"Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" Gender Reveal Party for #SweetBabyStrader

Y'all. When I got these photos back from our gender reveal I burst into tears. Zac & Kaitlin did such a PHENOMENAL job of capturing this event for us. There were sweet moments I couldn't have staged for them to capture. I'm so blown away and feeling so grateful. I'd hire them for this event ten times over. For us, this party was about celebrating the Lord's faithfulness in blessing us with our sweet boy, and with such incredible friends and family. This party was meant to surprise them and let everyone feel a part of this happy time in our lives. If you're nosey like I am, this post is for you. ;) Photo heavy with details that probably aren't necessary.. but for me, they are. I want to remember every single detail from this wonderful day. I want you to feel like you were here celebrating with us, because so many of you have prayed for this precious life in my belly. I can never tell you how grateful I am for that. That people reached out to tell me they had been waiting for the announcement. I truly wish I could hug you all, and that you could have been here. There would have been enough food, let me tell ya! This family does nothing lightly. We joked on the day of the party that it turned into a mini-wedding, but for this mama, it was a way to make our baby feel loved and celebrated from the very start. My heart is just bursting!

I will note two things first :)
1) There are a whole lot of photos of people that I just wanted to share because to us, they're all loved ones & I love that their photos were captured!
2) I'm fair skinned, and my legs are OUT OF CONTROL white. Glad we got that addressed up front. :)

The first thing we had set up, right at the entrance of our home was a little station for guests to place their vote on the gender. We wanted to make this a fun way for us to love on our guests, so we had three prizes. Two $10 Chick fil A Gift cards, and a Bath & Body Works hand soap. I love the fact that we have photos of Ben's dad voting, and where you can clearly see his vote in the jar. Sweet Baby Strader loves his Pops!

The Voting Booth

The Decorations

I really wanted our food table to be a sweet little focal point. All of the details you see were crafted by me and my besties, and I'm proud of it. So grateful for Susannah, Kayla, & Polly and how they spent their time helping me in so many ways. I also sprinkled a few details around the living areas of the house. One of the banners is still up.. I just can't let go! Haha!

The Food 

When we first talked about our vision for this party.. one thing we knew is that we really wanted a big old spread of Southern food. :) Yum! We had BBQ chicken sliders, cole slaw, mac & cheese, hush puppies, mini pecan pies, banana pudding (my go to recipe!), mini chicken and waffles, fried okra, deviled eggs, green bean bundles, mini bundt cakes (red velvet and white chocolate) and Mississippi mud brownies. Literally SO MUCH DELICIOUS FOOD. We also had fruit, veggies, and cheeses. Our family is a catering machine and they hit this one out of the park as usual. It is so humbling that our family can band together and create such wonderful events. We sent everyone that we could home with a to-go bag. :) 

Multiple attendees of the party told me that they were talking about the mini chicken and waffles for days afterwards, haha! :) 

As for drinks, they were all outside on the covered porch. I haven't shown a ton of photos of our porch on my blog simply because it isn't decorated at all. It does serve as a great overflow space for entertaining, though. We had big galvanized tubs with water bottles and juice boxes, and mason jars ready to be filled with sweet tea. We also had warm coffee.. the weather turned out good enough for an outdoor party, but the clouds made it a bit chilly, especially towards the end. 

Another vision I really wanted to create was a biscuit bar. Classic biscuits and lots of toppings for our guests. I really loved how this turned out, and worked with the theme of the rest of the food.

The Celebration 

As guests walked in, I teared up so many times. We were so blessed to have so many long time friends, family, and out of town guests. When people show up to celebrate with you, it's really humbling. 

We also had guests near and far connecting digitally through FaceTime. What a cool thing!

Ben said a few words leading up to the reveal, and they made me teary. He's my absolute dream guy and is going to be the best father to ever exist. And then it was time for the reveal... 

IT'S A BOY! :) Seeing everyone's faces and hearing their cheers was THE BEST!! 

And then came the happy hugs!! 

I wasn't kidding. Lots of hugs! :) 

Huge shoutout goes to these two. They went around my house cleaning up last minute. They made decorations. They carried food. They literally served me so well at this party. I highly recommend having besties. :) 

While we celebrated, the sweet babies played in the confetti! :) 

One of the moments I genuinely couldn't believe Zac and Kaitlin captured was me getting onto our sweet cousin Sydney after she tried to lift up my dress and said "I got you!!" just look at her sweet naughty expression. Hahaha! :) 

Then we drew the prize winners... drawn from the jar by some very special kids in our life. One cousin, one of our home group friends' sons, and the oldest daughter of our youth pastor. It was neat how organically it happened, and that there were different parts of our community represented.

After that we took a few more photos, and just enjoyed sweet time with our guests.

Reason #1,000,000 why Ben is going to be the best dad... he lined up all the kids for a race. :) 

We are so grateful!!!