After spending a week in Northern California, we drove down on Friday, May 22nd for the much-anticipated wedding of our dear friends Megumi & Daniel! The rehearsal dinner was on Friday evening, and the wedding was on Sunday, and we were honored that Megumi and Daniel had asked Mio and I to part of their bridal party — I was so touched that Megumi had asked me to a bridesmaid, and Mio a flower girl in what was to us the wedding of the year! We were all so excited to see them and our mutual friends again since it’s been so long since we were last together, but it was truly extra special to be there by their side as they tied the knot.
We drove down on Friday and got to Glendale in the afternoon, in time for the rehearsal at Vertigo, where the ceremony and reception would be on Sunday. The rehearsal went well, full of heartwarming moments and hugs with friends we had missed so much!
After the wedding rehearsal on Friday
After the ceremony rehearsal, everyone was invited to Daniel’s parents’ beautiful home in Alhambra, where a taco truck catered a delicious rehearsal dinner, along with lots of amazing sides and desserts cooked up by Megumi and her family and friends.
We got to meet Ali and Tim’s adorable son Kanoa for the first time! He’s only a few months older than Mirei, so it was cute watching them play together.
Cuties at the rehearsal dinner in Alhambra.
I loved meeting Megumi’s adorable niece and nephew! Here’s sweet Leila-chan.
The Kaminaga kids! Leila and Julian. 🙂
They loved taking selfies with my camera, so I took a bunch of videos of the adorable kiddos.
On Saturday evening, we had dinner at Granville in downtown Glendale with some of the other bridesmaids and friends from San Francisco/Nakayoshi who were in town for the wedding. So glad we got to spend some extra time with them. 🙂
Dinner at Granville with friends
Mirei cried when Uncle Graig held her, but was pacified when he fed her his fries. lol
“Mama, take a picture of panda!” Mio feeding a sprig of rosemary to the panda doll that accompanied our travels.
Sunday started bright & early for the bridesmaids, as we got breakfast together at the hotel and gathered in Megumi’s suite for makeup and hair.
Getting my hair done as a bridesmaid on the wedding day.
Megumi getting ready!
Sam enjoying some In-N-Out during prep! The bridal party’s got to eat, and these were some pretty satisfying provisions! 😀
The gorgeous bride in her wedding dress.
Isn’t she just breathtaking? *sigh* Megumi was truly stunning!
Selfie with the bride! I don’t recognize myself with all the heavy makeup. lol
With the lovely Maid of Honor, Sam!
Room for the ceremony. Those hanging white flowers were made out of coffee filters and pipe cleaners, and many hours of hard work by the bride and the other bridesmaids (I only helped a little at the end when I came into town). They turned out gorgeous!
The venue Megumi & Daniel chose was so glamorous. Even the bathrooms were gorgeous, with these huge, ceiling-high leaning mirrors!
First look between the bride and groom. ♥
Of course, I had to get it on video, too.
Mio getting ready as the flower girl!
Can’t believe Megumi sewed the flower girl dresses! The inspiration was Carrie Bradshaw.
Shy Mio with beautiful Sam.
The happy couple with the kids in the bridal party. The cutest flower girls and ringbearers 🙂
The bride & groom enjoying some pre-ceremony libations
The wedding cake was gorgeous, with gold ombre and beautiful details. Everything was perfection — not a surprise, considering that it was Megumi’s wedding!
Mio being silly with the photobooth props
Dan arriving with Mirei. He was on babysitting duty during the ceremony, since Mio and I were in the bridal party.
Because I was in the ceremony, and Dan was busy wrangling a cranky Mirei, we unfortunately don’t have any photos from the actual ceremony, but it was beautiful and tearjerking, and so fitting for Megumi & Daniel!
Afterwards, we had fun mingling with friends, and Mio had a ball playing with the photobooth props.
Mustached Mio
Mio showing Megumi’s mom her mustache. lol
Megumi changed into a gorgeous purple kimono for the reception. It went perfectly with her wedding color scheme, and she looked absolutely beautiful in it!
The bride & groom looking amazing in their kimonos
Megumi surprised her parents with the kimono! So sweet ♥
The kimono was gorgeous, even from the back. Look at that obi!
With the stunning bride in her kimono.
Dan made the table numbers for the wedding. The centerpieces came out gorgeous!
During the reception, Megumi surprised Daniel by serenading him with John Legend’s “All of Me” during the slideshow. It was so romantic, and Megumi has such a beautiful voice. 🙂
Cakecutting time! Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Xavier!
Megumi’s bouquet toss!
Mio caught a small part of the bouquet… a single rose head. 🙂
Garter toss!
Daniel kept hilariously pulling out random items (like this rolling pin!) out of Megumi’s dress.
Alas, we couldn’t stay too late into the wedding, as we had to catch a plane very early Monday morning, so we had to say our goodbyes and return to our hotel to pack and get a couple hours of sleep before we had to depart the following morning.
Saying goodbye to aunties Ali and Sam
One last photo with fellow bridesmaids Ali and Sam
One last photo with the happy, beautiful couple before we had to say goodbye.
Congratulations Daniel & Megumi! We were so happy we could be there for your big day. Thank you for letting us be a part of it! ♥
I’m finally wrapping up on posting on our trip to California from earlier this month! Besides getting to spend a lot of time exploring San Jose, Monterey, and the San Francisco Zoo with Dan’s parents and visiting our dear friends in El Cerrito, we got to also spend some time seeing some of our favorite familiar faces in the area and eating at our favorite spots! There were some delicious eats that I had seriously been missing and craving, so I’m so glad we could get a fix while catching up with some of our dearest friends!
Catching up with Uncle Ted in Alameda over lunch.
The samosa salad at Burma Superstar. Never disappoints!
Another favorite from Burma Superstar: garlic noodles with BBQ pork.
Checking out the toys at Tot Tank in Alameda.
Bay Area newcomer Junko trying pho for the first time!
I’m so glad we could see Junko in Sunnyvale! We hadn’t seen each other in almost five years, since our wedding back in 2008!
A trip to the Bay is not complete without a visit to our favorite taco truck in Oakland!
It was great visiting the Kims so we could catch up with Sung Kook and Kayo…
…and see their adorable sons JinWoo and SunWoo again!
Sung Kook loves Mio, and she can tell… she was stuck to him the whole time we were there!
I really missed their pomegranate chicken, among their other delectable bites…
And since we were on College Avenue in Berkeley, we had to stop by Ici for their amazing frozen desserts!
So happy to be reunited with Tarrin in one of our favorite spots in Berkeley… 🙂
Lovely foil stamped labels for my baked goodies, cherry blossom pen, and macaron-shaped trinket case, all wrapped in matryoshka doll wrapping paper to boot! Thank you Tarrin for somehow gathering all of my favorite things. â¤
We also got to try the awesome yÅshoku restaurant Usagi in San Mateo and see some of our favorite faces from Nakayoshi! Special thanks to Sam for organizing the dinner and making the reservation.
ボンゴレ(ã‚ã•りã®ãƒ‘スタ)~ Some of the best vongole pasta I’ve ever had!
We missed this beautiful couple!
Mio with Uncle Graig. Probably one of her most favorite people in the entire world… 🙂 She’s always giggling and smiling ear to ear when she’s with him!
Loved seeing everyone again!
It always feels like our time with friends is too short (especially taking into consideration toddler bedtime), and we wish we could have stayed longer with each of our friends, but we were so happy that we could see them again even for a short time! We are truly sorry for all of those who we were unable to see because of our limited schedule, but rest assured that we will be back soon enough to visit again! :) Thank you also to all of our friends who showered Mio with such thoughtful and generous early birthday gifts… it was totally unexpected and so sweet of everyone. ♥ Our family is so blessed just to have the pleasure of knowing all of you!
The movers are coming today and packing up all of our belongings to ship to the East Coast, and will be shipping our car, too. We’ll be spending a day in San Jose before we flight out with our one-way tickets to DC on Thursday. It’s been a whirlwind three weeks preparing for the cross-country move and saying goodbye to the Bay Area. Thank you to all of our friends who have made time to say goodbye to us, and for all your well wishes, thoughtful gifts, and most of all your continued friendship! We promise to keep in touch and visit often! 🙂
Dinner in Berkeley with our Nakayoshi friends. Thank you for everything; we’ll miss you!!!
Mio with Auntie Estella!
Good luck in SoCal pursuing your dreams, Estella (and Brent)! We will miss you so much!
Lunch with Nicole, Erik, and beautiful Arina!
Had to throw this in. Mio making sure everyone who walked by the restaurant knew that they were OPEN!
Thank you Tarrin & Jason for being such awesome friends to us! We’ll miss you very much, but will definitely see you again!
Picnic at Lake Chabot
To Mio, Sofia will always be her California BFF! Thanks for all the great memories!
Playground hugs! Mio was a little too forcible. (><) But that is how much she loves Sof!
Gorgeous handmade doll and card from Sonya for Mio… so much thought and detail put into it!
Mio with her handmade doll from Sonya
Girls’ night out with Korean food and soju-tails with El Cerrito mama friends!
It was Labor Day weekend exactly five years ago in 2007 that I moved out to the Bay Area, and it’s right after Labor Day weekend that we will be moving back East. It has been such a wonderful five years full of rich memories and unforgettable experiences, and I’m so grateful for everyone we’ve met along the way.
On Sunday, we went to Crissy Fields in San Francisco to attend Nakayoshi‘s Annual Welcome BBQ. We haven’t been able to go the past couple years because we’ve always happened to be out of town, but we were glad that we could make it this year, especially since it’s been a lot harder to go to Nakayoshi’s events since Mio was born. The BBQ picnic was a really family-friendly event, and it was a good chance for Mio to meet all her aunties and uncles in Nakayoshi! 🙂
Jamie did an awesome job organizing the BBQ! We’ve known each other since she was a freshman at Virginia Tech who joined JCA during my senior year. It’s awesome having a fellow Hokie transplant in San Francisco, and I love that Jamie’s involved with Nakayoshi now! 😀
There was so much delicious food that everyone made!
This was seriously the best spam musubi I have ever had.
Mio happily eating some onigiri.
Mio reunited with Uncle Graig — she loves him!
With lovely Auntie Sam! Thank you for always being so sweet to Mio. 🙂
Nakayoshi Chair Haruka welcoming everyone welcoming everyone at the Meet & Greet.
It was hard to keep Mio from running around everywhere during the Meet & Greet. (><)
Touchdown! She discovered a football.
Despite the foggy weather, it was a great turnout!
Megumi made a surprise appearance — it was so good seeing her again!
Mio meeting Tiffany and Atsushi for the first time.
Giving high fives all around!
Jason leading all the fun of the Nakayoshi Games!
Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay for the games because it was Mio’s naptime and she was getting cranky, but we heard it was fun! 😀 We’re glad that we could at least be there for the first half and see everyone again, as well as meet some of the newer Nakayoshi members!
Mio had some very special visitors this past weekend — her Auntie Megumi, Auntie Sam, and Uncle Matt came to meet her for the very first time on Sunday! The last time we were all together was at the gorgeous baby shower that they threw for us before Mio was born. Megumi lives in Southern California now, but we’re so glad that she was in the area so that we could all come together again!
Mio loves Auntie Gumi already!
She loved Auntie Sam, too! Look at that big smile!!!
Matt was a little scared of holding her, but she loved him too!
I baked some lemon cupcakes for the occasion!
It was a nice balance of sweet and tart flavors, and my favorite part is the lemon cream cheese frosting.
Megumi, Sam, and Matt have been so loving, sweet, and generous to Mio even before her arrival! I’m looking forward to all the future memories we’ll have together, and feel so lucky that Mio has such wonderful aunties and uncle that will be there to watch her grow. Thank you so much for visiting us this weekend! Hope to see you again soon. 🙂