Real Party: Dual Gender Baby Shower

My friends Katie & Casey are expecting their first child. I recently helped to throw her baby shower with 4 of her other girlfriends. They have decided to wait until he or she is born to discover the gender. Katie’s bff Sam was determined to avoid the standard “gender neutral” shower. Instead, she wanted to throw a shower celebrating both genders. A dual gender shower. We all had so much fun designing a shower that was 1/2 pink, 1/2 blue; 1/2 masculine, 1/2 feminine. There were so many fun touches! Enjoy…

Of course, we turned to my go-to invite designer Jennafer of Oh Creative One to capture our vision. She knocked it out of the park as usual. Guests were greeted with the following display:

…and encouraged to “wear their vote” to predict the gender. Snails for a boy, flowers for a girl. Sam made the adorable snails with poster board and twine. Too cute. Guests were also asked to sign the guest book.

I found the perfect book on Amazon to compliment our theme. The Book of Boys (for Girls) and the Book of Girls (for boys) is a funny kids book full of gender stereotypes. Ha! It even mentions snails and sugar & spice! I could not resist. Guests signed the inside cover. Then it was off to the backyard, where we had two food tables set up. One feminine:

And one masculine:

For the “girl” table, we used soft pink linen and a lace runner. We used our prettiest serving trays and bowls. Food labels were pink polka dot labels held by clear glass photo cubes. Pink and white poms hung above. Food items included green and fruit salads, turkey and vegetarian roll-ups, and a “dessert tower” which featured cream cheese stuffed strawberries, cake pops, and strawberry mini cupcakes. For the “boy” table, we used blue a blue linen and burlap runner and pulled out all our rustic serving trays. Mini chalkboards were food labels. We topped it off with brightly colored party poms and a bunting banner. Food items on the boy table included pulled chicken sliders, mac and cheese muffins, potato salad, monster cookies, and “dirt” cups. We had a seated lunch at tables that continued our theme. Two were feminine:

And two were masculine:

We used the same linens as the food tables. The girl tables featured clustered flower arrangements, rhinestone napkin rings, silver chargers, and wine glasses. The boy tables featured a simple wood centerpiece, mason jar drinking glasses, brown wicker chargers, and burlap napkin runners. Even the chairs were part of the theme: brown for the boy table, white for the girl. Party favors were inspired by something I found on Pintrest.

Lindsay and I made 1/2 pink and 1/2 blue striped pretzels and packaged them up for guests to take home. Cute and easy! I managed to capture almost all of the guests with their wearing their gender guess pin. (A couple people managed to escape me & my camera!)

What a fun record for Katie to have! There were definitely more snails…

Congratulations Katie!! I cannot wait to meet him or her! Resources: Invitations: Oh Creative One Party Rentals: Danny Thomas Party Rentals Katie’s bridal shower is here. Katie & Casey’s wedding is here and here.