DIY Gender Reveal Party

First off, I am no expert party planner. In fact, I am quite the opposite. I tend to focus on the little things when the bigger things that will have more impact should take my focus. However, I think that’s why this tip guide can help just about anyone plan their own gender reveal. Because I’m fresh out of our party, & because I have real tips for real people who are not professional planners. So here’s my personal preference DIY guide to planning your own gender reveal party!

1. Keep it small & simple
   • I know some people may want a HUGE celebration with everyone they know, but personally I’m sooooo glad we kept ours small. We had about 15 people at ours, & in our smaller sized house, it was perfect. Just family & a few close friends. That’s it.
   • The intimacy of having only our closest friends by our side was so nice to share our reveal with. The rest of the world got to see the reveal video AFTER we found out, which I really liked.
   • Choose a color scheme & stick with it. Buy only a few decor items, & put them in the rooms where people will gather the most. Our colors were mint, peach, gold, white, & black. Here are the items we bought or made for decor:
     • Flag banner in our colors
     • Hanging honeycomb balls
     • Homemade “b” & “g” letters cut from poster board
   • To add more of our color scheme to different areas, I used disposable white plates from Walmart, plain gold disposable cups, black napkins, & bought these cute drinking straws & popcorn boxes:
     • Straws
     • Popcorn boxes 
   • Most our serving plates/dishes are already white, so that worked out great
   • Buying all disposable items (except the serving dishes) saved a ton of clean up time in the end // & all our food was finger food, so we didn’t have to buy utensils
2. Have some food/snack options, but don’t go overboard
   • Because our party was planned close to dinner time (6:30pm // because the sun set at 7pm) I wanted to make sure I had a good amount & variety of snacks without having to feed everyone a full on meal.
     • Popcorn
     • Chips, salsa, & homemade cheese dip in the Crock Pot
     • Sweet & spicy bacon on a stick
     • Two flavors of easy Sherbet punch
     • Rice krispie treats dipped in white chocolate
3. Choose someone who is crafty & trustworthy to make your reveal balloons (or cake or whatever you choose to do)
   • I told my friend, Patricia, what my colors were & that I wanted a lot of confetti // then I let her run with that & choose the rest
   • When you’re at your ultrasound for the gender, tell the technician you want him/her to write down the gender in an envelope because you’re doing a reveal later. So many people do parties these days that the techs should be really good at knowing how to handle that appt.
   • We had a large balloon for us, but everyone else also got in on the fun & had their own little balloon with confetti // I’m so happy we all got to pop the balloons together, & it worked perfectly because we got everyone’s first reactions! 
4. Hire a photographer or friend that knows what they’re doing with a camera
   • In our case, our friend is a photographer & took the photos for a really great price! It was probably the best decision we made to have him there because we will have these photos forever.
   • We also set up our own cameras for video // my GoPro & my professional camera // just set it all up ahead of time & don’t forget to press “record!”
   • Photos & video were also very important to me because the moment goes by so quickly that I didn’t even have time to process it all // having the media to watch & look at brings back those special feelings.
5. Have a few easy games to keep guests busy
   • Because there were both guys & girls there, I didn’t want to play any really cheesy games that guys would probably hate haha. We had 2 games set out on a table to play whenever:
     • 1st was gender name ideas // everyone got to write down one girl name & one boy name suggestion for us // whichever gender we were having, we picked our favorite name from that jar, & that person won a prize
     • 2nd was a gender draft // if they thought we were having a boy, they put their name in the “boy” jar & vice versa if they thought girl // we drew a random name from the winning jar for a prize
     • 3rd game was a word scramble // whoever unscrambled the words first, won! So there you have it! My best advice for your own party. I hope you can take some ideas from this when you plan your own party. Thanks for reading!