How To Have a Gender Reveal Party - 11 Tips on Planning a Successful Gender Reveal Party
WhatToGetMy Instructional Article
- Gender reveal parties have grown in popularity since they were introduced in the late 2000s.
- They have however, courted controversy at times due to some over the top ideas by some celebrants and the movement to recognise that more than two genders exist.
- Regardless of this, they still remain immensely popular amongst people who look forward to sharing the gender of their baby with loved ones.
There are quite a number of milestones during pregnancy and one of the more recent ones – thanks to medical advancements – is finding out whether you are going to have a biological boy or girl.
Humans are social creatures and so more often than not, feel the need to share important moments in their lives with the ones close to them. Finding out the gender of an unborn baby is one such moment and it is one that is looked forward to by a lot of people as shown by this graph from YouGovAmerica. This is what gave birth to gender reveal parties and what fuels their popularity.
At gender reveal parties, the guests – and most times the parents themselves – get to find out the sex of the yet to arrive baby through elaborate ideas such as color coded balloons and cakes that usually show a blue color for boys and a pink color for girls.
Like other parties celebrating life, a gender reveal party can be a large affair involving a lot of people or a small and intimate one that involves close family and friends. Whatever the case, it should be a memorable one that the family will enjoy.
To help out, we’ve included tips on how to throw a gender reveal party and what to do in one as well.
5 Tips on how to throw a gender reveal party
1. Find out the baby’s gender.
This has to be the first step as it is the reason for the whole party in the first place. You can find out by going to a sonographer when the baby is past the 20 week mark because at this point, sonographers should be able to tell the gender of the baby.
In order to build the suspense, tell the sonographer not to tell either of you the gender of the baby but to instead put it inside a sealed envelope. This envelope will be given to whoever is planning the “big reveal” at the party.
If you would like to know at that moment however or if you are the ones planning the party yourselves, you can take a look but be sure not to tell other people.
2. Work with your budget.
In order to know what type of party you plan to have, you need to know how much you intend on spending. It is therefore important that you figure this out first. If you would prefer a lower budget party then you can pick something simple and cozy and if you have a higher budget, you can go all out with the idea you have in mind.
3. You need a theme.
Now that you know the gender, you can then begin to conceptualize what the party should be like. The first step would be to pick a theme. This theme can be baby related or it can be the theme of a normal party if you want it to show off more of your interests.
The important thing is that you can have any sort of theme for a gender reveal party because the main distinguishing factor is the gender reveal decorations that you plan to use.
Simply light the place up with blue and pink party elements such as balloons, cakes, and the backdrop for photos. The blue would represent boys and the pink would represent girls and voila, gender reveal party.
8 Themes for a Gender Reveal Party
1. Super Heroes
This used to be one of the top nerdy gender reveal party ideas but with the increase in popularity of the superhero genre, it is now a widely used theme for parties of all sorts. You could decorate the venue based on the various superheroes of both genders including posters and life sized dolls to represent some of them. You could even tell your guests to dress up as superheroes.
2. Prince and Princess
You are about to welcome royalty into the world so why not make a party fit for them. You could use prince and princess type themes to decorate the place with daddy dressing like a prince and mummy dressing like a princess amongst other things.
It might not be up there with the more unique gender reveals but it works and it works well.
3. Pirates or Mermaids
Pirates and mermaids are a beloved part of almost everyone’s childhood these days on account of their extensive use in shows directed at kids. It would therefore be a cool gender reveal idea that one can look back on with their kids when they get to a certain age.
4. Movie or Book series
When it comes to clever gender reveal ideas, you cannot go wrong with themes centered around multimedia genres that you loved. You can use themes centered on various movies, books, or series that you’ve loved for a long time and would like to pass on to your kid as you reveal their gender.
Shows such as Game of Thrones, Peaky Blinders and Vikings come to mind along with movies and books such as the Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Star Wars.
5. Sport oriented
This works well for the more sport inclined parents. You could go with a theme representing a sport that you love and centering activities of the day around this sport.
Take your pick between baseball, soccer, basketball, and football amongst others.
6. Moustache v. Lips
For a funny gender reveal idea, you could get fake moustaches for a boy and lips for a girl for everyone at the party to wear. People will pick the one they want based on their prediction of which gender the baby will have and have fun doing it.
7. Anime theme reveal
Anime has grown in popularity the world over in recent years with many falling in love with the action sequences and story telling skills of the Japanese. With the love I have for anime myself I think it would be an amazing gender reveal idea. Naruto, Luffy, Sailor Moon, Goku and Esdeath are some names that come to mind that can feature prominently as decorations for the event.
8. Barbecue party
If you prefer to have a chilled gender reveal with some family and friends, you could simply host a barbecue session where family and friends get together, eat some good food, play some games, enjoy the sun and learn the gender of your new baby.
Based on your chosen theme, you can reach out to hired decorators or to family and friends who want to help out so as to get started on decorating the venue.
4. The Where and the When.
The date of the party should be sometime after you’ve gotten definitive proof of the gender of your baby so as not to disappoint. Depending on how early you receive the results, hosting a gender reveal party can happen between 2 – 4 weeks afterwards so as to give you a chance to send out invitations and plan the party.
As for the location, you should pick a place that you feel would best be applicable to the theme you chose and the number of people you would like to come. The most used locations however, appear to be backyards and park locations that give plenty of space to engage in gender reveal shenanigans that might be dangerous indoors.
5. Who gets to be there.
Well a party isn’t a party without people so you need to figure out who to invite to your gender reveal party so that you can send out invites.
It would be better to send this after you have picked a theme so as to incorporate the theme into the invitation. Be sure to send the invitations well in time so that people are able to move their schedule around to attend.
You might want to attach a short explanation stating what you intend to do at the party and if you have any special clothing requests for the invitees.
If you want to save time and costs, you can send electronic invites via email and social media and messaging apps. Getting a response is quicker this way as well.
6. What to serve at a gender reveal party.
Food is life and life is being celebrated so there must be food. Some foods will always make it to party events based on local customs and norms but there are others that need to be added based on the occasion such as cakes and other forms of dessert.
Regardless of the food, it would be best to go along with the theme you chose when serving the food. For instance, cookies shaped like the Avengers or a cake that looks like the “Sorting Hat” in Harry Potter.
7. What to do at a gender reveal party.
Check out this related article on things to do at a party.
There are several things to do at a baby reveal party such as eating, mingling, a bit of dancing and ….games!!
There are a number of games to be played at gender reveal parties to get your guests in a great mood that you can incorporate into the party’s lineup of activities.
Some of these are:
Raffle King or Guess-the-Gender Raffle
You could hold a raffle where people guess what the gender of the baby is going to be. The winners get a price such as extra cookies or extra dessert.
Team Girl v. Team Boy
You could divide people based on the gender they think the baby will be and then engage them in a series of games such as tug-of-war or a small game of soccer. The winners get the price of being the winners and the fun that was had.
Sherlock-Pacifier-Holmes
You could also do a sort of scavenger hunt for your guests where you tell them that something that babies would use has been hidden around the venue and those who find one get an extra helping of dessert.
Ultrasound Expert
Play this game to see the ultrasound experts in the crowd by showing your guests your ultrasound and asking them to guess the gender based on the ultrasound. Medical doctors are obviously disqualified.
Quiz games
You can go the simple route and make a quiz out of general baby knowledge to see just how much your guests know how to take care of babies. There are also other quiz games you can play such as these.
8. The BIG REVEAL.
Now comes the time that everyone has been waiting for, the moment you reveal the gender of your baby. Human creativity has resulted in there being a plethora of ways to reveal the gender and some of them include:
10 Gender Reveal Ideas
1. Dessert – Cake
This is one of the more traditional methods of finding out your baby’s gender. Simply pass the sealed envelope from before to the baker and ask them to bake the cake such that the inside is a certain color with blue being for boys and pink being for girls.
2. Pinata
You can buy a pinata and allow the person who knows the gender to fill it up with either blue or pink glitter or confetti and take turns with your guests to break it and reveal the colors inside.
3. Confetti Cannon
Confetti cannons are a very popular way of doing a gender reveal. They are filled with colored confetti of either pink or blue and when the string attached to them is pulled, it releases confetti that indicates your baby’s gender.
4. Balloons in a box
Balloons of either pink or blue colors can be put into a box which when opened will reveal the gender of the baby.
5. Darts and Arrows
A bit on the more adventurous path, you could fill up a balloon with either blue or pink paint. Make these the target and tell guests to try to hit the balloons with either darts or arrows.
6. Hit the ball
For the more sports inclined, you could fill up a ball with either pink or blue paint or powder such that when a person hits the ball, it explodes and reveals the gender of the baby. Sports that work with this include football, soccer, tennis and even basketball.
7. Colored flame
There are materials that burn a certain color when lit and candle wicks that are made of such materials. You can use such a candle to show the gender of the baby when it burns either pink or blue.
8. Paint Guns
You can get involved in some fun by having your guests shoot you with paint guns filled with either pink or blue to represent the gender of the baby.
9. Smoke bomb
The popularity of smoke bombs make them one of the top gender reveal ideas there are. Let loose a smoke bomb in an open area to reveal the color inside which would then show the gender of the baby.
10. Fireworks
This is one of the more grand and exciting gender reveal ideas out there. Simply explode fireworks that are the color of the gender to be revealed. Be extremely cautious if you decide to use this however.
9. Memories are forever
Be sure to have a person or persons on ground to capture the various moments of the party so that the memory lives on forever.
If you cannot afford a professional photographer, reach out to a couple of friends or family and ask them to capture the event on their phones and video cameras so you are sure that the event is covered.
You can also request that your guests send pictures to you via messaging apps because they will be sure to take loads of pictures.
10. Thanks for coming
While this is not strictly necessary, it is the norm. Your guests came out to support and celebrate you and so should be thanked. You can give out little complimentary gifts such as cookies and a thank you note.
11. Precautions
Due to accidents that have resulted from the more “creative” gender reveal ideas, it is important that precautions are taken during gender reveal parties.
Some of those are:
Plan Ahead
Be sure to plan ahead and take the various things that can go wrong into account so that you can have contingency plans for them.
Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication
Keep the party and gender reveal ideas simple. There is no need to go overboard especially if the idea involved can cascade into dangerous events.
Abide by Government Protocols
Chances are that the local government has rules on how to go about such parties so be sure to look into them before planning something especially now in this current pandemic period. These protocols are usually there for the protection of the public so you should endeavor to know them.
Keep it Outdoors
While the party itself can be held indoors, you should try as much as possible to hold the actual gender reveal outdoors. This would limit whatever dangers and risks it might pose.
Frequently asked questions
1. What do you do at a gender reveal party?
Apart from going to find out the gender of the yet-to-be-born baby, there are a lot of games that could be played such as guessing the gender based on an ultrasound and scavenger hunts to find baby items amongst others.
2. Who usually plans a gender reveal party?
The parents themselves can plan the party or outsource it to a friend or family member if they are not feeling up to it. Outsourcing would mean that the parents would most likely only find out the gender at the party along with their guests.
3. Do parents know the gender at gender reveal parties?
Most of the time, the secret of the gender is known by some other person than the parents such as family or a friend. This ensures that the parents are just as surprised during the party.
4. Do you bring a gift to a gender reveal party?
While gifts are not necessary, it would be thoughtful and appreciated if they were brought as it would show a sort of appreciation to the parents for giving you the honor of celebrating such a special event with them.
All in all…
While a lot of people are not on board with the idea of a gender reveal party, they are not you. If you want to have one then by all means, have one, it’s your baby and your pregnancy. Just be sure to abide by safety protocols and keep it simple so that accidents do not happen.
Go on ahead and plan your party, enjoy the company of loved ones, make memories, find out the gender of your future child and most importantly, have fun.
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