We have been so excited about the new little one joining our family this summer! As soon as I found out my daughter was pregnant, I knew I wanted to have a gender reveal party for her. If you know my daughter personally, then you know she will find any reason to throw a party! She loves parties! What better way to find out the gender of the baby than a party!
So we waited and waited! They were scheduled for the ultrasound that would reveal the gender of the baby on March 28th. My hubby and I were able to go and see the ultrasound with my daughter and son in law. Just let me tell you, to see that baby actually on the screen and moving around was incredible. Anyway, back to the gender. Even my daughter and son in law didn't want to know until the party. Soooo, the technician sealed the gender results in an envelope. We delivered the envelope to the bakery when it was time to order the cake and only the baker and the technician would know the gender until the party! That drove me crazy!
Due to schedules, we weren't able to have the party until last Saturday, April 20th! So we had to go almost a whole month knowing that two people knew the gender and we didn't! Finally, the day came and we were so excited to share it with some special people in our lives.
WARNING: This is going to be a long and photo-heavy post!
First thing we to decide was the theme. We found these adorable invitations from Tiny Prints and immediately knew this was going to be the theme for our party!
Of course, there was info at the bottom but I blurred it for the blog posting. Tiny Prints did an awesome job on the printing and they were quick! We were even able to upload our guests name and address into our address book and they addressed the envelopes for us! All we had to do was stuff the envelopes, stamp and mail! (They would have done that too if we had requested it.)
The cake table was filled with pink and blue candies and drinks to tie with the theme. The banners were handmade by me using my Silhouette Cameo and adding ribbons from my ever growing stash! Very inexpensive...the banners didn't cost a thing!
As guests arrived, they stopped at the tally table to choose a pin for the team they are on, pink or blue, then marked the chalkboard for girl or boy! This was a fun little station and allowed us to see how many were for each gender!
The food was kept very simple. Although I still wanted it to be elegant so we used my milk glass snack trays (never paper plates!). Simple mini croissant chicken sandwiches, a grape salad and some chips and dip. It was actually delicious and perfect for a mid day party.
We simply used some Blue Raspberry and Pink Lemonade Kool-Aid Twists with some Sprite to get the pink and blue colors.
I made the adorable tags using cardstock and my paper punch. I created the tags in Photoshop Elements, then simply ran the pink or blue cardstock through my printer and used a circle punch to punch the "Baby H". Then used a slightly larger scallop circle punch to punch the alternate color cardstock for the background. Punched the hole and tied them with pink and blue bakers twine from my favorite company for twine, The Twinery.
The decorations were a lot of crepe paper and banners. The tutorials were found at Oh Happy Day. Here's the link for the tutorial for the big fringe garland and here's the link for the paper dots garland tutorial. The one difference on the paper dots garland is that she suggests cutting off the ends of the large crepe rolls. I improvised and bought the inexpensive rolls of crepe paper you find at the party store. I paid .89 cents a roll and it worked perfectly! For this party, I used two rolls of pink and two of blue for all the paper dot garland you see through out. It was perfect! Added lots of fun elements to the decor. I also ordered a circle dot garland from Taffie Wishes on Etsy. It was nice and long so I actually was able to cut it and use it in a couple different places for decor.
And the cake....oh my goodness! All I can say is we were so pleased with how the cake turned out! We found the inspiration for this cake here. We took the picture to our favorite bakery here in Nashville and altered it a bit for what we wanted and voila, we had the perfect cake! The cake color would be either pink or blue depending on the results inside the sealed envelope we gave Lorie. Only she would know! We wanted the cake to be ombre though. So it would be three layers of ombre colors revealing the gender of the baby. She did a perfect job on the little shoes...all made from fondant!
We also created a garland of ultrasound pictures of our little baby!
We just used bakers twine and paper clipped the pics to the twine and added some of the paper dot garland. I had scanned and reprinted the ultrasound pics so we weren't using the originals and would have plenty!
This was a fun little thing to do at the party. Wives tales on how to determine the gender of the baby.
(We found the inspiration on Pinterest but when I tried the link to put in here on the blog, the link was broken.)
According to the Wives Tales, it's a boy....are they accurate? We shall see!
The Wives Tale board predicated a boy so we had a little photo session with the cute blue mustaches!
Ashley found this t-shirt in an email from Zulilly the day before the party and was so sad that we wouldn't have time to order it and receive it by the next day, obviously. When she showed me, I knew we had to have it somehow. So what does any crafter do? She says this, "We can make that!" The night BEFORE the party? Yes, we're a little nuts like that. Since I'm not really good with fabrics, I asked who else? MOM! She suggested regular paint. So I created the stencil on my Silhouette and pulled out my Claudine Hellmuth paints and my daughter created this herself! It turned out perfectly and was just what she wanted for the reveal party! Thanks Mom!
By this time, the suspense was killing us and we just wanted to tear into the cake! But not without a few photos first!
Mommy and Daddy were so excited to find out what their new baby would be!
Ashley has always been a Daddy's girl so he had to have a picture with his baby girl....who is all grown up now! They have a lot of fun together!
Now before you see this girlie gift and start thinking we snuck a peek, let me tell you a little something. My Mom, the baby's great-grandmother, Ashley's Mema, was so convinced it's a girl that she made a very special gift for the baby and she wanted Ashley to open it BEFORE we cut the cake. She had the cutest little Princess basket that held a wind up lamb that plays "Jesus Loves Me", she had the cutest little pink headband and a beautiful little pink blanket she made for the baby!
Definitely a girlie blanket! So pretty! But would they get to use it? We'll see!
Finally...just cut the cake already! A video of Mommy and Daddy's reaction....
It's a BOY!!!!!
As you could tell from the video, Mommy and Daddy were ecstatic! They were praying for a little boy (even though they would have been just as thrilled with a baby girl).
Even my little niece Madi got into the action!
So, there you have it! Lolli and Pop are going to have a grandson! And we couldn't be happier! Thank you for sharing in this exciting time in our family!
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