Love is Journey

At the end of August, we threw Aunt Sarah a travel themed shower in honor of her upcoming wedding! Since Sarah has traveled all over Europe and to South America, Asia, the Middle East and dozens of other places, Samantha and Amelia figured the “Love is a Journey” theme would be particularly fitting.

Me and the bride to be!

A huge thank you to Cousins Allison, Zack and Baby Noah who graciously let me host the shower at their home, which is so perfect for parties! As always, they were game for pitching in with everything from hanging up banners to doing an ice run to figuring out the electrical configuration of the breakers so that the catering guys could set up. It’s always more work than they bargained for, I’m sure. A big thanks to Auntie Lynn and Allison for helping with the food on the buffet table, the drinks and games.

And thanks to my mom who drove out from Utah hauling a bunch of my sister’s photos of her trips to France and found some cute suitcases and other decor/favors for me. It was a team effort!

A huge thanks to Meredith who took pictures for me so that I didn’t have to worry about it. Sarah is usually the one photographing our events, but I wanted her to be able to sit back and enjoy her own bridal shower!

A big hug, kiss and thanks to Noah, Amelia and Samantha for being adorable. And especially to Noah for sharing his toys!

Amelia and Samantha with their favorite Auntie! This was obviously taken before any crepes/cupcakes made it to their bellies– let’s get this party started!

I found some vintage French postcards off Ebay and guests wrote their well wishes to the bride in lieu of a guest book.

Since Sarah has traveled to France several times, we decided on a French theme for the main course. I also selfishly was just really craving crepes! What can I say? What baby wants, baby gets.

Thank you to French Chefs, Chef Yuri and Chef Jean Jacques, and to Catering of Paris for creating a beautiful buffet table and braving the 90 degree heat to make crepes on demand for everyone. As an added bonus, it was entertaining to listen to Jake attempt to speak French to them with his Barcelona accent!

Everyone got to order unlimited crepes from a pre-selected menu I picked out beforehand. Savory crepe options were La Crepe Newport Beach (turkey sausage, onions, emmentaler cheese and crème fraîche) and La Louvre (chicken, tomatoes, spinach, mozzarella and basil pesto). Yum!

Chef JJ ready to go.

As if the savory crepes weren’t filling enough, the dessert crepes choices were La Pantheon (Grand Marnier, sugar and lemon) and La Sacre Coeur (Belgian chocolate ganache with crème fraîche, pine nuts and caramelized Anjou pears). I really can’t blame the baby for any of my weight gain the last week of August, due to crepe overload.

My crepe craving was definitely satisfied.

It was a little too hot outside to get a big flame going for a proper flambé, but we tried!

Chefs Yuri and JJ with the guest of honor.

The chefs also prepared a breakfast buffet table with french pastries, mini quiches, granola parfaits and fruit. Auntie Lynn put together a yummy salad and appetizer as well. Needless to say, we were all stuffed.

Thanks, Auntie Lynn, for putting together the colorful salad!

And for taking care of the mimosas!

It was crazy hot the morning of the shower, but I forced my preggo self (and other non-pregnant people) to sit outside since we had gone to the effort of decorating the outdoor tables. A big thanks to Zack and Jake for hanging up all the lanterns.

Photo bomb from Aunt Linda!

Meanwhile, Jake, Zack and the little munchkins worked up an appetite playing outside.

Noah desperately wanted a crepe.

Daddy-daughter workout sesh.

Noah’s swing was the girls’ favorite by far.

Samantha helps her sister.

Amelia wanted to know if she could stay and live at Noah’s house.

When is it my turn?

What are those hooligan twins doing out on my swing?

We may have gone a little overboard on the desserts since everyone was sugared out with the dessert crepes already, but what’s a shower without a dessert table? I had a hard time keeping S and A away from the table full of macarons, cupcakes and lemon bars, all conveniently within their reach.

Zack’s cousin, Sarit, made the amazing strawberry cupcakes for me. The fondant decorations were super cute and the cupcakes were moist and delicious. I wish she lived closer to the OC so I could always order from her.

A special diamond ring cupcake for the bride.

As if the sugar rush from the crepes and macarons wasn’t enough for Amelia…

Toddler approved!

For the games, Allison put together a funny Mr. and Mrs. Right passing the present game. I had interviewed Sarah and Michael beforehand and compiled some of their responses (questions like, What was the first thing you noticed when you first met your significant other? and Who keeps their car cleaner?) and did a He Said/She Said trivia game. Guests had to guess whether Sarah or Michael had said the quotes I read aloud. Sarah and Michael’s responses were cute and it was fun to see what the guests guessed.