UNION GROVE, Alabama – Morgan and Breanna Medlock chose to announce the gender of their first baby with, well, a bang.

After she became pregnant, Breanna Medlock, began browsing ideas for gender reveal parties online.

A relatively new trend, gender reveals are events where the parents-to-be find a creative way to announce to their guests what gender their future baby will be. These parties often involve funny guessing games prior to the big reveal, which could take the form of opening a box of pink or blue balloons, or cutting a cake filled with pink or blue icing.

Sometimes, the parents don't even know until the party.

"We've been to several gender reveals where the parents knew the gender already, and I just thought it would be even more fun to find out along with everyone else," said Breanna.

"I'd looked through gender reveals on Pinterest, but you always see the same things and I wanted to do something I'd never seen before. And I wanted something involving glitter."

She and her husband were discussing it one night and he mentioned his best friend had a shotgun shell loader. Could they load shells with glitter or confetti? she asked.

Her husband and his friend were up for the challenge.

"We had two months of trial and error," said Breanna, "figuring out what (materials) you could and couldn't see."

They finally settled on a mixture of confetti, ribbon and glitter. Before the party, they loaded around 24 shotgun shells, half with a pink mixture and half with blue.

Around the 17-week mark in her pregnancy, Breanna had an ultrasound and asked the technician to write the baby's gender on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope.

The couple held their gender reveal party at Breanna's parents' house on June 9. The date was special because it was also their 11th anniversary of being a couple (they've been married four years).

The party's theme was "Touchdowns or Tutus." Friends and family were asked to make their best guesses about the gender of the baby, and were photographed in front of a pink or blue sign indicating their choice. Blue cupcakes with footballs and pink cupcakes with tutus and tiaras helped continue the festive theme.

When it was time for the reveal, Breanna gave the sealed envelope to her husband's best friend, who opened it in private and got the correct shells.

Several of their friends loaded their shotguns, brought them out and all shot together.

Pink glitter, confetti and ribbon exploded into the air and everyone cheered.

The couple has decided to name their daughter – due in November – Remmington Sue Medlock.

"I wanted her name to be unique," said Breanna. "I had heard the name used years ago for a little boy and thought it would be a great girl's name. And then Remington is a gun manufacturer and I thought surely my husband would go for that. It was one of the names we were able to agree on."

The couple plan to call her Remmi. She'll be the fourth generation in the family to have Sue as a middle name.

Breanna and Morgan later announced their baby girl's gender on Facebook with a picture of their hands holding a pink-and-blue glitter heart, and a picture of Breanna blowing pink glitter toward the camera.

How did their friends respond to the unique shotgun-shell idea?

"My friends all liked the idea because it was something they'd never heard of before," said Breanna, "and a really neat way to involve everybody."

(Related: Our favorite baby gender reveal party ideas from around the web.)