Gender Reveal Party

We had a lot of fun at our Gender Reveal Party!  Zoltan and I found out we were having a girl on Monday and had to keep it a secret for a whole week!  The grandma's were both at the ultrasound so they knew and they still did a great job keeping the secret!  Neither one of them could make it to the party so it made it special for them to be able to find out with us.  They are both first time grandma's and so very happy to be involved with a lot of milestones.

(I think the baby enjoyed the party, she's kicking me as I type this.  Just little popcorn kicks but wonderful!)

I worked on the planning of the party for about two weeks. My sister in law helped brave the wilds of Costco for the refreshments (hummus, chips, fruit bowl, all the yummy stuff!)

Thanks to Pinterest I had so many great ideas that it made the planning, well, fun!

I decided on a pink and blue theme and purchased crepe paper, plates, napkins etc from the local party store.  My first stop though was the local dollar store.  Sooo much to be found!   A few 'projects' I did to add personality to the party:

•  One of my favorite table decorations were two hurricane glasses with Hershey's kisses and ribbon around them.  Just make the table look sparkly!  I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the table!
• Cut out 5x7 pictures of the ultrasounds from the anatomy scan and strung them on twine on the mantle using tiny colorful plastic clothspins.
• Plastic baby bottle banks for 'donations' with printed signs.
• Chalkboard outside "It's almost time to see!  Will it be a bouncing baby boy or a pretty little she?"

I created the invitations using MS Publisher and printed them on a blank invitation card from Target. (The scanner is a bit wonky but you get the idea!)

I created a banner with simple paper and my printer!

I put this on the mantle with the little boy and little girl clothes pins for everyone who wasn't "Wearing Their Guess".

I also baked and frosted a cake.  I bought food coloring to dye the cake but totally forgot until the cake was baked!  So half pink and half blue frosting instead!  I used tiny chocolate chips for the "?". The little decorations around the edge were plastic trinkets from the dollar store. 

Using a plastic baby bottle and raffle tickets we asked for donations toward "Future Wedding Fund (Girl)" or "Future Bailout Money (Boy)".  Everyone got one guess and were able to purchase additional tickets!  We gave away a $20 Amazon Gift Card which I simply bought online and printed on my computer.  Super easy!  (Grandpa won the gift card and gave it back to us a bit later because he 'didn't know how to use it'!)

I printed this out on my computer and put it into a $1 store frame.

We used helium to blow up pink balloons and then put them in a trash bag to make it easier.  Readers:  You MUST super inflate the balloons or they don't "POP" out of the box.  My sister in law wanted the little balloons to look like bubbles, great in theory but they weren't floaty enough.  It worked out anyway and everyone saw we were having a GIRL!

I thought it was a girl so I wore pink and hubby thought it was a boy so he wore blue!

Just to make sure we would get pictures of some of our more outgoing friends we had a photobooth set up.  I hung crepe paper from the wall, cut out some 'props' and set up the camera on a tripod.  Point and shoot!

Just be sure to turn off AutoFocus because it'll focus on the person who presses the button.

After the party I pulled down the ultrasounds and used them for the thank you cards!  I printed about 15 of these, cut them out and glued them to the back.  I used the .xls spreadsheet for the invitations and just mailed them out.  The whole thank you project took only about 30 minutes!

We had a fantastic party and really made all our friends and family feel special!  

What are some of YOUR favorite Gender Reveal announcements?

XOXO

-Lisa