Baby Showers · Ottawa
The one afternoon she should be allowed to sit down.
A baby shower is usually hosted by someone other than the guest of honour, which changes the whole job: a sister, a friend or a mother-in-law is running a two-hour afternoon in a living room she may not have hosted in before, and the person the party is for should be doing nothing at all. OH! delivers the food already composed, so the host is free from the moment the first car pulls up. The format works at roughly 12 to 50 guests and the numbers are published on this page.
The OH! approach
Showers rarely eat all at once. Guests arrive over half an hour, graze while they talk, stop entirely during gifts, then come back hungry when the wrapping is cleared. A table planned for that rhythm holds two hours of picking without wilting: nothing that needs a fork and a seat, nothing that browns when it sits, and the sturdier savoury items grouped where the queue naturally forms so the delicate ones survive to the second half.
Most Ottawa showers land between noon and four, which is exactly when guests are unsure whether they have eaten. Planning it as a light meal removes that doubt: something substantial and savoury at the centre, fresh produce for lift, bakery items for the tea drinkers, and a sweet run that pairs with the cake the host has usually already ordered elsewhere. We plan around that cake instead of competing with it.
Pregnancy narrows a menu in ways generic catering ignores. Cured fish, soft and blue cheeses, deli meats served cold, raw sprouts and unpasteurised dairy are the usual questions, and someone always asks about them at the table rather than before it. Tell us at the enquiry and the table is built so the guest of honour can eat from anything in front of her, with the few items that carry a caution grouped, labelled and placed at one end. Share dietary preferences and allergy information when you enquire. We plan suitable choices and label the table clearly. For severe or life-threatening allergies we talk through cross-contact before you book, and we cannot guarantee allergen-free preparation on a shared table.
A shower guest list stretches from a grandmother to a toddler who came with a parent. That range is a portioning problem as much as a taste one: small hands need items that do not fall apart, older guests appreciate something soft and something warm, and the middle of the room wants the interesting bites. One table can carry all three when the categories are deliberate rather than decorative.
Ottawa showers happen in living rooms, condo party rooms and the back halls of community centres, and each one changes the build. A living room usually gives us a dining table or an island and no second surface, so the composition goes long and shallow. A condo party room means a booked service elevator and a two-hour access window. A hall gives space and takes away everything else, including the plug you assumed. Describe the room in your enquiry and the setup plan comes back with the quote. We serve the City of Ottawa, Ontario. Kanata, Stittsville, Nepean, Barrhaven, Westboro, the central neighbourhoods, Orléans, Manotick and Riverside South sit inside the standard delivery area, where delivery and on-site styling are $45. Past 25 km the delivery charge is quoted for your address and appears on the quote before you book.
Shower tables get photographed more than almost any other event we cater, usually on a phone, usually from above, usually against whatever light the room has. The build accounts for it: colour grouped in runs rather than scattered, height at the back, labels legible in a photo, and the edges kept clean so the first picture works before anyone has touched it.
Styled tables start at $42 per guest, plus applicable taxes, and the working range runs $42–$65 per guest, with the top of it being tables that replace a meal. Your quote is built from four things: guest count, table format, how long the event runs and the setup the room needs, and it separates food, styling and delivery so each part of the number is visible. The event minimum is $600 before delivery and taxes. Delivery and on-site styling are $45 within 25 km. Past that, the charge is quoted for your address before you book. A twenty-guest shower is the most common size we quote, and at the $600 minimum the arithmetic stops binding above roughly fifteen guests. Every figure is quoted before you commit.
Two to four weeks is a comfortable planning window for a styled table. December dates, long-weekend Saturdays and shower season fill earliest, and short-notice weekday events are always worth asking about. Shower season in Ottawa runs heavy from March to June and again through September, and Saturday afternoons in those months go first. We answer every enquiry within one business day, and the reply names the next step and the date being held while we talk.
Questions, answered
Two to four weeks is a comfortable planning window for a styled table. December dates, long-weekend Saturdays and shower season fill earliest, and short-notice weekday events are always worth asking about.
Share dietary preferences and allergy information when you enquire. We plan suitable choices and label the table clearly. For severe or life-threatening allergies we talk through cross-contact before you book, and we cannot guarantee allergen-free preparation on a shared table.
Styled tables start at $42 per guest, plus applicable taxes, and the working range runs $42–$65 per guest, with the top of it being tables that replace a meal. Your quote is built from four things: guest count, table format, how long the event runs and the setup the room needs, and it separates food, styling and delivery so each part of the number is visible. The event minimum is $600 before delivery and taxes. Delivery and on-site styling are $45 within 25 km. Past that, the charge is quoted for your address before you book.
A 30% deposit and a signed quote hold your date, and the balance is due 3 days before the event. Move or cancel more than 14 days out and the deposit is refunded; inside that window it covers the sourcing already committed. Final guest count is due 7 days before the event. After that the shopping list is set: numbers can still rise, and the count stops coming down. Every figure is quoted plus applicable taxes.
We serve the City of Ottawa, Ontario. Kanata, Stittsville, Nepean, Barrhaven, Westboro, the central neighbourhoods, Orléans, Manotick and Riverside South sit inside the standard delivery area, where delivery and on-site styling are $45. Past 25 km the delivery charge is quoted for your address and appears on the quote before you book.
Call +1 613 710-0554 with your date, guest count and neighbourhood, or send the same details through the enquiry form. We answer every enquiry within one business day, and the reply names the next step and the date being held while we talk.
We answer every enquiry within one business day, and the reply names the next step and the date being held while we talk. You send the date, guest count, neighbourhood and a sentence about the room. We reply with a starting format and the two or three questions that move the quote. You get one written quote separating food, styling, delivery and travel, with terms attached. A signed quote and deposit hold the date, then the menu is finalised around season and dietary needs. We arrive ahead of guests, build the table in the room and take the serving pieces away afterwards.
Tell us at the enquiry and the table is built so she can eat from anything on it. The usual questions are cured fish, soft and blue cheeses, cold deli meats, raw sprouts and unpasteurised dairy; where a guest wants those items present for everyone else, they are grouped and labelled at one end rather than spread through the display.
A shower running two hours in the afternoon sits between a snack and a meal, so plan on roughly 200 to 300 grams of food per guest across six categories. Twenty guests eat noticeably more when the shower replaces lunch and noticeably less when it follows one; the start time tells us which.
Yes. Tell us what it is and where it will stand, and the sweet run is planned to sit beside it with clear space kept for the cake rather than a second centrepiece competing with it.
Have a date in mind?