A Twinkling Baby Shower at ABC Kitchen

I've always joked that ABC Kitchen is my happy place. It's white and bright and full of the most wonderful objects, the best of the best from the wonders of ABC Home.

MarcellaShowerForABC-4466.jpg

The table setting included little cards for other moms to give their words of advice to the mama-to-be!

And that's all before you've tasted THE FOOD. Oh, the food!

Cake pops and sugar cookies

As a guest at Marcella's shower, you could peer through the glass wall at one end and view the Willy Wonka-esque room of blue desserts just beyond. She planned and designed the entire party with meticulous detail and taste, and the folks in event planning at ABC were so good-natured and smile-y. They work fast and they are crazy-efficient in running an event! Impressed. (Follow them on insta! I do.) 

This baby shower was literally twinkling. The lighting, the happy faces and of course, the SWEETS!

From chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing to glazed doughnuts to snowball cookies, no sweet tooth was left unsatisfied. And the crowning glory? A custom cake by Marcella's very talented cousin, Melissa. The white tower was adorned with tiny, perfect white letters all over for some serious tone on tone loveliness, and then the baby's name in blue. Dreamy!

MarcellaShowerForABC-5336.jpg

Most people couldn't take their eyes off the desserts, but the lunch was beautiful too. There were toasts with kabocha squash, fresh ricotta and apple cider vinegar followed by a pear and apple salad with blue cheese dressing, fines herbs and candied pecans and mini akaushi cheeseburgers with herbed mayo and pickled jalapenos, as well as about 50 other amazing things not pictured here. Big fan. Huge!

Marcella's gift bags included these cute little jars that contained all the ingredients to make a batch of cookies! The layers of the ingredients are visible through the glass, they are like a work of art. Absolutely gorge! Find them at DJars Cookie Co.

The kids in attendance had their own craft table where they could make their own crowns, make drawings and paint onesies for baby Luca! 

MarcellaShowerForABC-4522.jpg

One of my all-time favorite venues, period. ABC Kitchen!

Sharing this event was really so much fun, poring over everything for hours, re-living the day. I'm resolving to blog more of my special events along with my portrait sessions - especially when they're filled with such DIVINE food! 

x

a baby shower for a bestie

(also featured on Pinhole Press here!) 

Last month I threw my best friend a baby shower. It was pretty epic!

The best part of the preparations for me was the book I made with Pinhole Press, a landscape panoramic gray-fabric book with extra thick pages called, "Sweet Words for Little Boys" with a subtitle, and "And those who love them", and it was extra special because each one of the guests had submitted their own baby photo along with a quote or words of advice for the little man and his parents-to-be! The waterworks were on as she read each page, beginning with a baby photo of her mom and aunt with advice from her aunt, as her mom is not longer with us. 

I co-hosted with two other friends, a friend to help me with the decor, Ashley Norton, who works as a crafting editor at Martha Stewart Living, and a photo shoot producer friend, Erin O'Reilly, to help source and execute the day. Together we agreed on a nautical theme since the Kozlowskis are expecting a boy, and their home decor aesthetic is very chic and simple in light, airy tones. 

We began with a Paperless Post invite with little boats on them, and Ashley followed that up with garlands of folded boats out of hand-painted paper, bouquets of handmade paper flowers in blue tones with menswear hints, and an ocean-themed photo booth with waves and hand-held hand-painted props in cute Octopus, Jellyfish, Seahorse and shark shapes. 

Guests could take home their Instax polaroid favor in a hand painted linen bag that Ashley painted to match the hand-painted muslin tablecloth, and the Photo Booth was a hit! We all spammed our Instagram feeds with a load of funny photos from the booth. (My feed is @anaphotonyc!)