You may have seen the big news last week that my husband Don and I are expecting early next year. We couldn’t be more excited! We opted to pay for an elective blood test called Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening (NIPT) targeted at checking for the most common chromosomal abnormalities at 10+ weeks. This newer test is more accurate than the usual combined blood test. An added bonus is that it also can reveal the gender of the baby if you want to find out ahead of the usual 20 week ultrasound. We sure did! The results came back in one week later. Not only did we get the peace of mind of having the negative chromosomal abnormalities results, we also found out the gender of our baby at 11 weeks. We enjoyed our secret for a month before revealing it to our nearest and dearest at a special gender reveal party this past weekend.
I wanted to make the party interactive, so I set up a voting station to greet guests right after they walked in our front door. I covered a card table with an inexpensive white vinyl tablecloth and sprinkled it with pink and blue confetti. I also decorated with cute boy and girl booties I found at Target and festive centerpieces I picked up at my local party supply store.
I purchased two square chalkboards from Target and pink and blue chalkboard markers from Michael’s. Most of the inspiration for this party came from Pinterest, including pairing the vote tally board with wearable bow pins. I simply hot-glued handmade bows onto pins and separated them by color in small dishes. I also set up a raffle for guests to participate in by writing their names on a slip of paper and popping them into the coordinating color bottle of their choice. At the end of the party, I drew a winner from the correct color bottle of the gender of our baby and gave that person a Barnes and Noble gift card as a prize.
The Old Wives Tales board was another idea from Pinterest, which I thought was a cute way to give our guests some idea of my pregnancy symptoms. You can see how my answers to those questions heavily favor a boy. I made a point to include “Helpful Hints or Hogwash?” at the bottom so guests knew the results might not necessarily accurately reflect the gender of our baby.
Don and I were actually out of town for the few days leading up to the party and were scheduled to get in late Saturday evening with a party time of noon the following day. I decided to prep and set up as much as I could before we left so that I wouldn’t be frantic in the hours leading up to the party. I decorated as much of the first level of our home as I could before our trip, including setting up the voting station, arranging the tables, and getting out all of the platters, serving pieces, and plates, utensils, and napkins for the party. I also preordered pink and blue balloon bunches that I picked up a couple of hours before party time. Balloons are one of my favorite easy ways to make our home more festive for a special occasion.
Another Pinterest inspiration was to serve pink and blue beverages. I pulled out our acrylic beverage dispensers from Pottery Barn and paired them with color coordinating paper straws and napkins. I also made little placards for each type of beverage. Pretty Pink Lemonade consisted of Simply Raspberry Lemonade mixed with Sprite. I combined blue raspberry Kool Aid with Sprite to make the Baby Blue Punch. We also put out vodka for guests (who were not pregnant 😉 ) who wanted to spike their drinks.
I took the whole pink and blue theme to the max for our party and split everything as evenly as possible, right down to the little pink and blue flags I used to label the food items. I had pink and blue utensils, plates, and napkins of all sizes for the different eating stations. Even our dog Winnie wore pink and blue bows to the party! As usual, I set up a water station at the end of our kitchen counter for guests to help themselves. A sweet gender neutral bouquet sent by friends was the accompanying perfect decoration.
I knew I wouldn’t have time to prepare food and finish getting the party set up in the morning hours beforehand, so I preordered luncheon platters from my local Whole Foods. Keeping the muggy summer weather in mind, I went with light and refreshing lunch fare, including a Greek salad, tomato and mozzarella salad, three different kinds of mini wraps, and a fruit platter. Don decided he wanted to make some of his amazing ribs to add to the mix as well. It was a feast!
I ordered pink and blue themed cupcakes and cake pops from the Whole Foods bakery and set them up on our sofa back console along with some cute “It’s A Boy” and “It’s A Girl” Hershey’s kisses I found at Michaels. I scanned and blew up a couple of my ultrasound images from my first trimester, popped them into frames, and added “He or She?” stickers for decoration. Too cute!
We waited until about an hour into the party when all of our guests had arrived and had a chance to vote, chat, and eat before the big reveal. I decided to go with the balloons in a box reveal idea I had seen on Pinterest. I bought a dish pack box from a local hardware store, painted a large black heart on it, and used a chalkboard marker to write “it’s a…” in big letters, keeping with the chalkboard theme from the voting station. A couple of hours before the party, I stuffed a balloon bouquet inside the box and wrapped it up with pink and blue extra wide ribbon.
The tally came in pretty close by the time everyone had voted. We gathered our guests around in the family room for the big reveal. Don and I stood on either side of the box and each opened a side so that the all pink balloons could pop out. It was such a fun way to share our news!
If you’d like to see more details of our party, including footage from the big reveal, check out this video:
That’s right, we’re having a girl! We couldn’t be more thrilled. I hope you enjoyed this look into our gender reveal party. I’d love to know if you’ve ever hosted or been to something similar. It’s such a fun way to celebrate with loved ones! Check back Wednesday for my weekly pregnancy update if you’re interested. I hope you all have a great week!
* This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are genuinely my own. *
