Girl or boy?: Creative ‘gender reveal’ parties catch on with parents

A baby used to be a mystery, blindly gestated and born screaming into the hands of a doctor who would assess the slick infant and triumphantly declare “boy” or “girl.” The rise of prenatal ultrasounds in the 1970s made it possible to count fingers and toes — and identify genitalia — in utero during the second trimester. Today, a sophisticated genetic screening blood test can provide parents with sex information a mere 10 weeks into the pregnancy.

What are expectant parents to do when they have access to such information so soon? Throw a party, of course.

Celebrations to share the sex of the baby, known as “gender reveals” are becoming de rigueur for enthusiastic parents-to-be. “It’s been such a trend. In the last two years, it’s blossomed tremendously,” said Bethaina Rasheed-Joudi, owner of Simply by Bethaina, a Northern California boutique wedding and event-planning business. While the fete can range in scale from a small and low-key gathering to a formal catered affair, it invariably involves bringing together the expectant parents’ nearest and dearest for a dramatic unveiling of the baby’s sex, during which the parents discover — alongside their guests — whether they’re having a boy or girl.

Rasheed-Joudi finds these events “creative and more exciting” to plan because they’re about celebrating the couple rather than just the mom, the way a traditional shower does. She’s observed gender reveals becoming as — if not more — popular than baby showers, especially among second- and third-time parents.

When Sausalito resident Karine Pepin became pregnant with her second child she wanted a way to make the experience feel as special as the first time. “You’ve been through everything already, so I thought it would be exciting to find out the gender before the baby was born.”

Pepin opted for a gender-reveal party in lieu of a shower. A quick Google search provided her theme: What Will It Bee? She was even able to buy a coordinating party decor kit online, complete with banner and bumble bee-emblazoned napkins and cups. For the reveal, Pepin had a local bakery make cupcakes and fill the inside with pink or blue frosting.

At her anatomy ultrasound shortly before the party, Pepin asked the technician to write down the sex and place it inside a sealed envelope. Without looking, she passed the envelope onto a trustworthy co-worker who called the bakery to inform them which color frosting to use.

The curiosity of whether she was expecting a boy or girl was too much for first-time San Francisco mom-to-be Sandhya Raj. The designer of an eponymous fashion label and her husband opted to learn their baby’s sex with a blood test in the first trimester.

“Instead of us finding out and having to call everyone, we figured we would get as (many) of our close friends and family together as we could to share the moment with them,” Raj said.

Raj found all the party inspiration she needed on Pinterest. She settled on a “lashes or ’stashes” concept complete with a peach and mint color scheme and coordinating mojito and Bellini signature cocktails. Guests were asked to cast their sex-prediction vote by clipping on “team lashes” or “team ’stashes” badges. The big reveal came in the form of confetti poppers. Raj and her husband released their poppers in tandem, spraying pink confetti into the air: It’s a girl.

Raj still plans on having a shower closer to her summer due date. Before then, she joked, the gender reveal gave her “something to look forward to through all the discomfort and nausea” of early pregnancy.

The rise of gender reveals has created a new subset in the event industry. Rasheed-Joudi notes that only a few years ago gender-reveal decor was expensive and had to be custom ordered, but today you can find devoted products wherever party supplies are sold — even the Dollar Store.

Bay Area purveyors are coming up with their own Instagram-worthy ways of revealing pink or blue. San Francisco’s Sparky’s Balloons decided to elevate the trend after numerous clients asked them to re-create one particular Pinterest image of a cardboard box that opened to release pink or blue balloons.

“We said, ‘OK, we can really do something different with this,’” shop co-owner Salvador Evans-Tovar recalled. They replaced the cardboard box with a 3-foot opaque black balloon, then filled the big balloon with tiny balloons in pink or blue and added confetti that bursts out when the balloon is popped. The theatrical effect seems designed for social media, where sharing gender-reveal videos is practically perfunctory.

Sparky’s has also customized orders to better suit local clientele’s preferences, such as using nonstereotypical colors to indicate sex for a client who was “more open to letting the child choose its gender.” And environmentally conscious parents appreciate their biodegradable latex balloons.

SusieCakes, which has bakeries in California and Texas, does a booming gender-reveal business at its San Francisco location. Founder Susan Sarich explains that for these special orders the transaction goes far beyond turning over tasty treats. “People will send me pictures. We’ve gotten videos before, which are unbelievable, of this moment happening. And to be part of that for us is a really big deal.”

After lunch had been served at Pepin’s party, it was time for dessert. The tension mounted. “We all grabbed a cupcake and had a bite at the same time,” she recalled. Cheers erupted as guests saw the blue frosting.

Pepin and her husband were expecting their second son.

Gender-reveal party tips

Want to throw an unforgettable gender reveal that goes viral like actress Kate Hudson’s recently did on Instagram? Here’s how:

• Do keep the guest list to only intimate family and friends.

• Don’t expect them to bring gifts.

• Do incorporate the parents’ unique personalities into the reveal.

• Don’t overlook Dad — this is his moment, too.

• Do have a clean reveal background so the action pops.

• Don’t have more than one big decor feature or focus.

• Do search #genderreveal on Instagram for ideas.

• Don’t obsess over capturing the perfect social media video.