Planning a Virtual Gender Reveal
This wasn’t the easiest task, not because I don’t know how to plan an event but more so because I didn’t know how people would react to an online party. But you gotta do what you gotta do! And we already had an Egg-specting gender reveal party planned for Easter weekend. However when Covid-19 happened and this social distancing took affect we quickly realized we’d either have to cancel the party or make a virtual party. My husband kept insisting we cancel the entire party but I just felt like we would ruin the moment. I’d much rather tell my child we had the party online because of Covid-19 then say we had to cancel it and not have one at all. Because we were and still are uncertain of when this will all end with social distancing lifted, my gut feeling said to do it virtually. Not only that but I am a people pleaser, and I knew everyone at home would appreciate a little light shed in their heart through these rough times.
So I quickly jumped into planning mode. I started by editing the invitations I had already sent out to everyone electronically anyway. Instead of it saying it was being held at my mom’s house in New Jersey. It now said it would be held online and we will send the link to everyone as we get closer to the event date. I loved the date of my party! April 11th which is 4/11. Hello 411, the information center. I was stuck on it, and once I get stuck on something it’s hard to unstick me. lol Anyway, I jumped on canva.com to make the changes and edit the invitation. After doing that, I had to set up the meeting on Zoom so that everyone could join the party on the same communication platform. So I set up the meeting, where the link was curated for everyone to join and I sent it out as we got closer to the date.
How can anyone throw a party without decorations! Although it was online and in our home, I thought it would be extra special if I went the distance and picked up decorations. Being under quarantine hasn’t made it easy to go shopping, especially for a 6 month old pregnant women. So I strategically went on a day that I would already be shopping for groceries. In Atlanta Ga, they are allowing pregnant women and seniors to come early in the morning before the rush, so that’s what I did! Don’t worry I had my mask and gloves on as well. I also managed to order some additional candy to go with my Easter theme online with instacart, to minimize going to so many stores in one day. It is a very simple ordering process on instacart, so my candy was delivered to the house within a day!
The other thing I wanted to do was think of ways to keep the party entertaining. Thankfully I have a 2 year old, so chalk and a chalk board are already handy at my house. I used it to keep tally of the score of the attendees and whether or not they thought it would be boy or girl. I also had jelly beans in a jar to allow people to guess how many they thought were in there! For those of you who don’t know, it’s a classic baby shower game to keep everyone busy winning little door prizes. I told my guests that whoever won would receive a gift card in the mail, so they were definitely excited to play! I also asked all guests to write their answers in the chat on zoom so it would be easier to calculate, rather then hearing people scream out numbers. I called out the messages while my husband kept the tally for me. The other game was obviously the gender reveal part. Since it was all about Easter egg hunting, we put plastic eggs in a bowl with water and had the kids call out what color they thought my 2 year old should open next. Each egg had a different item in it. But one of the eggs had food coloring in it, which would turn the water blue if it was a boy and pink if it was a girl. And the water turned blue, boom, IT’S A BOY! The reactions on zoom were amazing!
Because the reactions were so AMAZING and decided to send everyone an extra treat! And I’m so glad I didn’t forget to hit that record button. On zoom you have capability to record your meeting, so that’s exactly what we did! I also had my Ipad set up on a tripod recording everything at another angle, just in case. I edited the video on Imovie to get right to the heart of the reveal and reactions. And as a thank you card/favor for coming to the party, everyone received a copy!
That was it! Quick, easy, budget friendly, safe, and inclusive for the entire family in different parts of the country! We were so excited! We stayed on with family members for a little while longer chatting about some cool name ideas then wrapped the party up with an air kiss and a goodbye! Me and hubby were very pleased and happy that we managed to have 30 different family and friends in a chat all at once. Now my 2 year old wasn’t so happy to see the water turn blue since she’s a girlie girl, but she thoroughly enjoyed the bubbles from the bubble machine and the candy peeps with jelly beans! 🙂
