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Gender Reveal Party Ideas

If you’ve decided you want to hold a gender reveal party, the first thing you’ll learn is that there are a lot of details to take care of. This doesn’t mean it’s complicated, but you certainly don’t want to forget anything important along the way. Not to worry, though, because this article will tell you everything you need to do before the big day arrives. Planning for something as important as a reveal party simply means making a list of what to do ahead of time so you don’t forget anything, and you can consider the following items your to-do list.

Do You Want to Be Surprised Along with Your Guests?

While most hostesses already know the gender of the child before they reveal it to their guests, some hostesses want it to be a surprise to them, too, until the big moment. While this option takes a little extra planning, it isn’t as difficult as it might sound. The first thing you’ll want to do is let the sonogram technician know that you don’t want to know the gender so that it will be kept a secret. You’ll need a trusted friend to help out with this option, so you can either bring that friend to your doctor’s visit with you or get the tech to contact your friend after your appointment and tell them what the baby’s gender is.

Afterward, your friend can make a special food or activity item just for you, while the others can be both pink and blue. You’ll want most of the decorations to be both colors anyway, but if your friend is in charge of the item that will be given to you at the party so that you can find out the gender along with your guests, the only thing that friend is in charge of is the actual reveal item, whether it’s a food item or an activity. You’ll still get to enjoy planning the decorations, theme, invitations, and so on. Once you make this decision, you’re ready to start at the beginning and plan your reveal party.

First, Set the Date for the Gender Reveal Party

Once you set the date, it becomes much easier to get everything else done. Naturally, you’ll want to set a date that comes after your ultrasound, but other than that, there are no hard-and-fast rules that determine exactly when you should have your reveal party. Many people combine their reveal parties with their showers, which makes it convenient for the guests. But if this is your second or third child and you aren’t interested in having a baby shower, just make it a reveal party only and let the guests know when you send out the invitations that no gifts are necessary. This part is strictly up to you.

While you’re considering the date of the party, think about the venue as well. Although most hostesses have their reveal parties in their home, it’s possible you might want to hold yours somewhere else – at the home of someone who has a bigger house, at a church hall, or even at a convention center. Depending on how many guests you are expecting, it’ll be easy to decide where to hold your party, but you’ll need to know this before you go any further. Fortunately, this is usually not a problem because most hostesses will find that their home is the perfect place to have the party.

Decide on a Theme for Your Party

When you’re planning all of your gender reveal party ideas, deciding on a theme for the party is one of the most fun things to do. Instead of just thinking of the theme as “boy” versus “girl,” think of other names for your baby-to-be. This should be based on your likes, interests, and hobbies, and it allows you to name the baby something a bit unique. For instance, if you’re a football or sports fanatic, you may want to include “quarterback or cheerleader?” on all of the decorations. Other suggestions include:

• Moustaches or lipstick?
• Pirate or mermaid?
• Senor or senorita?
• Bows or bowties?
• Touchdowns or tutus?
• Bucks or does?
• Beau or bow?
• Prince or princess?

If you use your imagination, you can come up with a lot more, but just remember that it should match one of your interests, and it should also go along with the decorations, games, and food choices that you select. It’s not that everything at the party needs to match, but the more areas that do match, the cuter the reveal party will be. Also remember that everything you do for the party should be in both pink and blue – not one or the other – until the actual reveal moment.

You can also do the theme a little differently. For instance, if you love to swim, scuba-dive, or surf, you can turn the entire party into one with a beach theme. Sports, hunting, fishing, rodeo, and golfing themes, as well as many others, make the entire party a lot more fun and personalized. One thing’s for sure – people will never forget your gender reveal party if you choose a theme that is personalized! It’s easy to make it personalized because all you have to do is think about something you love to do or something you’re obsessed with, and the rest should be easy for you.

Whether your theme is a hobby of yours or just something you’re interested in, you can easily come up with some ideas to make it work. Visit a party store or go online to get some suggestions because the more unique your theme is, the more people will enjoy it and remember it long after the party is over.

Choosing the Invitations

When it comes to your invitations, the sky is the limit. There is literally no end to the selection that’s available out there when it comes to gender reveal invitations. You have three basic choices when it comes to your invitations, and here is a recap of each of them:

Make your own invitations

 If you design your invitations from scratch on your computer, you are guaranteed to get invites that are different than anyone else’s, and it is much easier to do than you think. If you’re the creative type, that’s even better, but even if you don’t have a creative bone in your body, all you have to do is put your thinking cap on, remember the theme of the party, and something will eventually come to you. Make sure the invitation uses lots of unique fonts and lots of different colors, and most importantly, make sure both the color blue and the color pink are included in the design!

Use an online invitation site to find the right one

 Sites such as Punchbowl, eVite, and PaperlessPost have a ton of invitations that you can either print out and send to people or send them to people electronically. The good thing about these sites is that many of the e-cards can be sent absolutely free, and the others are usually available for a membership fee that is normally around $30 to $35 per year. Best of all, there are very nice invitations available on these sites, so you can get very creative when you choose this option. Since nearly everyone is online these days, you can rest assured that everyone will receive their e-invitation.

Get a professional printer to print the invitations.

 This is the most expensive option out there, but you sure do get nice, creative, and very professional-looking invitations in the end. Best of all, they have hundreds of designs to choose from, so you’ll never have any problems finding the perfect invitation. They can even design something from scratch for you, and they’ll print the invitations on the perfect card stock so that they’re sturdy and will last for a while. You can choose a basic design or something really fancy – for example, 3D invitations – but a professional printing company will always have what you’re looking for.

Choose the Right Decorations

Okay, here’s where the fun part starts. Decorations are one of the most important aspects of planning your reveal party. In fact, a lot of people look forward to the decorations seen at these parties; this is because the decorations bring the party to life and make it even more fun and exciting. Since you should’ve already decided on a theme by this point, buying the right decorations should be a piece of cake (pardon the pun). Here are a few suggestions that should help you to remember all of the important stuff:

Don’t forget about the banner

The banner will be the first thing people see when they enter your home, so make it eye-catching. You also might want to put a second banner over your front door so that guests can see it before they even knock on your door to come in. Always include the basic question, that is, “he or she?”, “boy or girl?”, or something similar. Of course, make sure the color theme matches with the rest of the party.

One of your decorations can double as a party game. For instance, if your theme is “senor or senorita?”, you could use your pinata as the centerpiece on your table. There are numerous ways to do this, and if you look at trinkets or party favors in either brick-and-mortar or online stores, you’ll get some additional ideas to add some ambiance to the decorations. A good trip through one of these stores can indeed give you the ideas you need to make sure your decorations are second to none.

Make sure everything matches

 You’ll want to make sure the decorations all match one another and the other items in the room. Balloons, banners, utensils and eating ware, cups, tablecloth and napkins, and everything else you include under “decorations” have to match because this gives the entire party a much better look and feel. If you have to, make a list before you start your shopping so that you won’t forget anything important.

Food and Drinks

Deciding on the food and drinks for your gender reveal party can sometimes be a challenge, especially when you know people who have allergies, vegetarians, or even picky eaters. The main rule for choosing what to serve at your reveal party is this: keep it as simple as possible. While some hostesses are tempted to serve foods that have to be cooked, it’s usually better to choose finger foods and foods that don’t take a lot of time to make. Cooking is not only time-consuming, but it also means your guests will have to sit there with a fork and knife to eat the foods, which can be cumbersome and uncomfortable. Instead, choose some finger foods such as the following:

• Cake pops in both pink and blue
• Deviled eggs that have been dyed pink and blue
• Dipped strawberries that use icing in pink and blue
• Long straight pretzels dipped in blue and pink icing
• Onesie cookies painted with pink and blue icing
• Popcorn dyed in pink and blue
• Punch or lemonade in both pink and blue
• Rice crispy treats that are dipped in blue and pink icing

When it comes to drinks, you’ll have to decide if you want alcoholic drinks served to guests or just regular drinks, including lemonade, soft drinks, and punch. Naturally, the mom-to-be won’t be able to enjoy alcohol, but she can drink sparkling grape juice or something similar instead. Also keep in mind that some of the food items will also be a part of the actual reveal. For example, if the reveal involves cutting open a cake, biting into a cookie, or taking a bite out of a cupcake, you can still count that as a food item because, well, because it is!

Looking for the Perfect Games

Games are a fun part of any shower or reveal party, and fortunately, you have tons of games to choose from. You can even choose games that go along with the main theme of the party. Party stores help you get a lot of ideas because they have games you likely hadn’t thought of before, or you can go online and find numerous other games to give you a few more ideas. In fact, here are a few games to whet your appetite and help you decide if one of them is right for you:

• Baby ABC game. Make a list of the alphabet with a blank line beside each of them and give one of the lists to each guest. Guests have to write a word that starts with each of the letters, and all of the words have to relate to babies. Time the game, and the one who gets the most names wins a prize.
• Movie reveal. Devise a card with blank lines on it or just give each guest a sheet of paper. Time the game, and have them think of as many names of movies as possible, but there’s a catch – every movie name has to have either “pink” or “blue” in the title, and the one who comes up with the most names wins a prize.
• Don’t say “boy” or “girl” game. Go to a hobby store and buy some miniature clothespins in pink and blue. Tell the guests they are not allowed to say the words “boy” and “girl” until a set time, such as the end of the party. Have the guests attach these tiny pins to their clothes, and if they say one of these words, they have to give one of their pins to someone else. At the end of the night, the one who has the most pins wins a prize.
• Advice for mom-to-be game. Make a bunch of postcards that say “Advice to the mom-to-be” at the top and a bunch of blank lines on the bottom part. Have each guest fill out the card with some useful tips for the hostess, and she will keep the cards herself after the game is over.
• Candy bottle guessing game. Fill a large plastic baby bottle with pink and blue M&Ms or other similar candy, and make sure you count how many go into the bottle. Then, have all of your guests try and guess how many are in the bottle. The one who gets the closest to the number wins a prize.

Gender Reveal Moment

There are quite literally so many ways to reveal the gender of your child at your reveal party that we wouldn’t be able to list them here regardless of how hard we tried. The actual moment that you reveal the gender should be simple and exciting, and it’s easier than you think to get both. You can do something simple or a bit more complicated, but simple is always better. Have a cake with either icing or M&Ms in the center with the correct color, then cut it open to reveal the gender. Have neutral-colored cookies with pink or blue icing inside of then, then let the guests bite into them at the same moment. These methods should definitely be included in the “easy” category.

If you want to go with something a little fancier, you can choose confetti cannons, poppers that shoot out either pink or blue streamers, silly string in the correct color that you first cover with brown craft paper, or letting guests pop a giant balloon that has either pink or blue confetti or streamers in it. Pinatas are also fun, and they can be filled with small toys or party favors in either pink or blue. You can have a large box that is shut tight and filled with either pink or blue balloons, then open the box to release the balloons at the right moment. They even make scratch-off cards that reveal the gender once the guests scratch the card with a coin.

When it comes to how you announce the gender of your child, the sky is the limit. If you’re not happy with the suggestions you’ve found so far, keep going because there are hundreds of them you can choose from, and researching the various methods is certainly a lot of fun.

Don’t Forget to Document the Event!

Gender reveal party ideas come in all shapes and sizes, but whatever you end up choosing for the theme, decorations, games, or food items, it’s always recommended that you document the event. By that, we mean it needs to be either photographed or videotaped. Naturally, not everyone can afford to hire a professional photographer for the event, but the good news is, you really don’t have to. Lots of people love to take pictures or videos, and many of them even have excellent equipment already in their possession. Talk one of those friends into documenting the event for you. It’s usually very easy to find a friend or two who’s willing to do this.

If you do hire a professional photographer – which a lot of people do when the event is both a gender reveal and a baby shower – make sure you check around for the best one. Don’t just go by price because a professional photographer is always going to cost you some money. Research them thoroughly and make sure they have the experience you need and some previous work for you to look at. A professional photographer for a reveal party may seem extreme to some people, but it really is a good idea because after all, you’ll only have a reveal party for that baby once!

Don’t Forget to Thank Your Guests

Thanking your guests is important, and one of the best ways to do this is to send them home with some type of “thank-you” gift or a memento of the party itself. If you use a bath bomb that changes to pink or blue once it’s dropped in the water to reveal the gender of your baby, send each of them home with one of those bath bombs. You can also make a bunch of gift bags and include party favors and small pink or blue toys inside, or you can provide them with one of the following to let them know how much you appreciated their attendance:

• A scented candle
• Bookmarks shaped like baby carriages or some other baby-related item
• Commemorative koozies with the baby’s due date on it
• Heart-shaped measuring spoons
• Homemade sugar scrub cubes you put in fancy bags and close the bags with a pink or blue miniature clothespin from a hobby shop
• Miniature drinks bottles
• Miniature photo frames
• Packets of flower seeds with personalized packets
• Personalized mason jars
• Personalized bottle stoppers
• Small kitchen timers

Choosing gifts that the guests can use once they get home are the best types of gifts. Sure, you can give them party favors and trinkets, but they likely won’t keep them for very long before they throw them out with the trash. If you give them a mason jar, bath bomb, or candle, they’ll use it and think about you every time. It’s just a more practical gift that every one of your guests will love. Keep in mind that the gift you give them doesn’t necessarily have to match the theme of the party, although most of them do. Be creative and think of gifts you’d like to receive yourself. This is all you need to come up with the perfect thank-you gift for everyone who attended your gender reveal party.

Conclusion

Gender reveal parties are a lot of fun, but for the hostess, a lot of work and planning has to go into the party ahead of time. Fortunately, just knowing what you have to do is the first step to making sure the party is successful and memorable. Writing everything down should be the first thing you do because once you make a list, you’re a lot less likely to forget anything important. Once you do that, you can scratch off the item once you’ve completed it, making it much easier for you to move onto the next item.

Keep in mind that all of these steps are much simpler once you set the date and decide on a theme. This is usually the hardest part of planning your reveal, so deciding on these two things is the best way to start your planning. In addition, there are so many ideas for each of these steps online that it might be difficult to decide which decorations, theme, and so on, you’d like to choose in the beginning. Once you decide on a theme, however, the rest of the elements seem to just fall into place.

One other piece of good news – most of the suggestions mentioned in this article are very inexpensive, so even if you’re on a budget, you can end up with a great party that no one will soon forget. Each reveal party is a little different, and you can certainly make yours unique with just a little bit of effort and some research online. Remember that keeping things simple is recommended because it will cause you less stress, and you’ll still have a great reveal party in the end!

 

Want to know more about what a gender reveal party is? find out here