Gender Reveal: Food and Decorations

I scheduled our 20 week ultrasound right after our 12 week.  And immediately after that I asked Andrew if we could do a gender reveal party.  I know, I know, it's so cliche, but after everything that we've gone through to get pregnant, I wanted to do something special.  We love to throw parties, mainly because we love to cook, so we just wanted to throw a big party.  I've also been wanting to get all of Andrew's friends up to the house for a get together, so this was the perfect opportunity.  Only problem was that it would be over the 4th of July weekend.  Baby is already making the rules here!  Thankfully and surprisingly, a lot of our friends and family could make it!  I guess it pays to be one of first of the group to have a baby :)

Andrew has always been in charge of the menu for the parties.  For the baby party, Andrew decided to go with a Napa Valley theme (not really baby appropriate, but oh well!  We also chose our wedding location based on food over everything, so of course we would plan a party celebrating our baby based on the food!)
Andrew used The Summertime Anytime Cookbook for most of the recipes used.  I'm sure you can tell what desserts I made (they also had to go on their own table because they "didn't go with the theme")

The spread:

Strawberry Lemonade

Napa Sours

 Bread with ricotta and pesto

 Prosciutto wrapped arugula

 Almonds and olives

 Avocado Soup

Strawberry Oatmeal Crumb Bars

Lemon Bars

Funfetti Cookies

And the ones I didn't get a picture of:
Grilled Pizzas
Chocolate Mango Semifreddo
Ice Nougat

The Decorations

I have been in charge of decorations.  Pinterest can either be a Godsend or a death wish.  There are so many different ideas out there that it can make your head spin!  I wanted something simple, but colorful.

I created this invite based upon this party that I saw on Pinterest because I loved their simple colors and modern theme and decor.

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I decided to go with a reddish coral, teal, and lime green color scheme.  I went to Target to find tissue paper to make the pom poms and tassel garland to hang over the tables.  Target also had serving trays and carafes on clearance in those colors as well, SCORE!

Tassel Garland Tutorial
Here's ours:

Pom Pom Tutorial
Here's ours:

I thought it would be fun to have people guess if we're having a little boy or a little girl and really liked the look of a chalkboard.

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But didn't want to go out and buy a chalkboard just for this party.  So I decided to make my own using paper!
Chalkboard paper tutorial

I created a Gender Predicting Wives' Tales poster to help people make their guesses based upon these questions:

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Here's ours:

Stay tuned for the Big Reveal! (And, unfortunately, a lack of pictures of the actual party)