"Are you guys doing a gender reveal???......", my sister asked me shortly after announcing our pregnancy to the family. I did not know much about it other than that there are so many cute ways to reveal the baby gender. Now, this is not my first pregnancy and the last time I was pregnant was 10 years ago! With that said we did not have a gender reveal, maybe we did a cake to celebrate, or announced it by calling friends and family but that was about it. So this was going to be extra fun for us this pregnancy.
What to do, what to do.......there are so many amazingly creative options out there. As I got lost down "the pinterest rabbit hole" ( can you relate?! ) I started getting overwhelmed. I wanted it to be perfect, especially with this being our last pregnancy. I decided it would be super special to do a family reveal and then a reveal for everyone which would be more like an announcement.
One of my sisters suggested doing a virtual ultrasound reveal like what she had done, I loved that idea! It was such a special way to find out my sister was having a girl, they were able to stream the whole thing online while playing tear jerking music as they typed "It's a G-I-R-L", I remember losing it, I think we all did. This was going to be a great way to find out the gender because it was intimate yet fun. I found a place not to far from our home and booked a session. (If you live in central Florida here is link to where we went) This place was great because the room was super large so we could accommodate our family being in the room and were able to zoom in our other family members. I love being able to see her!
It was also awesome that they were able to tell the gender at 32 weeks!! CRAZY!! Right?! I also had a blood test done with the results sealed in a envelope just in case we did not find out the gender as a back up. It was very hard holding onto that envelope for 2 weeks without peeking. The other plus to having blood test gender results was the fact we could confirm the ultrasound with blood test and the results matched. The experience was intimate and full of joy! We were able to really enjoy the event of finding out we were expecting another daughter in our lives. Sometimes during large events you get so wrapped up in all the crazy and don't really get to take in what is most important. Thats why we decided to do it this way.
The next day was the "Baby Gender Announcement" with friends and family. With COVID we wanted to be really carful so what we did was host it outdoors at our local city center and did a virtual option. It was a short event and took less then 1 hour to do, including setup and clean up. If we were able to host a party we would of had a backyard BBQ and pool party to make it even more of a celebration. Due to social distancing we could not do this. I am happy we did a virtual option because it was fun to watch later that day.
My husband had just recently retired from the Fire department as a Firefighter Paramedic and had a great idea of having the fire department come out and reveal gender with pink water from the fire hose! For my husband Will this was a great way to include our little girl into his Firefighter chapter of his life. She will not have he same memories our other two children have of the Firefighter days, which is a whole other blog post in its self. It turned out to be such a fun way to announce that we are having a Girl.
I would love to hear what you did for your baby gender reveal! Planning a reveal of your own? Here is a fun list of 10 ideas:
Photo Shoot Surprise: Hire a pro or have a skilled friend snap pics while parents to be discover gender together.
Provide a trusted baker the gender results to dye/frost the inside of cake/cupcakes/cookies. Make sure to tell baker that whoever picks up baked goods should not know either and to ensure associates do not leave order form with color on it or say anything to person picking up. This unfortunately has happened to people.
Balloons! I love this idea! You can get a large box and have the party store associate fill box with lettered balloons that spell out boy or girl and or blue/pink balloons. The lettered balloons should be secured in place so they do not float away. Some people have their guest pick a pink or blue balloon and let go of the one is not revealed, this is cute for photos
I almost went with this one....colored smoke bombs! I love the way it looks in photos!! The only thing I worried about was them not working same time as my husband would be setting his off so I would recommend doing just one at same time.
I have seen people have smoke come out of their cars or motorcycles, looks really cool.
Go shopping at your favorite baby clothing shop, you both pick out your favorite boy and girl outfit, give shop clerk your gender results and ask them to wrap up the outfit that matches the gender. This can be opened together, virtually, and or at a gathering.
Ultrasound reveal; Obviously this is what we went with because of the intimacy of it and we were able to really enjoy the news without distractions. Some places offer online streaming or will allow you to do a live video.
Want kids involved? have a piñata filled with blue or pink candy (I love the custom Hershey chocolate mini bars). You can also have Team girl and Team boy pins or shirts made.
Confetti blasters! A lot like the smoke bombs but don't last as long.
Paint war! This one is so fun! Dress in clothing you don't care about, I recommend white t-shirts and old jeans. Pick out multiple shades of pink and blue, have store clerk only ring you up for boy or girl and ask them to triple bag so you can't see colors, don't forget a canvas. You will need a trusted photographer for this one. Have photographer place paint on painters tray with a cover. make sure you have brushes! Start the fun my lifting the cover to expose gender and then begin painting each other and the canvas! Adding a confetti bomb is a great touch too! Oh and glitter! You will me a hot pink or blue mess!
There are so many creative ways to find out the gender of your son to be bundle of joy, good luck finding what fits your needs. 10 years ago we didn't do gender reveal parties so this was a new experience for us and it was an absolute blast! I would love to see what you come up with, tag me on instagram or facebook @Jess_partyof5
XOXO JESS