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It’s a Boy!- A Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Themed Baby Shower

June 22, 2016
by: Anna
in: baby shower baby shower decorations baby shower games cafe bizou pasadena it's a boy twinkle twinkle little star
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Usually during this time of the year it’s wedding season, but for me it’s baby season!! Yup, another one of my Best Friends is pregnant so of course I offered to throw her a baby shower too. This will be her second baby and this time it is a boy, so instead of just doing a traditional “sprinkle” for the second one, I decided to do a full baby shower. Besides, I think it’s only fair to celebrate all of your babies equally anyway, right? 😉

The baby shower was held at this cute French restaurant in Pasadena called Café Bizou. It also happens to be my Bestie’s favorite restaurant, so it was perfect!

I did a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star theme with a navy, blue, white & gold color scheme. I custom designed and made the invitations, menus, place cards, games, signs & favors. I also had a cute little book for guests to sign and leave sweet messages for the new baby boy, that his parents can read to him every time they read the book.

There were four round tables, so I did two different centerpieces. One was a cute bow tie & shoe set displayed in our gold rimmed glass boxes and flowers. The other one was a cute stuffed animal next to our petit ceramic rocking horse planter sitting on top of our gold dot bowl and flowers. Also a set of gold & white star balloons were at each table as well and really completed the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star theme perfectly!

I decided to do some of the same games I did for my other Best Friend since they were a lot of fun, but unfortunately we ran out of time and didn’t get a chance to do the play-doh baby game. The baby face game was a blast though because a lot of the guests were really stumped by who was who and was especially confused with some of the celebrities on the list. Also, it’s so much fun to see baby photos of the parents to be & their families.

We also had a beautiful candy bar set up for all the guests to enjoy. Our “it’s a boy” gold mylar balloons were super cute as the center of it all and to stick with the color scheme, I used white & gold candies as well as chocolates. The one treat that I constantly got comments about were the brookies, which is a hybrid of a cookie and a brownie. They are super delicious and everyone is now obsessed. I got them from a small bakery in Duarte called Sweet Nothings.

Congratulations to the second time parents again and we can’t wait to meet your sweet little boy! It was such a gorgeous baby shower and I couldn’t have done it without my amazing husband of course, we make a great team! Also thanks to the awesome staff at Café Bizou for being so wonderful.

XoXo, Anna

**Rental items used**

It’s a Girl!- A Whimsical Themed Baby Shower

June 1, 2016
by: Anna
in: baby shower baby shower decorations baby shower games it's a girl portland oregon storybook the grand budapest hotel the nines hotel urban farmer restaurant whimsical
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When my best friend from childhood announced that she was pregnant, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to throw her a baby shower! We’ve known each other since the 2nd grade and were even nicknamed “bosom buddies” from one of our High School teachers because we were inseparable. With her living in Portland, Oregon we only see each other about once a year and planning this baby shower from afar was going to be a little tricky, but I was up for the challenge!

The baby shower was held at the Urban Farmer restaurant inside The Nines Hotel in Downtown Portland. I’ve always loved this hotel and usually stop by here for drinks whenever I’m in town, so after researching different places in Portland, this one stood out the most and was the perfect location to host a baby shower.

My friend sent me separate pictures of her and her husband at a young age, both enjoying bath time and asked if I can incorporate them into the shower somehow. So I did a little photoshopping to make it look like they’re both in the same bathtub and used it for their welcome sign display. It turned out super cute and they both loved it!

The space I reserved was “the pantry” room, it was the cutest semi-private dining space and was ideal for our party of 25 guests! The room was surrounded by pickled jars and had a very urban chic look. The main focus of the room were our huge 40″ rose gold mylar balloons that spelled out baby with pink paper tassels flanking each side.

I went with a whimsical theme, so for the centerpieces I used our classic children’s books and placed a small vase of flowers on top with a cute stuffed animal next to it. Also, with a small nod to the movie “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, were the guests favors; which were pink Mendl’s boxes with sea salt caramel chocolates in them and their “hotel key” name cards- both custom made by me. I also custom designed and made the invitations and place mats as well.

Since the baby shower was co-ed, I wanted to think of games that would be fun for everyone. We had the traditional “don’t say baby” game, which was super fun because everyone was really into it and I’ve never been to a baby shower where people were so competitive about getting the most clothespins before, it was hilarious! Also, another fun game for everyone was the play-doh baby…I wished I took a picture of the completed babies because they were awesome!

We had a three course menu and the food was delicious. I had the vanilla yogurt panna cotta, brioche french toast and vanilla cake with lemon and strawberries! All that with a glass of mimosa makes me a very happy girl! 🙂

It was such a beautiful & fun baby shower and I couldn’t be more happier for the new parents!

A special thank you to my husband, Gino for helping me pull this off and also to the staff of Urban Farmer, you guys are amazing!

XoXo, Anna

**Rental items used**

My Happily Ever After

April 25, 2016
by: Anna
in: event planning event rentals happily ever after malibu wedding private estate wedding villa mara malibu wedding wedding planning wedding rentals
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Planning your own wedding has to be one of the most stressful things a couple can go through, but it’s also extremely rewarding and exciting too. I’ve always loved to decorate and throw parties, so I figured it couldn’t be that difficult right? Boy, was I ever wrong! No matter how early you start or how organized you are, there will always be something that pops up that is completely out of your control. We ran into quite a few of those hurdles; from our venue pulling out 4 months before the wedding date to the extremely hot weather conditions (95 degrees in October) & our coordinator getting stuck in the bathroom for an hour on our big day! Even through all of that, we had an amazing wedding and I couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out.

After we had issues with our original venue, we ended up finding this amazing private estate called Villa Mara in Malibu. We fell completely in love with it the first time we toured it and knew it was meant to be!

Our ceremony and reception were both held at the same venue and it had the perfect view of palm trees & the Pacific Ocean. I decided not to use an alter or add any extra flowers for the ceremony because the background was already so breathtaking.

After we got engaged, I jumped right into wedding planning mode! I knew I wanted to create and DIY just about everything I could. I would spend countless hours researching on the internet and comparing prices of everything. It was very time consuming, but I loved every second of it. I made sure that the invitations, programs, menus, signs, favors, etc. had the same font and colors so they matched up nicely when put together.

Since both of us have a love for travel, I knew I wanted to incorporate that into our wedding. So for the escort chart, I used a world map and listed each table as one of our favorite cities we traveled to. Then on each table, you would find the corresponding city with “our story” on the back of each one.

I also created this bucket list activity for our guests to do during cocktail hour and while we took our couple photos. We got a lot of great suggestions and we can’t wait to travel to all the places our guests listed.

Our entry/welcome table was also very personalized and customized. Being from different cultures, he’s from Holland and my family originated from Laos I thought it would be a great idea to display pictures of us wearing the traditional wedding outfits from each culture. Also, displayed is a photo of us both at the age of 3 and coincidentally doing the same thing in the photo, licking a lollipop. Who knew we were so much alike? Even at the tender age of 3, we were perfect for each other!

Every angle of our venue was so beautiful, from the infinity pool to the cabana lounge area, it truly was paradise! I especially loved how our sweetheart table turned out with reusing my bridesmaids bouquets in our monogram cups and you can’t beat that amazing background as well.

Our first dance was quite magical, but nothing beat our mother/son-father/daughter dances. We started off slow dancing to “over the rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and then surprised everyone with a quick dance to “gangnam style” by PSY. Everyone was completely shocked & thought it was the best surprise ever, especially to how amazing our parents dance moves were! It was by far one of my favorite memories of the night.

Nothing gets the party started better then a few suggestive signs at the bar and fun party favors. Our guests loved the glow sticks and were partying all night long with them.

After a crazy year of planning our wedding and having to go through so many obstacles, the only thing that matters at the end of the day is our love for each other. Remember your wedding is one night only, but your marriage is forever! So if things don’t go as planned, don’t worry because they always work out in the end. Also, if there’s one tip I can give to future brides out there: make sure you hire an amazing photographer & cinematographer because the photos and video will last you a lifetime and trust me, you will appreciate it when you look back on them and only remember the happy parts of your wedding! We used Handlebar Studios & Motivity Films and not only were they amazing, but they have also become our close friends as well!

Featured on Borrowed and Blue!

XoXo, Anna

**Rental items used**