I was just reflecting on the amazing baby shower that our West Coast friends threw us exactly a year ago on March 12 of 2011, and I realized that I had never shared the beautiful photographs that our friend Tea of Dreambox Photography took at the shower for our memory books. As usual, her photos are gorgeous and captured the day beautifully! I was floored by how extravagant a shower our friends Megumi & company threw for us, and continue to be moved by it every time I look at these pictures!
Many of our friends have asked where we’ve gotten some of our portrait and newborn photographs taken, saying how much they love the dreamy, ethereal, and slightly vintage look to the pictures. If you’re ever looking to get photographs taken for any occasion, whether it be a wedding, engagement, portraits or family pictures, Dreambox Photography comes with our highest recommendation!
Dan and I felt like the luckiest couple in the world yesterday, having the pleasure of several of our friends in the Bay Area come together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our baby girl. A huge thank you to Megumi and Sam who hosted and organized such a wonderful West Coast baby shower, along with other friends who helped them decorate, cook, and put together what was one of the most beautiful showers I’ve ever attended. ♥
The theme was cherry blossoms and Classic Pooh!
Guess the Baby's Arrival
Real cherry blossoms decorated the tables - this one featured sugar cookies and espresso brownies!
Megumi's signature sugar cookies! They each had our names iced on them with bears and cherry blossoms.
The hors d'oeuvres were amazing!
Shot glasses of tomato soup, topped with grilled cheese sandwiches
Sam's orzo salad... so good!
Spam musubi... gotta love the stuff!
Tarrin's awesome hot crab dip!
Graig couldn't make it, but he sent his awesome somen salad.
Bruschetta!
Sliders... so cute!
water and strawberry lemonade
Cutely wrapped utensils!
Everything was almost too pretty to eat... but at the same time, I couldn't wait to dig in!
But wait... there's more! Can't forget the dessert table.
Layered gelatin!
Megumi's hummingbird cake... yum!
Matcha cupcakes from Aileen
Melon balls!
Amazing strawberry cupcakes, also made by Aileen!
It was so nice seeing Yumi & Mark, since we hadn't seen them since their wedding in Hawaii!
Thanks for coming, Yumi!
With my boss and some of my coworkers - who also happen to be amazing friends!
Let the baby shower games begin - we started off with guessing the baby's arrival.
Guessing the belly measurements!
Everyone overshot... do I look that big? lol
An entertaining game of drinking from baby bottles.
Ready, set, go!
Sucking down the juice.
Apparently, it's a lot harder than it looks! Kudos to those babies for their suction power.
Comparing how much everyone was able to drink in one minute.
The baby bottle contenders. It was a close race...
...but it was Tea who came out on top as the winner! 🙂
Poor Jason spilled the juice all over himself...
Guessing which candy bars are in the diapers.
Everyone writing down their guesses.
Pin the Baby on the Belly!
Dan blindfolding and spinning Matt.
"Where's the wall?"
Go Sam!
The hubby's turn.
The results!
Good job everyone!
Thank you everyone for the generous, thoughtful gifts!
Megumi HANDMADE this quilt for the baby. We still can't get over how beautiful it is, and the fact that Megumi made it herself amazes me! (It's folded up here, but I'll have to post a photo later of it in its full magnificent glory some other time.) I don't think I've ever received anything that had so much time and effort put into it...
Thanks Aileen & Haruka for coming - we always love seeing you guys!
With our favorite Oaklanders - Brent and Estella!
With lovely Katie!
Jason pretending he's pregnant too.
And finally... thank you ever so much to Megumi and Sam, who really went above and beyond, and worked so hard to put everything together for us. (Megumi planned it all the way from LA!)
Gift basket favors for the guests, containing strawberries and cherry blossom-shaped cookies!
Such beautifully assembled favors!
...complete with lovely tags to remember the event.
We were so humbled and moved by everyone’s thoughtfulness and generosity, and for the time and effort invested by our friends in putting such a lovely baby shower together for us. We’ll remember it for the rest of our lives, and we can’t wait to show these pictures to our daughter in the future, to show her how much she is loved. 🙂