Planning a gender reveal party? I had SO MUCH FUN planning mine. I hope all of these details I am sharing with you in today’s post inspire you to have fun planning yours!
This post is all about how to plan a gender reveal party everyone will enjoy
How + when we found out the gender
At most gender reveals, the couple along with everyone else but one person finds out the gender. We thought about having his sister find out the gender so we could find out at the party, but we just couldn’t wait to find out.
I had a ton of blood work to get done and one of the blood work orders was for the gender of the baby. I had no idea we were going to find out when we did. I got a call from my doctor saying my blood work all came back normal and that I could call back to find out the gender.
This was about a month before our gender reveal party. I really wish we would’ve waited a little bit longer to call and find out, but we were so excited we called that day and found out.
Planning the Gender Reveal Party
This party was SO much fun to plan and coordinate but was SO much work! Don’t worry, in my opinion, it was definitely worth it haha.
My best friend Katie came over the day before the party and helped me food shop, clean the house and get everything set up the night before including the balloon garland.
That balloon garland took us 4 1/2 hours to set up! She didn’t leave until 5am that morning! Next time I attempt a balloon garland, I will most DEFINITELY be buying an electric balloon pump as well as the proper equipment for the garland. What I mean by this is the kit I ordered came with string and it definitely would’ve been much easier to place each end of the balloon into a strip with holes.
The kit I ordered did come with an instruction video but by the time we realized we did the balloon garland wrong with the string, it was too late and we had to figure out a different way to set it up.
My original plan was to have the garland set up outside in our backyard so it would be behind us in the reveal video, BUT the weather was rainy most of the day so we had to set it up inside somewhere. I honestly am happy we decided to set it up inside because it made the food display look even prettier.
With it raining on and off all day, the garland most likely wouldn’t have lasted anyway so it worked out better in our favor.
Our gender reveal party was held on a Sunday at 1pm. We ended up having a small window when it stopped raining where we all went outside and did the reveal.
How we did the actual reveal
I ordered a 32′ smoke canon from Etsy from Poof There It Is. Here is the link to their Etsy shop and here is the link to the actual canon I ordered.
This ended up looking so cool when it went off.
Make a Pinterest board for inspo
This is one of the first things you want to do to start getting inspired for how you want the vibe of the party to be. I saved decor ideas, recipe ideas, outfit ideas as well ideas for how we wanted to do the actual reveal.
Use Apple Notes to keep your ideas + screenshots organized
I made a folder and titled it ‘ Our Gender Reveal Party.’ I kept the guest list count in a note, a list of food I wanted to have, as well as a note for all the decor ideas I had.
Use Todoist to organize all your to dos for the party
I will forever preach about the Todoist to do list app. It keeps my brain and my life so organized I could not live without it. I made a section under my events project and titled it gender reveal. But you could create a new project to keep all your tasks for your gender reveal in one place.
Gender Reveal Party Food
Because the party was at 1pm in the afternoon, I kept in mind what food would be great for lunch. This may be different for you depending on what time of day you’re hosting yours.
I had a bowl of chips and salsa set out and my one sister-in-law brought over a pretzel tray from the pretzel factory.
Here is the list of food I incorporated in addition to some of the recipes that were used.
Pinwheels
This was one of the first ideas I thought of having when I sat down to plan out food for the reveal. I wanted to do finger food or small recipe ideas that would be great for lunch time.
I made both buffalo chicken pinwheels and bacon cheddar ranch pinwheels.
I found the buffalo chicken pinwheel recipe here and the bacon cheddar ranch pinwheel recipe here.
Chicken salad croissants + pasta salad
My sister-in-law made the chicken salad croissants and my mother-in-law made the pasta salad. That pasta salad is my freaking favorite.
The chicken salad croissants were such a hit I didn’t even have a chance to try one. But the recipe looks super simple so I’m going to attempt to make them one night.
Jess’s recipe for the chicken salad croissants:
Avocado Chicken Salad
Shredded roaster chicken
3-4 large avocados mashed
1 lime, juiced
1/4 tsp cilantro
1/4 cup purple onion diced
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Chicken Salad
Shredded roaster chicken
1/2 – 3/4 cup mayo
2 stalks celery diced thin
1/4 cup purple onion
Salt and pepper to taste
My mother-in-law’s pasta salad recipe
“Cook the noodles, add the veggies you like, use garlic powder and italian seasoning and italian dressing.”
Charcuterie Board
We ended up going to Trader Joes the day before to load up on what we needed for the charcuterie board.
We also made a second board with the remaining food that didn’t fit on the main board.
You’re going to need a large cutting board to make this work. I bought the one in the photo from Aldi. It is a very thick and heavy board.
Here is what we used for the board from Trader Joe’s:
- Fruit (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and grapes)
- Meat assortment (italian dry salame, and 3 pack spanish brand deli selection)
- Cheese blocks (monterey jack, mild cheddar cheese + sharp cheddar cheese)
- Popcorn
- Cheddar cheese sticks
- Almonds
- Crackers (pita bite crackers and fig & olive crisps)
- Fig spread
- Rosemary (which I TOTALLY forgot to add to the board. DO NOT forget the rosemary haha it makes it look SO PRETTY.)
Spinach, feta & strawberry salad
This turned out so pretty and turned out even more delicious than it looked.
I found the recipe here.
Desserts
I wanted to have more than just a cake for dessert options. You definitely want to serve both sweet and salty dishes anytime you’re hosting.
Here are some of the desserts I had.
Pound cake with buttercream icing
I asked my mom to whip up this cake and it did not disappoint. Her pound cakes are always so good!
Custom iced sugar cookies from Etsy
I found a seller on Etsy who was available for our dates and she was able to put together a custom order for me based on some of the work she had already done that I loved.
Here is the link to her Etsy shop and here is the link to her instagram account where I found the ideas for what I wanted for the cookies.
Look how cute they turned out!
I wish I would’ve taken them all out of the packages to get a cuter picture but wasn’t even thinking.
Cake pops
I can’t find a photo of the cake pops ANYWHERE but they were so good! My sister made them.
Here is the recipe she used:
2 1/2 cups chocolate semisweet
1 package of Oreos
1 cup cream cheese
Chop the Oreos in a food processor and then add the cream cheese.
Chill for 45 mins then scoop into balls.
Freeze for 60 mins.
Melt the chocolate and dip the balls into the chocolate.
Drinks
We had a handful of beer and seltzers in the fridge for anyone who wanted them. I also made regular sweet iced tea and a peach sangria.
Here is the recipe for the sangria:
Here is the recipe for the sweet iced tea:
(This is a homemade recipe that has been passed down from my Mommom to my Mom and now to me!)
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice (I like to do fresh squeezed lemon when I can)
8 black tea bags
1 Gallon tea pitcher
Directions:
Boil water on the stove
Add your sugar and tea bags to the pitcher. (I like to keep my tea bags tied together so that I’m able to remove them all at once.
Pour boiling water into the pitcher.
Stir until sugar is melted.
Let sit/steep for at least 1 hour (I let it sit until the sides of the pitcher are cool to the touch – about 2-3 hours)
Remove tea bags + discard.
Fill up the pitcher with filtered water.
Add your lemon juice + stir.
Enjoy!
Gender Reveal Party Decor
Planning the decor was probably one of my favorite parts of the entire planning process. I got to spend some time on Etsy picking out cute items. I also love ordering from Etsy because not only are the sellers pretty great when you need to reach out about your order, but you’re also supporting small businesses.
So before you buy decor anywhere else, definitely hit up Etsy first.
Balloon garland
Click here for the link to the 2 gallon mason jar dispenser we used for the sangria.
White / wooden serving dishes + utensils
My best friend Katie came in clutch with the all white serving dishes.
We also made a trip to TJMaxx for the wooden serving spoon for the pasta salad as well as the wooden serving utensils for the salad.
Clear disposable cups with pink and blue onesie decals
Here is the link to the disposable cups.
Cute little nook decor
In the one corner of the dining room across from the food table, we did a little bit of decorating.
Eucalyptus and white roses in a vase
We got the flowers from Trader Joe’s mainly for the cake, but used the extras for a bouquet.
Chalkboard sign
You can’t really see it in the picture, but I put my due date and how many weeks I have left until baby is here.
Ultrasound images
I wanted to display the most recent images of the baby and these ones were actually from my anatomy scan.
Cute outfit from TJMaxx
When we were in TJMaxx the day before the party to pick up some last minute things we needed, Katie found this outfit and bought it for Baby Brennan. Bob loves golfing so this was super cute and gender neutral as well.
‘Here for the sex’ beer koozies
These were used during the party and were also a cute type of favor for everyone to take home with them. Here is the link to the koozies.
Ivory onesie food picks for the pinwheels
I sort of wish I would’ve ordered them in the light pink and baby blue colors but at the same time I feel like the ivory onesies turned out just as cute.
Here is the link to the onesies. I messaged the seller and requested ivory onesies and she told me to add it to the custom order description box at checkout.
Two giant balloons for the front of the house from Etsy (one in pink macaron and one in blue macaron)
Some other last minute things I ordered from Amazon:
Chalkboard signs
Glass tea pitcher
What to wear to your own gender reveal party
I ordered my dress from Vici Dolls / Vici Collection and ordered a nice blue shirt for Bob from Target drive up. We decided I would wear pink and he would wear blue.
I also ordered the cutest bandana from Etsy for our dog Remington that said ‘Big Brother’ on it. Here is the link to the exact one I ordered.
Things I wish I would’ve done
There are severallll things I wish I would’ve done but didn’t think about until it was too late.
I’m sharing these with you to hopefully save you from the same regrets.
I really wish I had a photographer for the event. This way they’d have an entire specific shot list of what I wanted and I could just focus on enjoying myself at the party.
I had a shot list of photos and videos I wanted to get and only remembered to get half of them.
For instance, I didn’t get any photos in front of the balloon garland which was one of the photos I definitely wanted to get. I wanted to get photos and videos of myself in my dress, with my husband Bob, and with everyone else at the party in one group photo as well as myself and bob with each individual and couple.
I asked all the guests to wear pink or blue depending on what their guess was for the gender.
The other thing I wish I did was have everyone in one spot when we did the reveal. Someone was able to capture everyone’s reactions from the side but you can only see half the reactions because half of my family were all standing down on the patio and the other half under the deck.
Overall, I feel like everything turned out perfect and it was such a great time!
Download this free gender reveal party checklist!
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What ideas or tips from this post did you love and plan on using for your gender reveal?
I hope this post inspires you to plan the most gorgeous gender reveal party that everyone will enjoy!
Xo, Kristen
