Party Highlights

What People Ate

For the food, I kept it simple. I originally wanted everything to either be bow/bow tie themed or aqua blue or red, but the foods just became too limiting (there aren't many aqua colored foods!). So, since it was a lunch time reveal we served simple sandwiches (chicken salad, shrimp salad and turkey and Swiss roll-ups), bow tie Italian Pasta Salad, Fruit Salad with Granola, and an assortment of chips. Instead of eating off traditional paper plates, guests ate off of red deli baskets (the kind you get at diners, drive-ins, and cute hamburger joints).

What People Drank

For drinks, I did a build your own flavored lemonade buffet where guests could add fresh strawberries, blueberries or raspberries to their lemonade.

Oops!

As mentioned in the initial party details, my hubby and I didn't want to learn the party until the day of the party - which happened to be 2 weeks after the ultrasound (the torture!). Roger isn't from Indiana so all of his family is out of town, so we decided to mail his close family gender reveal cookies - they would bite into the center of the cookie and the color would reveal the gender. His parents also planned on joining us on PlayStation video chat the day of the party - they were to bite into their cookies at the same time we bit into our cupcakes. So, to have everything come together so that neither Roger/I found out the gender ahead of the party, we hired a local baker to bake both the cookies and the cupcakes. She got to take a peek at the gender card (which the ultrasound tech slid into a sealed envelope) before we knew. But, to make a long story short there was a snafu with the cookies. The baker baked them too thin and when I went to package them to ship, I accidentally saw the color and thus learned the sex. Huge disappointment - was in a minor depression all day while I awaited hubby getting home from work. Although he really wanted to wait until the day of the party, I told him that there was no way that I could hold onto the secret from him for 5 days. So, he and Gabe split one of my freshly baked replacement cookies (which were oatmeal and super thick so no one would find out the gender on accident).

Dessert

Dessert was the Gender Reveal Cupcakes with either aqua bow tie fondant toppers or red bow fondant toppers. The cupcakes were red velvet with cream cheese frosting (our favorite!).

Activities / Games

On the day of the party, we requested that everyone wear blue if they thought it was a boy and red if they thought it was a girl. (A few were perplexed as to why I didn't select baby blue and baby pink for the colors - to put it simply - I'm just tired of those traditional colors for babies so I wanted a more fun and unique color combination.) When guests arrived, we had them vote on the gender by putting a hash mark on the huge chalkboard that sits above our buffet.

Budget

Less than $300, including food.

Party Favors

We didn't have official favors, but I did hand make coordinating bow ties and bows that matched the cupcake toppers. Upon arriving, guests were able to pin on a bow tie if they thought it was a boy or, they could pin or clip on a bow if they guessed it was a girl. Many wore both including my parents - they didn't want to play favorites.