Pregnancy (and gender!) Reveal Party

We had been keeping my pregnancy a secret, and wanted to tell our friends in person. Not having a good reason to throw a party, I sent an invite out  about a month before for "Food + Friends." I tried to entice them by saying that we would be serving Baja Fresh and were looking forward to catching up. I learned later on that the mere fact we were throwing a party for no real reason tipped some people off, as did my weight gain and near-constant wearing of a vest.

As soon as I thought of the idea of a party back in December, I picked rainbows as a theme because this was our rainbow baby. Picking the theme early always helps, because it allows me to space out the spending so that it is not as noticeable! I created the card below for free on Canva, and printed 35 copies of the image this same size. I ordered a box of 35 full-size skittle bags from Sam's Club and attached the card with a drop from the hot glue gun, for a quick and easy favor. I placed a basket filled with them by the door (after the announcement, of course), along with a sign instructing each guest to take one in case I was in a different part of the house or yard when they left.

I didn't order too many decorations, but enough to set the tone for the cheerful message we were going to convey. I love setting up for parties at home, because I'm able to do it over the course of a week or more, so it's not stressful. I ordered the decorations from Amazon, Oriental Trading and Party City.

Gummie rainbows from Oriental Trading

I enjoy baking and was going to attempt to make the 48 cupcakes above. But when I called our local grocery store bakery, I realized that they were so inexpensive that it didn't really seem worth my time to mix up all of the different colors of frosting.

I ordered the rainbow roses from our local Grower's Direct two weeks ahead of time. A specialty item, they needed time to pick them up from the flower mart in LA.

Once everyone arrived and had a chance to mingle and eat, my husband started the announcement: 


The pregnancy announcement lead into our gender reveal:
  

My husband and I had found out a month prior that we were having a boy. A boy! At a dinner with just the two of us, I opened an envelope from my doctor's office based on blood work done at only 10 weeks and we celebrated. With baby A, we found out when everyone else did, at a gender reveal party when I was only 11 weeks pregnant. Click here to see Baby A's gender reveal party back in November of 2014. Shout-out to my friend Delia who makes a guest appearance in that video as well! 

Due to my previous miscarriage, we would not be announcing for another 6 weeks this time around, and there is just no way I could have gone a month and a half without finding out! After-all, I needed to get started on planning his nursery, first birthday and buying some clothes!

We are over-the-moon excited that Baby A is going to be a big sister to a little brother! There was a time when I worried that I may not have a child, and now we are being blessed with a second.