When to Reveal the Gender on Your Digital Invitation

You've got the date, the room and a design you both like. The invitation is open in the editor with one line still empty — the name — and you keep circling the same question: when to reveal the gender. The anatomy scan is on Tuesday. Until it happens, that line doesn't exist, and typing 'Baby Mateo' on the cover feels like guessing in public.

The scan date sorts this out for you. Where the party falls against week 20 decides what a gender reveal invitation can say on its cover, what you leave open, and which question belongs on the RSVP. Two scenarios, both workable. Pick the one that matches your calendar.

When to reveal the gender: before or after week 20

If the party lands after the anatomy scan, the cover can carry the real thing — 'Mateo, Saturday 14, 6 pm.' If it lands before, that text doesn't exist yet, so you write a line that holds up without giving anything away. Count back from the date, not from a printer. A digital invitation goes live the day you're ready: no three-week print run, no envelopes to post.

• Party after the scan: put the name and the exact time on the cover. 'Mateo, Saturday 14 at 6 pm' does more work than any graphic.
• Party before the scan: keep the headline at 'Boy or girl?' and let the reveal happen in the room, not on the screen.
• Nothing here waits on a printer. You send the link once the date is set, and no one has to approve a proof.
• After the scan, 'Boy or girl?' loses its pull. A name and a time are what people actually click on.

Revealing before the scan: envelopes and neutral colors

Revealing before week 20 means someone else is holding the answer — the godmother, a grandparent, whoever opens the envelope. That person is the one who edits the cover once they know, because you can't type a name you haven't been told.

Until then the wording stays open. 'Find out with us, Saturday 14 at 6 pm' works; 'Welcome, Lucía' doesn't, because the name isn't confirmed. This is also the moment to settle the dress code. Ask for 'a touch of color' instead of pink or blue, and you avoid half the guest list turning up in mint because nobody wanted to guess wrong.

The scan date picks the cover line. The RSVP question, the colors and the cake follow from that same decision.

Revealing after the scan: name, color and cake

With week 20 confirmed, the cover takes the name, the pink or the blue, or the color you chose instead, and the cake filling gets ordered with no room for error. Write 6 pm rather than 'in the afternoon', and give the place a street address or a map link — once the date is fixed, people plan the whole weekend around it. Then open the editor, try the design for free, and publish the link when the day is locked. Guests open it in a browser on their phone and confirm from there; nobody installs anything. If the scan slips a week, you change the date in the editor and the same link shows the new version — no second message, no reprinted card.