The Gender Reveal Party is a trend that, I will admit, seemed pretty cheesy or overplayed to me before I was expecting. But, as any mom-to-be will tell you, cheesy is sometimes exactly what you need – and, in the end we all thought it was a nice way to get everyone together and celebrate this baby as much as we can along the way!
Here’s what I loved about it:
- It was Jack & Jill (co-ed) plus their kids. We wanted our nearest and dearest and there to enjoy this special, life-changing moment with us – and we didn’t want to burden them twice with having to find a babysitter (baby shower in November is sans kids!).
- It was intimate. – We had the party at my parents’ house to keep thing small, casual and intimate. Our baby shower will be more formal.
- It was earlier in the afternoon when I still had some energy! We did an afternoon party that started at 3. I start to lose steam around 6 or 7 lately, so this was a good call!
- We really WERE surprised! – Now here is the part nobody could believe. Nobody at the party knew the sex. Nobody! We did our reveal with a big balloon that Dan (baby daddy) popped – showering us with pink confetti! We also gave all our guests individual poppers to add to the pink confetti palooza. How? We had my doctor send out the gender in an envelope to my mom’s house and then my mom (whom I can’t believe resisted the temptation to open it) gave it to a friend of hers who followed through on our already generically placed cake and cookie order.
- The food was fun and unfussy. – We brought in wraps and salads and had some different dips to start. We did the most adorable funfetti cake that said on the top “We’re here for the sex”. The inside had all pink sprinkles for a girl inside (which we didn’t know until after popping the balloon). We also had cookies in the shapes of pink bows brought out to us after the big reveal.
- We made it bigger than just our baby and ourselves – We had everyone take bets when they came in on whether they thought we were having a boy or a girl. There were no real stakes in the betting though (beyond bragging rights, I guess) – as we donated the money to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Here’s one thing I’d do differently:
- I’d buy less booze! Dan and I were responsible to purchase the booze which was hilarious considering I can’t drink. We bought 80 bottles of beer and 12 of wine – a nice mix of white, rose, red and an assortment of craft beers to ensure there was something for everyone. Well, my fear that we wouldn’t have enough sure was unfounded. It turns out that daytime events (especially around a baby theme) don’t equate with big drinking. This is a lesson I’ll be carrying forward for another handful of years, I think!
So, was my former opinion right? Is a gender reveal party a little bit over the top? Absolutely! But it was also so special. And, as I’m beginning to learn about anything baby – you really can’t celebrate any milestone enough.
Did you have a gender reveal party or something similar? How did you find out the sex of your new addition? Tell me – or if you have a photo or video – show me at Facebook.com/SantanielloJustine, @JustineSantaniello on Instagram and @JNSantaniello on Twitter.