Gender Reveal Party

I'm telling you right now that this post is long. There's just so much from this party that I loved. It was such a great day and I've been reliving it since then!

Our invites:

from thepaperblossomshop on Etsy

A few details:

desserts || decorations || mason jar cups || tulle poms that Amanda helped me make 

Baby Kassner banner that I made || choose your necklace! || chalk for voting board || close-up of delicious rosette cake made by Bad Ash Bakery

pink & blue punch || shrimp cocktail || mason jar centerpiece in kitchen || food!

Getting in some practice with Harrison!

The beginning votes

And here's where I need to explain what's going on...

First things first: My amazing friend Kelly Ginn (yes, the same one I always rant over because of her lovely photography) was so helpful in planning the gender reveal surprise. I ordered a 3-ft. black balloon from itzwhimzeycal on Etsy, cut up a trillion pieces of pink/blue confetti and added colored sequins to two separate bags (with the help of Amanda again). Last Thursday after our appointment, we took the balloon, 2 bags of confetti and THE envelope over to Kelly's. She would be the FIRST person to know Baby K's gender until we popped the balloon on Saturday. Being a photographer, she had to document what was inside the envelope and I'm SO glad she did! Here's her photo...

I wrote the first part and the sonographer filled in the important part!

Also from Kelly

We LOVE the picture of Baby K waving! My brother noticed that it's exactly how Will waves and IT IS! Too funny!

Another dilemma I was having was how to do the name reveal. I  had been telling our families from the very beginning that we would tell the Baby's name once we knew  what we were having. And honestly, last week I was regretting saying that! We had been set on a girl name basically since we got married. The boy name was the one giving us some issues. We LOVE the name Crew, but just hadn't decided if we were going to include William in the name or go with something different. We made our decision on Friday...just in time! Kelly had offered to write the name on this super cute chalkboard that she had and we could reveal it like that. It was perfect. If you know Kelly, you know she has adorable handwriting so I trusted whatever she did! I gave her our girl name and boy name and she planned accordingly. So THAT'S how the surprise worked. A lot of people at the party assumed we knew beforehand because of the name reveal, but we didn't. 100% surprised thanks to Kelly!

The chalkboard - all covered and ready to go!

 I got these pictures from Kelly after she went and got the helium in the balloon on Friday. Don't pop, don't pop, don't pop!

 Now, my mom had been saying for weeks that she was terrified that the balloon would pop before the party and the surprised would be ruined. I agreed with her, but didn't actually think it would happen. When Kelly delivered the balloon to my parents house on Friday, they put it upstairs in a closed room by itself. Just. in. case. We kept it up in the room until it was TIME on Saturday. Everyone (60+ people) gathered in the kitchen/sunroom and we waited on my dad and brother to go get the balloon from upstairs. It was pretty loud in there until we hear this loud POP coming from the front of the house. Instant silence. And cue these faces... 

(p.s.-thanks Sarah for capturing this moment!)

No one could see where my dad and Cody were so we didn't know what had happened. A million things were going through my mind. Mostly, I was trying to decide if I should make a mad dash to the front of the house to see what color confetti had just popped out of the giant balloon. But...I stood there frozen. All of the sudden I hear people start saying, "Courtney, your dad wants you." And then I see Dad making his way to where we are standing and I walk to meet him. His has something light blue in his hand and that's when I lost it. I couldn't stop crying. I just kept thinking, "At least we can still reveal the baby's name." At first I thought he was handing me blue confetti that had just come out of the balloon, but it was actually a light blue tack to pop the REAL balloon with! Real funny, Dad! It actually is pretty funny now. When it happened, not so much.

From what I understand, here's how the conversation went between Cody and my dad:

Cody's walking down the stairs with the real balloon.

Dad's standing at the bottom of the steps with a blown up Ziploc bag.

Cody: You know she's going to cry, right?

Dad: I don't know if it will even be loud enough.

Cody: Well make sure you hit it hard.

So I had to control my crying before we could do the real thing.

Still teary-eyed!!

IT'S A BOY!!

If you watch the video you'll see that I didn't actually get to pop the  balloon. Will's excitement took over and he popped it right before "1." My arm just jabbed into air..and confetti!

  

And more tears...from Will too! I don't know if I even screamed or anything. There were just instant tears. Probably because I had to push PAUSE on the tears two seconds before!

So happy for a baby boy! We had been saying all along that it was a boy. (Except for about a week or two at the beginning I thought girl) I don't know why, but after our past two ultrasounds and seeing him move around so much we just knew it was a boy. This probably isn't a good thing, but we had been calling the baby Remi, Jr. (after our dog) because they seem so alike! Ha! Both so full of energy!!

I'm not too sure why Will has his tongue out here? Catching snowflakes?

We love our ICC family!

So thankful for all of Amanda's help for this party!

My dad giving me a hard time about his hilarious joke. And yes, I typed that with sarcasm.

Still talking about "the joke."

I love my baby brothers! And I know they're excited about another hunting buddy!

We feel so incredibly blessed after this party. Over 60 of our closest friends and family came to celebrate Crew with us. He is already loved by so many and we are so thankful for that! I'm so excited to start planning for this sweet boy!