baby shower guest list page sets that deadline out in full, along with who may host.
There is no rule that the shower has to happen before the birth at all. Holding it a few weeks afterwards is perfectly normal, removes the deadline pressure entirely, and lets the guest of honour enjoy it rather than endure it.
Free baby shower invitation templates
Twelve designs. Check the format note above before downloading, and print one copy at actual size before running off thirty — decorative lettering that reads well on screen is often unreadable on a card.
The first five are obvious and usually present. The last four are the ones that generate messages when they are missing.
Detail
Why it matters
Who the shower is for
Both parents’ names if both are being celebrated. Plenty of showers now honour a couple rather than one person.
Date, with the day of the week
Weekday included. People arrive on the wrong Saturday more often than you would think.
Start and finish time
Guests are planning an afternoon and sometimes childcare. “From 2pm” leaves them guessing.
Venue, with enough address to find the door
A house number and a note like “parking on the road behind” saves several phone calls.
How and by when to reply
A name, a number or email, and a date. Without the date you will be chasing the night before.
Who is hosting
Name them. It was once thought improper for close family to host a shower, since gifts are central, and although anyone may host today where there is a good reason, some guests still remember the older convention. One line — “hosted by Sarah’s mother, as Sarah and James now live four hundred miles away” — removes the question entirely.
Whether partners and children are welcome
Showers are no longer assumed to be women-only, and guests genuinely cannot tell. Say either way; it also fixes your headcount.
Dietary needs and access
Ask in the reply rather than as a general note, so the answer arrives with the RSVP. Pregnancy, allergies and step-free access are all easier to handle three weeks out than on the day.
Whether it is a surprise
If it is, say so twice — at the top and beside the reply details — and give an arrival-by time rather than a start time.
Anyone joining by video call needs a link and a time rather than an address, and they are the easiest guests to forget on the day. Note them on your list separately. If you are producing matching stationery for the day itself — place cards, a thank-you card, favours — printing it all from one file in one session is what makes a set look planned rather than assembled, and the general invitation templates are a reasonable source for the rest of it.
Where the registry goes
This is the question every host asks, and there is a settled answer that most people get slightly wrong in a well-meaning way.
Registry details should not be printed on the invitation itself. Enclosing them on a separate sheet of paper is perfectly acceptable — so the information travels with the invitation without being part of it. The distinction sounds fussy and is not: the invitation is an invitation, and a card that leads with where to buy things reads as an invoice.
Two related points worth knowing, because they change how the enclosure should be worded. A host cannot dictate purchases through an invitation, and nobody can be required to buy from a registry — registries, in the Emily Post phrasing, “are not marching orders”. Gifts may come from the list, be chosen independently, or be handmade, and half the pleasure of giving is the element of surprise. So the enclosure should read as information rather than instruction: here is where they are registered, if it helps.
There is also a practical argument for registering that has nothing to do with etiquette. Where guests want to pool money for something larger — a pushchair, a car seat — a registry makes that easy to coordinate, and registered items are more likely to meet current child safety standards than something chosen from a cupboard or bought second-hand. For car seats in particular that is a genuine reason to use a list rather than a surprise.
If the parents would rather have nothing, that is also a line for the enclosure rather than the card, and it is worth saying plainly: “no gifts please — just come” is respected far more often than people expect, particularly where a whole workplace or a large family is invited.
Wording that does not assume
A short section, because it is easy to get right and awkward to get wrong.
Not every set of parents knows the baby’s sex, wants to announce it, or is having a baby in the way the stationery industry assumes. Adoptive parents, foster parents and same-sex parents all hold showers, and a card built around pink or blue, or around one pregnant mother, simply does not fit a good proportion of the occasions it will be used for. The previous version of this page recommended choosing a theme by the baby’s sex, which is why this is worth saying.
The fix is not elaborate. Pick a design that does not encode an assumption, name the people actually being celebrated, and let the parents decide what to announce and when. If they want a colour scheme they will tell you.
One more: a baby shower invitation occasionally lands on someone having a very hard time — people going through fertility treatment, or who have lost a pregnancy, sometimes find these afternoons painful and feel unable to say so. You will not know who, and you should not guess. What you can do is make declining easy: a line such as “no pressure at all if the day does not work for you” costs nothing and gives someone a door. If an expected guest says no without much explanation, take it at face value and keep inviting them to things.
Printing them
Three things decide whether a home-printed invitation looks bought or homemade, and none of them is the design.
Card, not paper. Invitations get handled, posted and propped on mantelpieces. Ordinary printer paper curls within a day.
Cut inside the ink, not at its edge. A home printer cannot print to the edge of the sheet, so a design built with bleed comes out with a white border. Keep the design inside the printable area and trim a millimetre or two inside the ink, with a craft knife and a steel rule rather than scissors.
Use images at print resolution. A photograph pulled off a phone message looks fine on screen and prints soft. The verified figures for bleed, safe margins and resolution are set out on the bookmark templates page and apply to any small print piece, invitations included.
And count before you print. Cards, envelopes and postage are a per-head cost like catering, so an invitation list that grows by ten costs real money twice over — once in stationery and again in food. Working the per-head figure out on an event budget before the guest list is finalised is less painful than discovering it afterwards.
Questions about baby shower invitations
How far in advance should invitations go out?
Three to six weeks before the shower, with the shower itself usually four to six weeks before the due date. Use the longer end if guests are travelling. Put a reply-by date roughly two weeks before the shower so you can confirm numbers, and expect a few replies to arrive after it whatever you write.
Can I put the registry on the invitation?
Better not to. Registry details should not be printed on the invitation itself, but enclosing them on a separate sheet is entirely acceptable — so the information still reaches the guest without the card reading as a request. Word it as information rather than instruction: a registry is not an obligation, and guests remain free to choose something else or make something.
Should the invitation say who is hosting?
Yes, and it is more useful than it sounds. Close family hosting a shower was once discouraged, because gifts are central to the occasion, and although anyone may host today given a good reason, some guests still carry the older expectation. Naming the host, with a half-sentence of context if there is one, answers the question before anybody wonders about it.
Do I need to say whether men and children are invited?
It is one of the most useful lines you can add. Showers were traditionally women-only and many still are by choice, but co-ed showers are entirely ordinary now, and guests cannot tell which this is. The same goes for children. Saying either way prevents the awkward doorstep conversation and gives you an accurate headcount.
What if we do not know the baby’s sex, or do not want to say?
Then choose a design that does not encode one, which most of these do. There is no requirement to announce anything on an invitation, and plenty of parents prefer not to, or are becoming parents by adoption or fostering where the question does not arise in the same way. The invitation needs to say who is being celebrated and when — nothing more.
Can I email the invitation instead?
Yes, and for a small shower it is often more practical — replies arrive faster and nothing gets lost in the post. A printed card still does something an email does not, which is sit on a shelf as a reminder, so a mixed approach works: post to the people who would appreciate a card, email everyone else. Whichever you use, the same details have to be on it.
Can I edit these templates?
They are free to download and edit, but see the format note near the top of this page first — they are Microsoft Publisher files, and Publisher has been retired, so whether you can open one depends on which version of Office you have. If you cannot, Word or PowerPoint are Microsoft’s own suggested replacements for cards and invitations. Whichever you use, the edit worth making to every design is adding a finish time beside the start time, since most invitation layouts provide only one time field.
