Build the alcohol-free side first and make it the headline, then add two brunch cocktails for the guests who are drinking. The rule that makes a baby shower feel right: the guest of honour should never be handed something visibly different from everyone else. Same glass, same garnish, same name on the board. Plan four drinks per guest across a three-hour daytime event, most of them non-alcoholic.
Baby showers are the one event where the drinks menu has an obvious centre of gravity: the person the party is for is not drinking. Most showers handle this by treating alcohol-free as an afterthought — a jug of lemonade beside the mimosas — which quietly tells the guest of honour that the real menu is the one she cannot have.
Flip it. Build the alcohol-free side as the actual menu, make it good enough that guests who drink order from it anyway, and add two brunch cocktails on the side. That is the whole strategy, and it is not more expensive.
The rule that matters more than any recipe
Same glass, same garnish, same name on the board. A zero-proof drink in a coupe with a grapefruit twist and a proper name reads as a cocktail. The same liquid in a plastic cup reads as juice. The ingredients are identical; the experience is not.
This applies to every guest who is not drinking, not just the guest of honour. At a daytime shower that group is usually a third of the room — designated drivers, people in early pregnancy who have not announced it, people in recovery, people on medication, people who simply do not drink before evening. A menu that treats them as the default is a better menu for everybody.
Five alcohol-free builds that hold up
1. Grapefruit and Rosemary Spritz
3 oz fresh grapefruit juice, 0.5 oz rosemary syrup, 0.5 oz lime, topped with sparkling water, served long over ice with a rosemary sprig and a grapefruit wheel. The best all-round zero-proof drink we make: bitter enough to read as adult, low in sugar, and it holds its ice for twenty minutes in the sun. This is the one to lead with.
2. Cucumber, Mint and Elderflower Cooler
1.5 oz cucumber juice, 0.5 oz elderflower cordial, 0.75 oz lime, sparkling water, mint clapped and dropped in. Light, cold and the drink most people come back for on a warm afternoon. Blend and strain the cucumber the morning of — it turns dull by the next day.
3. Blackberry Shrub Fizz
1 oz blackberry shrub, 0.5 oz lemon, topped with soda, three blackberries on a pick. The shrub is a vinegar-based syrup, which is what stops it tipping into candy — it stays tart and structured in a way a straight fruit syrup never does. Makes the prettiest glass on the table by a distance.
4. The Zero-Proof Mimosa
3 oz fresh orange juice topped with 3 oz non-alcoholic sparkling, in a flute, orange twist. Obvious, and worth doing properly: fresh-squeezed juice and a real non-alcoholic sparkling rather than sparkling water make it genuinely good rather than merely acceptable. Sits beside the real mimosas looking identical, which is the point.
5. Iced Hibiscus and Ginger
3 oz cold-brewed hibiscus tea, 0.5 oz ginger syrup, 0.5 oz lime, soda, lime wheel. Deep magenta, tart, faintly spicy. The one that surprises people, and the one that works for guests who find fruit-forward drinks too sweet.
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Two brunch cocktails, and no more
For the guests who are drinking, two options is the right number at a daytime shower. More slows service, complicates the shopping list and shifts the emphasis to the wrong side of the menu.
The Mimosa, structured
Three juices, not seven: orange, grapefruit, and one seasonal — peach in summer, blood orange in winter, passionfruit any time. Keep the sparkling behind the bar on ice with someone pouring rather than fully self-serve. An unattended mimosa bar goes through the sparkling in forty minutes and leaves a table of warm juice and a queue.
The Aperol or St-Germain Spritz
2 oz Aperol or 1.5 oz elderflower liqueur, 3 oz prosecco, 1 oz soda, over ice with an orange slice. Low alcohol, bright, appropriate at one in the afternoon in a way a spirit-forward cocktail is not, and it takes fifteen seconds to pour. This is the daytime cocktail.
What to skip: anything spirit-forward, anything requiring a shake per drink, and a full call bar. A shower runs three hours in daylight and nobody wants a negroni at 1 p.m.
Quantities for 40 guests
Daytime showers consume less and steadier than evening parties. Our planning number is four drinks per guest over three hours, with roughly seventy percent of those non-alcoholic.
| Item | 40 guests | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh orange juice | 2 gallons | Mimosas and the zero-proof version |
| Fresh grapefruit juice | 1.5 gallons | Spritz base and mimosa option |
| Prosecco | 8–10 bottles | Mimosas and spritzes |
| Aperol or elderflower liqueur | 2 bottles | Spritz |
| Non-alcoholic sparkling | 6–8 bottles | Zero-proof mimosas and toasts |
| Sparkling water | 4 cases | Every zero-proof build uses it |
| Fresh lime and lemon | 2 gallons juice combined | Squeeze the morning of |
| Syrups (rosemary, ginger, elderflower) | 1 qt each | Made 2–3 days ahead |
| Blackberry shrub | 1.5 qt | Made up to a week ahead; it improves |
| Hibiscus tea, cold brewed | 1 gallon | Brewed the night before |
| Cucumber juice | 1 qt | Blended and strained the morning of |
| Ice | 80–100 lbs | Included in every package |
| Glassware | 2.5 per guest | Coupes and highballs; included |
Everything below the alcohol line comes with every La Barra Co package: the bar, RBS-certified bartenders, ice, mixers, garnish, syrups, glassware, tools, setup and breakdown. You buy the alcohol at retail. No automatic gratuity, no service charge.
The timing, which is different from an evening party
Showers run to a schedule, and the bar has to fit around it. The pattern that works: doors and drinks for the first forty minutes while guests arrive and find each other, food at the forty-minute mark, games or the gift portion in the middle hour when the bar goes quiet, and a final drink push in the last thirty minutes as people say goodbye.
The bar is genuinely idle for about an hour in the middle. That is the window to restock, re-ice, cut fresh garnish and pre-batch for the closing rush — which is why one bartender comfortably covers 40 guests at a shower where the same bartender would be underwater at an evening party of the same size.
A note on adults-only
La Barra Co works adult events only. Every guest must be 21 or over and our bartenders check ID. Plenty of baby showers are adults-only afternoon events and we work those regularly.
If children will be at the shower, the right setup is a self-serve non-alcoholic station rather than a staffed bar, and we are happy to hand over the recipes above so you can build it yourself. Batch the syrups two days ahead, squeeze the citrus the morning of, and put out the same glassware you would have used. It works.
Building the rest of it
The full mocktail guide has nine more zero-proof builds if you want to rotate the menu, and the summer cocktails guide covers what changes when a daytime event lands in July heat — which in Southern California is most of the year.
Send us your date, headcount and whether alcohol is on the menu at all, and we will come back with a proposal and an exact shopping list. Serving Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and the Inland Empire.
Frequently asked questions
What drinks should you serve at a baby shower?
Lead with three or four proper alcohol-free cocktails served in real glassware with real garnish, then add two simple brunch cocktails for guests who are drinking. A mimosa or spritz and one lighter option is plenty. The ratio that works at a daytime shower is roughly seventy percent non-alcoholic to thirty percent alcoholic, which is the reverse of almost every other event we work.
How many drinks per guest at a baby shower?
Four per guest across a three-hour daytime event, counting everything. Most of those are non-alcoholic, and consumption is steadier and lower than at an evening party because people are eating, talking and driving home in daylight. For 40 guests that is about 160 drinks total, of which perhaps 45 will be alcoholic.
What can the mom-to-be drink at her own baby shower?
Anything on the alcohol-free menu, served in the same glass as everyone else. That last part matters more than the recipe. Being handed a plastic cup of juice while the room drinks from coupes is the small thing that makes someone feel like a guest at their own party. Build the zero-proof drinks so they are the nicest things on the board and the problem solves itself.
Should a baby shower have alcohol at all?
It is entirely the host's call and both answers are normal. If the guest of honour would rather nobody drinks, a fully alcohol-free shower with a genuinely good mocktail program is a lovely event and nobody misses anything. If alcohol is welcome, keep it light and brunch-appropriate. Ask the guest of honour privately before you decide, and then do not revisit it in front of guests.
Do you serve baby showers with children present?
No. La Barra Co works adult events only, with every guest 21 or over and ID checked by our RBS-certified bartenders. Many baby showers are adults-only and we work those regularly. If children will be present, a self-serve non-alcoholic beverage station is the right setup and we are happy to share the recipes so you can build it yourself.
Is a mimosa bar a good idea for a baby shower?
It is popular, and it works if you structure it. Give it three juices rather than seven, keep the sparkling wine on ice with a staff member pouring rather than fully self-serve, and put an identical alcohol-free version beside it with the same juices and sparkling water or non-alcoholic sparkling. Unstructured mimosa bars run through the sparkling in forty minutes and leave a table of warm juice.