adoption shower

crosspost - didn't realize we had an adoption forum :)

A close friend has adopted a baby from S. America (her second, but her oldest is a teenager now) and I'm trying to figure out how to plan a shower for her. The baby will turn one soon so she plans to have a party and invite all their friends. They have a TON of friends. Therefore, I am thinking we could some sort of MNO just for her close GFs (could still be quite a few, however..). I know a number of them casually and I would be planning this event with one of them. I could also include her dd's godmother and another close friend of hers (who I don't know all that well), but at this point I have only included one other person.

Can you all give me some pointers or ideas? I've hosted several showers, but this brings a new twist and I am lost.. plus the fact that they have a lot of friends so we would need to somehow limit the numbers. She put a registry together, but i'm noticing that people are already visiting and bringing gifts. We couldn't even start planning before because everything happened so fast but it was uncertain until the end whether it would go through!
__________________