Over the next three days, “Today” will be showing you how to make entertaining easier with ideas for invitations, decorations and menus, beginning with tips on throwing a shower. Whether it's for the bride-to-be or the arrival of a baby, Anne-Marie O'Neill, deputy editor of Real Simple, shares some simple party tips from Real Simple's new book, “Celebrations.”

When it comes to life's biggest events, you don't get much bigger than a wedding or the birth of a baby. And so it follows that the shower leading up to one of these occasions should be appropriately meaningful. But this doesn't require slaving over a fantastically elaborate spread. To truly honor these new beginnings (and elicit oohs and aahs from your guests), all you need is a little creative vision and a few personal touches.

Bridal shower

Invitations
Parties begin with invitations, so if you're celebrating a truly well-matched couple, send the wedding shower invitation on a blank postcard-size puzzle ($12.50 @ jigsawpuzzle.com), using a heading like “Cara and Ethan: The Perfect Fit.” Mail the puzzle unassembled so the recipient can put it together.

Should the invitation include registry information?
Many shower invitations do, but that can make the shower seem like a bit of a gimme-fest. Better yet, keep registry information off the invitation but feel free to pass it along if guests ask you for it. Or have them contact the honoree's family or the honoree directly.

Food and drink
Real Simple recommends traditional shower delights for both bridal and baby showers — crustless tea sandwiches, dainty desserts, bubbly cocktails.

Decoration and set-up

• Garnish a wedding shower table with champagne glasses, each filled with a perfect coupling of jelly bean flavors (coconut with pineapple, lemon with lime, cherry with vanilla) — edible proof that two together can be better than each alone.
• Use block stamps to monogram paper cocktail napkins or a stack of blank matchboxes with the couple's initials. The matches can be custom party favors ($8 @ rubberstampchamp.com). If you wish, make extra for the couple to use at their own parties.
• Instead of splurging on an elaborate (and probably expensive) centerpiece, let the guests' gifts do the work. Stack presents on the coffee or buffet table for an instant, eye-pleasing still life of patterned papers and pastel bows.

How much should you spend on a gift?
How much you spend should have more to do with your relationship with the recipient and what you feel comfortable spending than with an arbitrary, “customary” dollar figure. Traditionally, the family of the bride or mother-to-be takes on the more expensive, utilitarian gift items, like cribs or kitchen appliances, while friends bring gifts that are more creative, personal, and, yes, inexpensive. If you're not a family member of the honoree, a basic rule of thumb is to spend no less than $30 and no more than $50 on a wedding- or baby-shower gift, bearing in mind what other gifts (the actual wedding gift, for example) you plan to purchase.

How long should the gift-opening portion of the shower be?
If possible, try to limit it to an hour or less, any longer and all your guests can start to get antsy. When setting up, stick the supplies the honoree will need under her chair so you won't have to part the sea of guests to fetch them in the middle of the party. Include scissors, large trash bags, a notebook and a pencil to record the gifts and their givers, and sticky labels to help keep similar gifts (like platters and glassware) straight.

Activities
Shower games are often part of the party, but the game is only successful if it's easy to play and doesn't overly embarrass the honoree (or worse, her mother). Real Simple suggests creating enough bingo cards for everyone, as simple or as elaborate as you like (sheets of paper with grids of five boxes by five boxes drawn on them will work just fine). Then have guests write in each square a gift they think the honoree will receive (with the exception of the free center square). As presents are opened (china! baby blanket!), guests can note their correct guesses with stickers or markers. The first person to get bingo wins.

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