First birthdays include family and friends, some balloons, a cake, presents, maybe some other little kids, food, and some decorations right? Well, take all of that and step it up about 10 notches, imagine that! Everything was amazing down to the last detail!
As most of you know, we specialize in wedding photography and have only ever shot 1 other birthday party (besides Ava and Bella’s parties). We are drawn to weddings mostly because it allows us to capture every emotion the way we see it. We looked at photographing this event in a similar manner. We wanted Hyden’s parents to be able to relive their sons 1st birthday through our images.
Baby Hyden has just turned el numero uno (the number one…) on February 8th. In Korea, a first birthday is kind of a big deal…it’s a big deal! With Hyden’s family being Korean-American, they wanted to incorporate a few of those traditional Korean elements into the party.
One of those traditions being a ritual called the “Doljabi”. What is a Doljabi you ask? It’s a ritual where the child is placed in front of objects such as calculator, books, computer, money, etc. The child is then urged to pick up an object from the table. It is believed the one selected will foretell the child’s future. For example, if the child picks up a brush or book, he is destined to be a scholar. If he picks up money or rice, he will be wealthy (and have food). If he chooses a ball of yarn/thread he’ll have health and longevity. You get the point. You’ll have to scroll down to see which one he actually picked!
With Michael having 3 Korean siblings of his own, I’m surprised I’ve never heard of this before. The suspense of what his fate would be, and watching the reactions of his family and friends (especially when he was headed for the stethoscope) had me laughing. Why isn’t this done in every culture?!!? It’s fantastic!
Below are images from Hyden’s party! :0)
He may have been just the slightest big overwhelmed, lol.
Isn’t he just the cutest! Gosh, those cheeks!!!
They even hired a children’s entertainer. Face painting, balloon art, musical games!!! The Hokey Pokey and limbo! Heck yeah!
I do wonder how many times his cheeks get squeezed on any given day. I guess it’s hard not to.
We tried attempting a group shot of all the kids. Most of the images have new kids being added to the shot while others were walking or crawling away, lol. It’s actually pretty funny if you look at them all in order.
This is about as good as it gets. You’ll notice, there are kids missing…they most likely crawled themselves out of the frame.
Hyden getting into his hanbok.
If I was him, I would have gone for the yarn…if you don’t have your health, what do you have? Then again, I can’t imagine a ball of yarn being very interesting to a 1year old. He wasn’t even interested in the $100 bill that sat next to him. Or maybe that was just his way of rebelling. The money was favored by the many rooting for him, lol.
I thought for sure he was going straight for the Prada box. Not sure what future that would be…fashion designer? But he stopped before picking it up and just sat there for some time. I can see how it would be overwhelming. There were a lot of choices.
Yay! He picked the rice. Which means he will have wealth and food in his future. I guess 2 good things to have. Good choice little man!
Loved the hair!
It was hard to not be tired after that party. I think I felt more tired after that party than I feel after shooting a wedding for the entire day. Watching 20ish small children running around for hours with all this energy is sure to make anyone exhausted (a good type of exhaustion)!
Christina, Dan, and Hyden, it’s been a true pleasure capturing your special birthday party. You have an adorable little family and are truly blessed.
Hyden…best wishes for the future ;0)
Happy Friday!!
<3
Melissa.
________________________________________
Party Details
Location: Le Méridien, a hotel in Philadelphia
Photographers: M2 Photography
haha)!
