Early on, Arnie and I decided to do a combined baby shower and confetti gender reveal party…emphasis on the party. After having done the traditional bridal shower–a formal, ladies-only gathering, opening gifts one-by-one–I knew I wanted something more interactive this time around. Generally, I’m not one to enjoy being the center of attention but, most of all, I wanted Arnie to be part of this day. It’s a milestone that we’re both about to embark on, not just me, and we wanted to celebrate together with all of our family and friends, not just the women–especially since we both come from families with brothers.
The confetti gender reveal party details
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confetti themed decor
I’m all about simple decorations, so these confetti-filled balloons seemed like an easy way to make a statement in such a big space. Since we both come from large families, we had our shower at our local fire hall, so the confetti colors tied in the red flooring and stood up to the high ceilings.
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display shower
Opening gifts for the guests is seemingly becoming an outdated tradition. Most of the people I polled were excited to socialize rather than sit and watch us open gifts. The display shower allowed for guests to see what had been gifted, while still allowing Arnie and I to visit with friends and family–and for them to visit with each other! It was so much more enjoyable to just spend the time catching up with everyone.
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hot chocolate bar
With a shower in December, a hot chocolate bar seemed a cozy treat for guests, especially since we had a number of little ones at the shower. We added the to-go cups and bags, in lieu of traditional favors, so that guests could walk away with some edible treats.
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vote for the gender
We included a photo of our last ultrasound and a list of wives’ tales so that guests could cast their vote for Baby Bernard. In the end, it was pretty close to a 50/50 split, but I think girl came out one or two votes ahead.
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suggest a name
We also had two jars for guests to suggest names for Baby Bernard and read them after the gender reveal. This was actually a lot of fun to go through afterwards, too; there were so many good ideas!
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…And finally, the reveal!
I have five nieces and nephews, so we wrapped a giant box in confetti wrapping paper, filled it with balloons, and let them open it–which they were very excited about. (My niece kept calling it the “mystery box,” and asking when she could open it.) In reality, half of them were too young to understand what it meant, but they were so excited to open a big box of balloons. :)
We had such a fun time at our confetti gender reveal baby shower, and are now even more excited to welcome our baby GIRL into the family this January! She is already loved so, so much!
