Gender Reveal Party

Before we ever got pregnant, I loved the idea of a gender reveal party. I thought it would be a fun way for everyone to find out together, and have a celebration with our friends and family. I would see all these cute ideas on Pinterest, and think, "yes, I want to do that!". I even tried to convince my bff to have one when she got pregnant, but she didn't bite. Then we got pregnant. And I had almost no desire to have a gender reveal party! It was the darndest thing. A big part of me really just wanted me and Harris to find out about our little babe, just the two of us, looking at the ultrasound screen in the doctor's office. Alas, my little sisters were not big fans of this idea. At all. Kayla even went so far to demand kindly ask that, if we weren't going to do a reveal, we would at least let her come up and do some special reveal for her.

After a good deal of back and forth, we finally relented and agreed to a gender reveal, but we scaled it back, and only invited our parents and sisters, still allowing the moment to be intimate, but also letting us all share the joy together. Once we made that decision, and then finally got the date for our anatomy scan, it was time to plan a party! In my opinion, all good parties, and especially gender reveal parties, have a theme. Additionally, all gender reveal parties must, obviously, have something that aids in the reveal. This was the only thing Harris really wanted to have a say in - for him, it was a cake or nothing. He saw no benefit in balloons or confetti, or any of the other things I tried to show him on Pinterest, which would reveal whether our little one would be a little mister or little miss. Cake or bust for Mr. Ligon. Oh, and chocolate cake (or at least chocolate frosting)!

But, back to the theme. I am sure, if you are a female, you have at least seen the numerous themes all over the internet for these things. Some popular ones: Bow Ties or Tutus (or Ties or Tutus), Bow Ties or Pearls, Mustache or Lips, Blue or Pink Football Helmets, so on and so forth. Obviously the idea is to have a boy-themed portion and a girl-themed portion. After spending a couple of days on Etsy, I was thiiiiiis close to going with the Bow Ties or Tutus theme. I wasn't terribly excited about it, but was more excited about it than anything else I was seeing on the internets.

Luckily, I decided to take a hot minute, and just think about it a bit more. A couple of things you should know about me and Harris: we both love the sea / anything related to the beach, our whole house has a subtle (or sometimes not so much) nautical vibe running through it, the nursery was going to be nautical-themed either way the coin flipped (just with different accents), and we (especially Harris) do not like things that have been done time and time again. I thought about those things, and decided that, if possible, we should do a Pirates or Mermaids theme! (You should also know about me, if you don't, that I am, and always have been, in love with mermaids) I wanted to get some little pins for everyone to wear with their vote, so I reached out to a shop on Etsy, and asked the owner if she happened to have any Pirate and Mermaid options - and she did! That's what really kicked the whole thing off.

I then made a banner to hang across our living room window, found a pirate ship onesie and a mermaid onesie, made an Old Wives Tale chart (not pirate or mermaid theme), and ordered a nautical flag cake topper that had treasure map, anchor, and mermaid tail prints! It was so much fun to plan, and everything came together just as I hoped it would! Most importantly, though, we had a great weekend with our family, and got to share our joy together in finding out about our little girl!

Our Pirate and Mermaid pins courtesy of Distinct Designs on Etsy. The shop owner was so awesome, and worked with me on making them exactly as I wanted.

Pink gerbera daisies, blue hydrangea, and white lilies

Table waiting on some good food!

And again

Placecards I made for the food

Pirate plates from Target, napkins from Party City

Pink plates and Mermaid napkins from Party City

More food placecards

Tins from the dollar section at Target to hold our pins, and flowers from Trader Joe's. I made the label on the tins with some cardstock, markers, and tape.

The standard Old Wives Tales board :)

Another tin from Target's dollar section, and paper straws also from Target

Beverage station. We had beer, sangria, water, and some sparkling pink lemonade and sparkling blueberry juice from Trader Joe's

Cake from a local bakery. Nautical flags from Vintage Green Limited on Etsy. I should note, the flags had sticks to be stuck in the cake, but I was too nervous that if I stuck them in I would somehow see something!

Team Mermaid! Aunt Moe, Duke, & Aunt Kay

Team Pirate! Grammy, Granddaddy, and Mimi

Team Ligon, or Team Neutral - those who didn't care one way or the other, but who were expecting to see blue!

The cake after being devoured

My handmade banner. I used blue, white, and pink cardstock, markers, and white ribbon. Pirate Ship onesie from Carter's courtesy of Amazon; Mermaid onesie from Carter's, handstitched by I Dreamed of You on Etsy

Completely unrelated, but after a day of shopping, Aunt Kay placed the birthday headband on Lucy. She hated it, but she's so darn cute :)