20 Apr 2015 Creative and fun gender reveals
by Callie Sterling
Having a baby can be an exciting experience, and the possibilities to announce your pregnancy and the gender reveal are endless.
From the most unique gender reveal ideas to the more simple approach, every mom-to-be can easily find a method that suits her personality. Some choose to only involve their families and others host parties with their friends and family.
The balloon gender reveal has proven to be a recently popular choice for many parents. Sometimes the parents decide to wait to find out the gender themselves. This approach allows the parents to be genuinely surprised along with their friends and family. Other times, parents know the gender before the official announcement and simply surprise their friends and family.
“I did not know the gender until the reveal, but Cooper’s father knew at the ultrasound,” said Evelyn Torres, mother of one. “Kendall let my good friend, Lauren, know, and they were the only two that knew the gender until it was announced. Lauren got a big box and filled it with blue balloons, and when we opened the box, the balloons flew out.”
It is simply personal preference of the parents to find out at the ultrasound appointment versus at a reveal party — either method can be exciting. One benefit of finding out with friends and family is getting to customize the reveal to fit the personalities of the parents.
“We announced the gender by having a gender reveal party,” Brittany (Paige) Winston said. “We went and bought one girls outfit and one boys outfit to open the day of the reveal. That way we would have the first outfit ever bought for our kid on the day we found out. I am a big time skeet shooter, and Hunter is a big time duck hunter, so we thought it would be cool to involve the guns.”
It is helpful to have a friend or family member that can keep a secret assist in the reveal because someone will need to facilitate and execute the method of reveal that the parents choose.
“So Hunter had his friend make some shotgun shells that had one filled with blue glitter and the other with pink glitter,” Winston said. “We gave him the envelope with the gender in it, and he knew but we still didn’t. Our parents got the shells from them, and we then shot our guns at the reveal party and the glitter came out yellow. They had tricked us. They then gave us the girl outfit and we found out it was a girl.”
Another fun simple way to involve the gender reveal party guests is to announce the gender with blue or pink SILLY STRING. Unmarked cans of SILLY STRING are given to the friends and family to spray the soon-to-be parents with.
“We got the SILLY STRING idea where all grand ideas seem to come from these days, Pinterest,” soon-to-be mother Devyn Cates said. “I wanted to keep it as simple and easy as possible. I ran around town buying as much pink SILLY STRING as I could get my hands on. After visiting we all headed out to the back deck and friends and family sprayed us with the unlabeled bottles of pink SILLY STRING.”
When parents already have children it is often entertaining to involve the older sibling(s) in the reveal fun.
“For my daughter’s reveal, who is my second child, I involved my son Cruz in the reveal,” said Cabot School District Director of Communication Liz Massey Conrad. “I saw this idea on Facebook on a friend’s page. I had my son hold both pink and blue balloons. One pink balloon was secretly tied to his wrist and we counted down for him to release all the balloons. When he let them go only the pink balloon that was tied to his wrist remained.”
A unique gender reveal method that takes slightly more preplanning is to reveal the gender by using a piñata.
“One of my friends had a fiesta party,” said mother Alicia Hugen. The piñata was filled with all things blue for a baby boy. It was a really neat idea and a fun way to celebrate!”
An easy yet enjoyable way to involve the gender reveal party guests is to have them wear their choice of blue or pink to the party. The color of clothing that they choose to wear will represent the gender that they think the baby will be.
“Our friends wore pink or blue and that was a fun way to get them involved,” Torres said.
Some parents decide to do pregnancy announcements in unique fun ways in addition to the gender reveal. Some announcements are more extravagant and others are more simple and modest.
“Matt and I told our parents that we were expecting in person with a gift,” Hugen said. “It was in a gift bag and within the bag was a ‘baby on board’ sign. Our parents were shocked and thrilled!”
Some soon-to-be parents decide to announce their pregnancy to their family while on vacation.
“I announced my second pregnancy to my parents while we were vacationing in the Bahamas,” Conrad said. “We wrote it in the sand and I called my parents over to see it while we were walking on the beach.”
When choosing the perfect gender reveal it is important to remember to have fun while planning and not to be overwhelmed with the many available options. There are many resources online for getting tips on how to choose the perfect reveal meth
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“I think it should just be memorable,” Conrad said. “I think that having a gender reveal celebration is a great way for friends and family to feel included. It is not something to stress about, and it should be fun! My goal for my reveal was for it to be exciting and creative.”
When selecting a method that is best for a pregnancy announcement or gender reveal, remember to make sure it flows with the personalities of the soon-to-be parents. The most important rule is to have fun with it and celebrate with loved ones.
