There are few moments in life as magical as finding out the gender of your baby. It’s certainly amazing to wait to find out in the delivery room, and it can be special to learn the news privately, just you and your spouse, but lots of people are starting to realize how exhilarating and celebratory it can be to include friends and family members in an event centered on the big reveal. 1. Create Your Invitation
If you and your spouse are both up for throwing a gender reveal party, start by creating an invitation that lets guests know about the theme of the celebration. Everyone can get excited in advance and arrive at the event wearing pink or blue to represent girl or boy. To help people with their guess, you can consider adding some pertinent facts to the inside of the card. For example, “Jane is craving sweets, carrying high, obsessed with nesting, and crying at commercials! What’s your guess?”
2. Make a Game of It
When guests arrive, you can tally their guesses on a chalkboard. At some point in the party, gather all the guests who vote “boy” to pose for a picture. Then gather all the guests who vote “girl.” This kind of documentation is fun to include in the baby photo book. You can also have guests submit name suggestions into one box for boy and another box for girl. When the gender is revealed, open the right box and read off all the names. Inevitably, some will be serious and others will be funny suggestions like Madrildaboar for a girl or Magnustrata for a boy. A little case of punchiness + pregnancy hormones might just make this the most hilarious party moment in recent history.
3. Plan the Big Reveal
The crux of the gender reveal party is getting your doctor to write down the sex of your baby and place it in a sealed envelope (the parents have to be okay with not looking inside the envelope!). That classified information is then passed along to a trustworthy friend or family member who will carry out the gender unveiling. The mom-to-be might have a specific way she wants to find out in front of a group of people. If she does, we recommend sticking to her vision. Or she might turn it over to her confidant to engineer a way to expose the big secret. Here are my four favorite ways to do it with drama!
Idea #1: Box of Balloons
Head down to a packing store and purchase the biggest box you can find. You can decorate it with the words “girl or boy.” Have your bestie fill pink or blue balloons with helium, depending on the news that only she is privy to, then stuff them inside the box and seal it up. When it’s time to find out the big news, have family and friends gather around the box as you open it to great fanfare—and hopefully a perfectly timed photo op! We love the scene that Kelly Anderson created in her gorgeous gender reveal photograph that was featured on Volume Twenty-Five.
Idea #2: Filled Cupcakes
On The Cake Blog, Carrie Sellman suggests that there’s no better way to find out if there are “pink tutus or snakes and snails in your future” than a colored-buttercream giveaway! Sellman sourced her cupcakes from a local baker, Cream & Flutter in Champaign, Illinois. If you live close by, go there! You can also consider taking your sealed envelope with the baby’s gender into your local baker and ask if they can make a filled cupcake based on doctor’s orders. Or, a great friend might be willing to keep your secret and bake up a batch for the occasion. The mom- and dad-to-be should be the first to bite into the cupcakes, unless of course they turn over the honors to a grandma-in-waiting.
Idea #3: Secret Congrats Box
I love the diminutive nature of this little box bearing BIG news. It’s sort of the antithesis to your big box o’ balloons, but every bit as impactful. Ask a crafty friend to craft a custom box based on the one by Studio DIY, featuring telltale features like pink or blue paper and confetti. Of course, there’s a lot of room for getting tricky here. A certain kind of friend might make the big reveal into more of a riddle. And, as long as it’s not ultimately too obscure, this could add to the suspense and heighten the fun factor.
Idea #4: Confetti Lantern
Paper lanterns are one of those magical party elements that seem to act as little buoys suspending time and space. Perhaps it’s the way they’re suspended in the air, a sphere of levity. However they work, I’ve never met a soul who didn’t dream of pretty paper lanterns as decoration for an outdoor wedding, shower, or party of any kind. I love how Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day, takes the paper lantern from background décor to it’s rightful place front-and-center with a confetti-filled lantern. Follow Jordan’s DIY instructions for creating the lantern, then have your confidant fill with appropriately colored confetti.
4. Say Thanks!
Since the party was all about finding out the gender of your baby, what’s more appropriate than a gender-specific thank you card? You can either custom-design one to match the original invitation you created, or you can choose one of our favorite gender-specific thank you cards. Make sure you handwrite a personal note of thanks within a few weeks of the celebration.
