Last Saturday, my high school girlfriends and I threw our dear friend Mimi a bridal shower! After getting engaged with a very romantic proposal last October, Mimi and Sujay just tied the knot earlier this month in San Diego with a spur-of-the-moment, intimate marriage/elopement(!) ceremony. While some of our friends were able to attend the beautiful ceremony, half of us couldn’t make it because of scheduling conflicts, and we all wanted to gather to celebrate this wonderful occasion with Mimi! Our friend Juli rallied all of us together and assigned us different tasks to create a lovely and memorable post-wedding bridal shower for the bride.
My best friend Debbie and I were put in charge of cooking and baking all the food for the shower, and we had a great time planning the menu together and cooking together the day of. Thank you Angel for letting us use your kitchen and stepping in to help us with the cooking — we couldn’t have done it without you!
I baked and decorated these sugar cookies for the shower in the days before. Mimi had had a henna night prior to her wedding ceremony, so I piped some henna-inspired decorations on the purple cookies. The amount of detail was challenging, but I’m happy with the result!
The bestest hard at work making matcha frosting. She was the true star chef of the day!
Me piping Debbie’s olive oil cupcakes, filled with blood orange jam.
A delicious banh mi bar.
Debbie’s amazing gluten-free chocolate cake with matcha frosting. SO GOOD!
Another look at my sugar cookies.
I assembled these easy strawberry feta skewers with mint leaves.
A simple favorite: mini baked potatoes topped with sour cream, chives, and bacon bits.
The glowing bride arrives!
Mimi telling us about her wedding day, followed by bridal shower games!
Mimi is all smiles! 🙂
Time to open presents.
Everyone watching Mimi open her gifts.
Some of the ladies at the bridal shower! (Missing Xiaolu and Stephanie and some other girls who had to leave early…)
Hugs!
Thank you Juli for organizing everything and making sure it all went off without a hitch!
Special thanks to Angel for hosting, and to Michelle and Xiaolu who handled the decorations and favors!
Chefs for the day Debbie and I with the bride. We love you Mimi!
A picture of us high school girlfriends together! I love these ladies. 🙂
I’m so happy we could come together to shower Mimi with love and wishing her the best! She looked so happy with a newlywed glow to her, and just seeing her and Sujay makes us so happy. They are such a great couple and are just so adorable together when you watch them because you can see how in love they are. With that, I’ll end with this breathtaking picture from their wedding that shows just that!
Happily ever after ♥ Congratulations Mimi & Sujay!
Last Saturday, a bunch of my high school girlfriends and I took a Thai cooking class at Sur La Table in Arlington to celebrate our dear friend Xiaolu’s birthday! This was my first time taking a cooking class (aside from my cake decorating class earlier this year), so it was a new and fun experience for me! I love learning how to cook new dishes, and Thai is one of my favorites, so it was really exciting, and the fact that I could learn with all these girls that I love made it all the more enjoyable and memorable! 😀
The ingredients for Thai coconut curry
Chopping up the ingredients for cucumber salad
The birthday girl sharing a laugh while cooking… 🙂
Thai coconut curry!
Taste-tesing.
Listening to the chef.
Cucumber salad! This was so delicious!
Taking a break to eat our first course of the curry and cucumber salad. It was delicious!
The bestest and I, reunited!
The chef teaching us how to cut mango for mango with sticky rice.
Cooking pad thai in the wok.
…while the other girls look on.
Xiaolu and Mimi, all smiles!
Angel and Mimi hard at work.
The completed pad thai!
Mango with sticky rice! Yum!!!
Surprising Xiaolu with her birthday cake.
Taking a group picture in the cooking mirror!
Together with our chef, who was a great teacher!
Happy birthday, Xiaolu! Thank you for letting us celebrate with you ♥
