Celebrate With Kate {Baby Landers Gender Reveal Party}
Make Way For Our Little Duckling
Kate Landers here again, this time to share with you a personal event–the baby gender reveal party my husband and I hosted for our first little one arriving this fall! I find gender reveal parties to be an excellent creative outlet for all those mamas-to-be who want to design and plan an event to celebrate their very special upcoming arrival. Whether you choose to keep it intimate with just immediate family or large with everyone you know, it is a wonderful time to share your joy with others.
We had a most memorable celebration, revealing to our families that we will be welcoming a little BOY into our lives! Despite a no-show photographer and our pup Henry eating the custom cake less than 2 hours before the party started, we managed to take what came our way and made the best of it–and looking back, I couldn’t imagine it any more perfect. Here are some hints for planning your own baby gender-reveal party:
- Selecting A Theme & Color Scheme A wonderful source of inspiration for your baby gender reveal party is your favorite children’s book. Being in Boston and having a passion for classic storybooks, we selected a “Make Way For Ducklings” based on the beloved book by Robert McClosky. The book made an appearance on the party table with a custom printed bookplate inside and encouragement for the guests to sign a note to build Baby Landers’ library.
The color-scheme was kept gender neutral, based on duckling colors of soft yellow, white and hints of brown. Fresh flowers such as pussy willows, peonies, summer stock and hydrangea add a nice touch to bring acolor-scheme to life.
- Incorporate Your Theme With Custom Printed Details From darling mini ice cream carton labels to a custom bookplate, invitations to a charming rosette banner, designer Loralee Lewis custom created spectacular duckling-themed treasures. She even sent a larger print of the artwork for us to frame and put in the nursery (a great idea to remember this special celebration). Each item provides style and a function, sure to wow your guests.
- Decorate Your Space, Ceiling to Floor You can create a festive environment and transform your space by using your vertical and horizontal hot spots. We hung fabric bunting from the ceiling (we had over 90 feet of custom yellow & white bunting that really “wow”ed everyone).
We also used those popular tissue poms (we used wide double-faced satin ribbon instead of clear line for a fresh take) in colors called french vanilla and banana custard. We also made sure table linens went down to the floor, using a custom white gathered tablecloth, so guests felt surrounded by decorations.
- Use Classic White As Your Base I can’t stress enough the value of investing in classic white fabric table linens and tableware. I took a charming white floor length gathered tablecloth topped it with a darling custom-made thick gathered white fabric table topper (6″ drop trimmed in white pom poms). I customized the table to the event with a simple ruffle-trimmed soft yellow table runner.
Cake was served on white plates from Pottery Barn, and home made ice cream served in classic white cartons (with lids to take home) we dressed up with custom labels on the carton and lid.
- Keep It Simple & Sweet We held the event for 90 minutes, perfect for an afternoon gathering with small children. The menu was simple and entirely sweet: home made old fashioned vanilla ice cream, a classic cake with a custom fondant duckling cake topper, mini banana parfaits, and darling duckling cookies as well as divine buttercream-filled shortbread and sugar cookie eggs. No candy jars here, as we didn’t want to overdo it with the kids.
Guests took home berry baskets of the cookies, so they doubled as a dessert and party favor. Beverages (served in baby bottles with striped straws) were old fashioned lemonade, iced tea, bottled water and milk.
- Involve Your Guests We included an insert with the invitation asking guests to wear pink or blue representing their best guess of whether we were having a boy or a girl (making for wonderful photos). We also had a chart for everyone to take their best “quack” at it to write down their guesss–perfect to add to the baby book later! Children enjoyed games of “Duck, Duck, Goose!” as well as an egg hunt in the backyard.
A couple “lessons learned”: Don’t hire a new photographer last minute–be prepared with a back up plan. Having to take my own event photos served to be quite a challenge and did not capture the event as I had envisioned. For the baby shower, we already have a spectacular photographer (and a back up!) who has been lined up for months.
Also: mistakes happen, even to those of us who do this for a career–allow for them. Our pup Henry ate the cake, so my husband quickly went to the store, got a box of cake mix and can of frosting (gasp!) and created a quick fix. These little “oops” moments add character to the event and will become part of the treasured story for later.
June 30th, 2011 at 10:42 am
Kate never disappoints – what a stunning party – love the neutral colour scheme and all the lovely graphics! Thank you so much for the lovely inspiration as always!
June 30th, 2011 at 11:38 am
OH My Gosh Kate!! So excited for you! What a gorgeous party and I love that theme!!
June 30th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Absolutely adorable theme! Love every detail shared. Thanks and congrats Kate!
June 30th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!
June 30th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Kate, this is just darling. I love that your reveal party was not decorated all in pink and blue (as many are!). And love the “oops” confessions — love when we keep it real
.
June 30th, 2011 at 12:42 pm
So adorable and Congrats on the baby boy!
June 30th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
It is just precious!!! Love the theme and the colors.
Kate, congratulations on your little boy! I just had my first boy two years ago (after two girls) and I couldn’t be more in love with him! Enjoy the rest of your pregnancy!
June 30th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
Kate, every detail is absolutely lovely! I ADORE the theme you chose and all the ways you incorporated it into your party. Congratulations on your baby BOY! : )
June 30th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
What a darling reveal party! Love the cookies and the cake!
June 30th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
oh!!!!!! So beautiful!!!!!! From the colors to the fonts and the homemade ice-cream, wow!!!!
June 30th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
is the cutest party I’ve ever seen! love it!
June 30th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Kate,
I’m so excited for you!!! What a beautiful celebration! As you know I love all things vintage, especially classic children’s storybooks. Love your theme and all of the special details. Congratulations on the upcoming arrival of your baby boy! I just hosted a red, white and TWO! Birthday celebration for our little guy – boy themes can be so much fun! Can’t wait to see the baby shower!
June 30th, 2011 at 7:47 pm
Congratulations Kate! Amazing party…love every detail!
July 1st, 2011 at 1:33 am
Such a cute idea…gorgeous party!
July 1st, 2011 at 10:22 am
Absolutely gorgeous!
July 1st, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Congrats, Kate! What a beautiful party!
XO
July 2nd, 2011 at 12:03 pm
I’m so thrilled for you Kate! As a mom of two little boys myself, I can attest that you will LOVE all the “sweet boy” moments.
And fabulous party ideas and tips as always!
July 6th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Too Fab!
July 14th, 2011 at 10:31 pm
This is so wonderful, and what a gorgeous party! Congratulations Kate & Ryan!
July 23rd, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Hi Kate,
Congrats on your new addition. I love the idea/theme for this gender party. I’m in the process of planning my own and wanted to know where/how you made the invitations. I love the class duck look. Could you share?
Thanks.
July 27th, 2011 at 7:02 pm
Thank you all so much! Beyond flattered for such praise from the talented peers I admire so deeply!
Angela, the invites were done by the most incredibly talented designer Loralee Lewis. She has them for sale in her shop now! All the coordinating labels and banner, straw flags and such were created by her as well. Her blog is no fuss fabulous, I hope this helps!
September 2nd, 2011 at 12:41 pm
I would love to know where you found the duck cookie cutter or where you purchased the duck cookies. please email me asap…i would love to buy them
October 11th, 2011 at 11:18 pm
This is so wonderful! Can you please tell me where you purchased the clear baby bottles. Believe it or not, all of the retail stores that I’ve tried have bottles in various colors or odd shapes. Thanks!
October 31st, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Wow, very cute but too expensive for a lot of people who are struggling to make ends meet. So much for the days with a cake, punch, and good friends and family!
November 11th, 2011 at 9:20 am
I would love to know where to purchase the clear baby bottles. I have searched high and low and can’t find them. Thanks!
December 5th, 2011 at 7:24 am
What an adorable party idea!! I love every little detail about this!!
January 3rd, 2012 at 11:33 pm
When I logged on to PINTREST for the first time your invitation was the first thing I saw! My neice had just found out that she was expecting and loved the bathtub ducky idea for the bedroom decor. When I told her about a reveal party she LOVED it!! We just found out yesterday what she will be having and will be “stealing” some of your great ideas for a March shower…a perfect month for a egg hunt. We’re gonna go a little more rustic as we are just a bunch of rednecks…Mason jars to drink out of and twine on the pom poms, ragged fabric strips hanging as a curtian backdrop…I do LOVE DUCKYS!!!! I think we’re gonna go with the PUDDLE DUCK theme. Thanks again and congrats on your boy!
January 10th, 2012 at 5:44 pm
Are your graphics and/or invitations available for purchase?
January 16th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
I echo the last comment – are your graphics available at all? I’m throwing a shower for my sister and they’re no finding out the gender, and I love the “waddle it be?” idea. Please let me know. What a GREAT idea!
March 3rd, 2012 at 12:56 am
what a wonderful idea…i wish i would have seen this when I was pregnant, this would have been a great theme. I am keeping this in mind for someone else
March 3rd, 2012 at 3:25 am
We just had my sisters shower and Im terribly sad i didn’t see this sooner, would have added a few great ideas to ours!!
April 1st, 2012 at 11:34 pm
I love this! We don’t have children but I’ll be stealing our idea when we are expecting our first one.
May 6th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
This is perfect for what I’m looking for my friend’s gender reveal party. I was wanting the guests to bring a book to help build the baby’s library so this theme has everything! So cute! I love the old fashion feel. Hopefully I can get the invitations ordered.
March 1st, 2013 at 6:35 pm
Where did you find so many baby bottles the same style for cups. I just saw your reveal after deciding on the theme and wanting to use the cups. I was so excited when I saw you used baby bottles too. Any suggestions on where to get them?