Just a year ago, the anticipation to find out the gender of our child was real! Keep in mind that at this point in the pregnancy, we still have not told our friends of our parents-to-be status. Therefore, our gender reveal was extremely cheap and extremely low-key. Also, the only person that knew the gender was the ultrasound technician and the bakery we ordered the cake from. So the surprise was even more fun for everyone! Today, I’m going to be discussing a few tips on how to throw a cheap gender reveal party, and sharing a few photos from our gender reveal party as well.

FRIDAY, JUNE 17TH

Our little cheap gender reveal party was on Saturday, June 18th. Our appointment to find out the what we were having was that preceding Friday. We mentioned to our ultrasound technician that we did not want to know the gender of our baby because we were having a party. Throughout the ultrasound appointment, Q kept trying to throw hints that he already knew what we were having. I didn’t believe him. What does he know about ultrasounds anyway?

The ultrasound technician kindly showed us Baby Richards’ progress and had my mom, Q & I turn our heads while she typed the gender onto the ultrasound picture. Afterwards, she printed out pictures for us to have, and placed the extremely distinctive gender photo into a sealed envelope. My mom & I had to struggle to keep the envelope from Q. He’s a surprise ruin-er! We dropped the picture off to the bakery and had to WAIT an anxious  24 hours.

Q picked with me the entire day about already knowing the gender. We made a bet that if we were having a boy, he could name him and if we were having a girl, I could pick the name. All day he kept saying “Jaxon.” Maybe, he did secretly know. I, however, ignored him.

SATURDAY, JUNE 18TH 

Saturday morning, we got up bright and early to get prepared for our party.  My mom prepared finger foods such as spinach dip and Hawaiian bread, mini barbecue pork sausages, fried chicken drumettes, and rotel dip. Extremely simple, yet filling. We ran to pick up our cake, and the baker told us that when we start cutting into the cake, it will throw us off. That made me excited because it felt like a surprise inside of a surprise.

The last thing to do before the party was to pick up a few pink and blue decorations from the store. We spent no more than $100 on everything. We were able to keep the party cheap for the simple fact that the only people in attendance were my mom, brother, sister, one friend, and two cousins. Nothing fancy.

As soon as I began cutting the cake, I saw the color blue. I said, “WAIT! THIS IS A TRICK!” and continued cutting. The entire cake ended up being blue. Another funny thing to add is that we bought a pink “It’s a girl!” balloon and a blue “It’s a boy!” balloon. In the car, the pink balloon deflated, and I felt like that was a sign.

Here is how you can throw a cheap gender reveal party:

Invitations: Canva.com is free. Simply sign up for an account, pick an invitation template, and add the details! They have a TON of layouts to choose from. If you want something more advanced, it may cost you a dollar.

But that is the most you will have to spend on the design. Simply add your details, save the file, and upload it to your neighborhood Walgreens. If you tell them that it is an invitation, then you will get complimentary envelopes to put the invites in.

Decorations: Party City, Walmart, and Dollar General have awesome gender reveal decor for CHEAP. If you’re planning well in advance or have a theme, Amazon or Etsy has creative ideas that will not break the bank. If you are creative, then opt for making your own decorations.

Food: Skip catering! Have someone you know make all of your favorite finger foods. If you’re a natural Martha Stewart yourself, and you’re not too tired, then you can cook everything yourself! If catering is the quickest and easiest way to go, then visit your local grocery store and pick out a chicken plate, a sandwich plate, and a pinwheel plate. Throw in a fruit and veggie platter and you’re all set! The goal is to not spend too much money.

Dessert: All you really need for the dessert options are cake and ice cream. If you need ideas for a cake, Pinterest will be your best friend! Our cake was very simple, cheap, and easy to create. The most important thing was that it tasted good! Here are a few gender reveal cake ideas that I found on Pinterest that look relatively inexpensive to create. Make a note that not everyone chooses to reveal the gender through a cake. I have seen such creative ideas on the internet. Other inexpensive options include a box full of balloons, beverage fizz tablets like these, and popping balloons full of confetti.

Attendance: Attendance will also play a huge part in throwing a cheap gender reveal party. It’s obvious that the fewer people you invite, the less food you will need. Keep your gender reveal party intimate, and put more emphasis on the baby shower, if you want.

At the end of the day, we had a very fun, very intimate, cheap gender reveal party that made me cry! I chose to go the cheap route for the simple fact that it was intimate, and I wanted to put the dollars towards my baby shower, which I did (more on that later).