Marie Thomas Designs: Gender Reveal Party {It's A.....}

On one our hour long phone conversations during the week, the conversation went something like this:

BFF: "....the problem is I'm not getting any younger, that's for sure."

Me: "So do you guys think you'll start trying for number two..."

BFF: "Well that is what I wanted to talk to you about..."

Me: "uh huh......................ok...sooo what's your question?"

BFF:"Ummm I don't have a question"

Me:"................................."

Me:"OH. OHHH. OMG. {squeal}."

And then the party wheels immediately started turning. Clearly I'm throwing her a party. Without making this sappy, Phyllis has been my BFF since freshman year in college. But she was so much more than that. If I got sick, her Jewish motherly instincts would be in the kitchen making me matzoh ball soup from scratch {The only thing she didn't do was pluck the chicken herself!}. She agreed to an apt for us that was not the closest to campus so that I could afford the rent. All I can say is I've been blessed in life with some really amazing friends.

But I digress. I've never gotten to do a gender reveal and word on the ruffled streamer lined streets is, gender reveals are all the rage. Truth be told, they aren't really that new. I'm just always reluctant to give in to things that go against keeping it simple & real and this seemed like a pre-party party. The engagement party of the baby world. In my head it was all..where will the madness end? Will we wind up trying to throw "am I pregnant" parties? I mean, what would that cake look like? {perhaps I can find it on cakewrecks.com} I imagine a Kleenex wreath would be present.

However, for a second baby, this is a really fun idea. You've gone through the excitement of the first one. You may just have a little more self control the second time around. {maybe}.

Naturally, I immediately went to Pinterest and searched myself into a migraine. Since I'm lazy about pinning things, I pretty much just use it like a Google image search. Colored cake, balloon release. All very cute. I contemplated the balloon release because I really have a thing for balloons these days.

Then I stared at illustrator for a long time trying to decide what to set the tone as. I only knew I wanted yellow and grey. It was around Halloween and I came up with a masquerade mask...like a play on reveal, just more of an adult party. I even went and bought a pretty Venetian mask for decoration. Had plans for a little fondant baby wearing a mask. It was pretty and different, but I admit I hadn't even really sold myself on it even though I spent a lot of time on the invite.

Then I saw Craft That Party's little peg dolls via a third party comment. And I knew exactly what I was doing. Scratch all other plans. This would be a peg doll reveal! Jenny had the perfect solution and she didn't even know it! Wrapped in a little box all unassuming, just holding a tiny little secret! I immediately contacted Jenny and asked her to make a boy and girl peg doll since I wasn't going to know well enough in advance.

And thus was born the Gender Reveal party I was throwing.

Now the reality. Real parties ARE HARD! Mainly because this is me.

I won't ask ask for help. I insist on doing more than one person can handle. That includes taking all the photos which I never have time to properly adjust my camera settings. It's a work in progress. We shall call it my New Year's resolution because there is no way I'm giving up chocolate. :) Big thanks to mama to be's mother-in-law and mother coming and insisting they were on staff. And to the daddy-to-be for picking up my balloons with no idea what I meant when I said..."....now listen, these are big balloons."

There were some things I left out due to time, which no one else will even know what they were and there were things that I even wanted to throw in. But all in all, I was so very happy with the outcome.

When I started planning this, I had one problem with the room. It was wall to wall glass. How to decorate? Something that might look nice when inside the party, could look a hot mess from the other side. I was looking for grey streamers when I found Oh Happy Day's blog entry about Big Fringe Garland. Um, how perfect is this idea? She's a genius. Problem solved.

These large rolls of crepe paper are easy to cut and yet very strong durable paper. And after you fringe them, they don't fight you one bit when twisting them.

Next question. How will people vote?! With tiny peg dolls of course! I literally drew a picture of what I wanted and sent my hubs to home depot. I painted it and provided him with a drilling template.

I call it....The Peg'leader'board...or some random pieces of wood that seemed to fit the bill. Notice that snazzy ribbon wreath?! That's all She's {Kinda} Crafty! So in love with it.

One of my time killers was how I decided I would do the savory part of the party. Individual tasting plates. They were so much fun, but even though I prepared as much of the food as I could ahead of time; it takes a lot of time to plate each dish for a party of 30. Something to consider next time around.

I served Tarragon Chicken Salad with tortilla scoops, red pepper dip with pretzel crisps, stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, green grapes & cheese. For drinks I had white wine sangria (totally forgot to get a picture of that), water with lemons, and lemonade.

One of my favorite things I prepared for dessert was the Creme Brulee. I prepared it in a larger dish and once set in the fridge, put it into a piping bag for transport. I was originally going to pipe it into little chocolate cups, but there was honestly enough chocolate at the table and it gave me a reason to stamp these wooden spoons I was dying to use! I could have seriously eaten all of these myself!

Some of my other favorites items included:

It's not easy to not eat these as you are making them!

Fondant work done by the talented Maria from Love & Sugar Kisses! I just can't justify spending a ton on cakes right now and don't get me wrong...I have drooled over some cakes I've seen. But a great way to make a simple cake stand out if your budget doesn't allow for cake masterpiece is fondant masterpiece! Everyone noticed these little details.

Since the ceiling in the room was cathedral height, I just anchored a mixture of 36" and 17" round balloons to a center table and let them spread out themselves.