My dear friend Rachel asked if I could throw a gender reveal party for the tiny baby growing in her belly. I’m not going to share their entire story, but let’s just say that this sweet little baby did not come easy to them. They rode a long road of infertility, and finally received their blessing from God, who is due in October.
Since they will be moving back to the Nashville area before true “baby shower” time, and I wanted to throw her a shower we decided that I would throw a Gender Reveal Party for her family and a few close friends instead.
I designed the invites. As you can tell we went with a blue and yellow theme. I decided to add the mustaches and ribbons, to you know, class it up a bit. Hehe!
My uber talented friend Megan, who helped me with this party, whipped up this adorable burlap ribbon for the front door.
I picked up some small votive holders from the dollar section at Target, and lit up the mantle. I also made a dot garland from some craft paper to add a little color to my very monochromatic mantle.
I knew I wanted Daisies everywhere. I found some at Kroger for $4 per bouquet. Score! I brought our bulap lined white tray from the master bedroom into the living room to give our very large coffee table a focal point. On the tray, I threw some daisies in a white pitcher and white candles in some blue candle stick holders (I already owned), and called it a day.
We asked each guest to show their vote on what the baby’s gender was by wearing either a yellow bow or a felt mustache pinned to their shirt.
I made that sweet little chalkboard from a decorative wood plaque I picked up at Michael’s around Christmas time, acrylic paint (I custom mixed) for the yellow, and some Gray Martha Stewart Chalkboard paint. I can’t wait to use that chalkboard paint on many, many more things around the house.
Here is the food table slowly starting to take shape.
The “special” cupcakes. As far as looks and taste goes they were nothing special, but they did hold the answer to the “big” question everyone was asking. “What’s the gender?” Rachel wanted white cake and cream cheese icing, so that’s what we did. I had intended to put the cupcakes in dark brown liners instead of white, but I just ran out of time.
I was going with a vintage, glass, and white theme when it came to displaying the food and drinks.
More daisies. I threw some in a few large mason jars I already owned to pretty up the table. Oh, and there are a few more of those votive holders that I picked up in the Target dollar section. And they just happened to look like mini mason jars. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! If you don’t stroll through the dollar section every time you walk into any Target you are totally missing out. It becomes somewhat of an addiction. It’s a good thing I don’t have a Dollar Store near me. I would bankrupt my family.
Since I didn’t have enough corn holders to accommodate 12+ people I used kabob skewers I had left over from a meal I made at Christmas time. I ran out of time to clip the skewers to make them a tad shorter. They ended up a bit longer than I had hoped, but it still worked out well.
Megan made potato salad with a dill base that was to-die-for. Like, no kidding! TO DIE!!!!
I made dear sweet Paula Deen’s Not Your Momma’s Banana Pudding. If you’ve never had this version of banana pudding you are missing out. You will swear you life started the day you first tasted this stuff. Swears. And ever since I saw the episode of Friends where Rachel added peas and beef to a trifle I’ve been dreaming of making something pretty in a trifle dish myself. Problem was, I don’t own one. Lucky for me, my MIL did. So I took Mrs. Deen’s recipe and gussied it up a bit in the looks department. 
I also was able to extend my glorious dining room table to it’s full length. I’ve never had a need to do so before. Fully extended, our table is just too big for our dining room. I also was able to use the way too big linen table runner I purchased from the PB Outlet years ago since the table was fully extended. That’s what you get when you don’t pay attention to the dementions when you buy things people. Regret and a lonely table runner.
Here is the final table set up. Do you notice the hamburgers and hotdogs on the corner of the table? That was the brain child of Megan’s husband, Justin. We had hamburgers and hotdogs for the main course. Get it? Hamburgers. Hotdogs. Girl. Boy. Rachel thought it was hilarious when Justin brought up the idea. So, I went with it.
For drinks we served sweat tea (duh, cuz we are in the south) in mason jars, soda, water, wine, and beer. The dispenser that held the sweet tea needed a little height so people could fit their glasses under the spout, so I used a vintage metal case I picked up at my in-laws garage sale a couple of weeks ago. Who knew that bad boy would come in hand so soon? I sure didn’t.
I used cardboard card stock I picked up at Michel’s on sale for the drink and food labels. I simply used stamps and black ink to write out the words. Since we were going vintage I wasn’t worried about perfection with the stamps. Praise the lord for vintage equaling non-perfection.
Don’t you just love my mason jar drink dispenser? Derek bought if for me for valentine’s day. He picked it up at the Pottery Barn Outlet. I just love that place. The straws I got off Etsy, of course.
I carried the vintage theme to the backyard by using this amazing vintage soda cooler that my MIL let me borrow for a photo shoot a few days before. We lined it with a garbage bag, added ice, and stored the booze in this bad boy.
I used a watering can that my MIL picked up at Target a few years back, and gave to me the other day, to hold some faux hydrangeas I had just hanging out in the attic.
Well, that’s it for the party decor.
Now, I want to know…what’s your guess?
I’ll be back soon with pics from the party and the big reveal.
If you want to jump strait to the reveal, click here.
And just in case you wanted to see, here is Rachel in all her Mommy-to-Be glory.
