Our Gender Reveal Party

Gender reveal parties are definitely a thing of this generation and I believe they are here to STAY.

Then again, I'm always looking for the next fabulous excuse to host a party.

We decided to host a gender reveal because the idea of finding out such exciting news in a party environment, surrounded by our loved ones, was much more appealing than being in a sterile and quiet doctor's room. Plus, ultrasounds can be nervewracking! For us, we are so happy to see our babe on the big screen, but tensions can run high during those appointments as you are scouring the sonogram looking for every hopeful sign that your baby is healthy and growing. 

The next big question is - will you be in on the surprise, or will you find out yourselves at the party? Due to the reasons above, we also decided to hold out and be surprised at our own gender reveal. It's hard waiting but I would totally recommend this.

I was convinced that we were having a boy, and selfishly, while searching for the invitation I thought this might be my last opportunity to go with a color and style that was a little more feminine than I'd dare to go after hearing the news. When I found this Happy Tree invitation on Etsy, I felt like it was made for me. Yellow (my very favorite color), sweet silhouettes, the mention of tutus or ties (I used to take ballet and Ian is more of a tie guy than a bowtie guy), the font, the polka dots, everything. It was just so me. The shop owner was easy to work with! I purchased the PDF from her for $15 and then took it on a flash drive to Kinko's for printing. They were able to fit two 5x7 invitations per page which was a cost-savings, and I used the paper cutter there to cut them out myself to save even more money. They were printed on 110# white cardstock. I purchased charcoal gray envelopes from Paper Source and a white pen to address the envelopes in a fun script.

After securing the invitations, I started a private Pinterest board to gather inspiration and ideas, and it's now public here if you want to take a peek.

I created an old wives tale predictions chart in Word, printed it at home on light gray cardstock, and used blue and pink washi tape to show how my response to each question would tally up. I was four and four ... tied!

This topiary tree I made for a girlfriend's baby shower became a ribbon tree for our guests to show their guesses. They picked a color from the tree and wore it on their shirt. The sign was another simple Word document printed on gray cardstock and displayed in a photo frame.

Drake, naturally, played it safe and went neutral. :)

 

I know all parties gather in the kitchen so I set up that area as the food and reveal site. I made the tassel garlands using tissue paper from Michaels (the silver and metallic) and Dollar Tree (yellow). I used this tutorial. 

The huge balloons were a sale find at JCPenney from their Martha Stewart entertaining line. They were on sale 2/$5 and I swear it literally cost me more to fill them with helium at Party City ($4/balloon) than the cost of the actual balloon. 

I printed my weekly belly photos at Walgreens when prints were 40% off and used gray striped washi tape to affix them to the wall.

The party was at 3:00 so food was simple ... mini cupcakes from Gigi's (one dozen purchased through Groupon, the second dozen not), mini donuts, lemon cake, pretzel sticks and salted peanuts. I also had a jar of lemon drops with glassine bags from Michaels for people to take home some candy.

Disposables were key since this party was on a Sunday and I didn't want to spend a ton of time that night doing dishes. Plates, napkins, and metallic plasticware were all Dollar Tree finds.

In our foyer, I framed the invitation and displayed what everyone was waiting for ... the golden envelope!

You may have already seen the reveal video shared in this post, but the next few photos were taken on my camera by my good girlfriend Meg and I'm so thankful to her for capturing these moments!

I explained that the gender was written in an envelope and that we wanted to do something a little out of the box and have my parents open the envelope. 

As you can see ... my Mom had the exact reaction that Ian and I knew she would. :)

It was actually Ian's idea to have someone other than us to open the envelope. We knew Mom would be the perfect choice. What better way to hear your baby's gender from the own mother who carried you for nine months?!

We also had a few aunts and my sister and her boyfriend Facetimed in for the reveal.

And we were all SHOCKED!

This next picture just means so much to me!

I showed the photo to our family members on Facetime ... sorry sweet daughter for showing the one photo that you'd probably prefer to keep under wraps! :)

(Also. Can we talk about pregnancy skin? I can't stop being surprised at this photo below. I swear I was actually pricing out injectables not too long ago. But look at the wonders that pregnancy does! It is crazy. I'm loving it. So basically I just need to stay pregnant ... ha.)

It was incredible sharing this moment with some of my best friends and of course very special family members.

And if you were curious ... Ian TOTALLY was hoping for a little daughter. He is over the moon. :) Needless to say, I feel the exact same way!

I hope you all will link up for us tomorrow for Five On Friday, and remember -- it will go live at 8:30am Eastern time tomorrow and moving forward!