Inside Pregnant Eboni K. Williams' Intimate, 'Enchanted Garden'-Themed Baby Shower (Exclusive)

Eboni K. Williams celebrated her baby-on-the-way at an "intimate" shower with a close circle of loved ones on June 29.

The 40-year-old Real Housewives of New York City alum, who revealed her pregnancy exclusively to PEOPLE in June, worked with her friend Cristina Alesci to bring to life her vision of an “enchanted garden”-inspired party at the Times Square EDITION luxury hotel in N.Y.C.

She tells PEOPLE she invited just 30 people, wanting "something intimate so we could truly celebrate, pray and build community for my little girl."

"Keeping the guest list to 30 was tough, but really added to the close-knit experience I wanted," adds Williams, who wore a long, flowy pink dress and had her hair and makeup done by T. Cooper for the special event.

Une Table by Tania filled the venue with greenery and colorful flowers to create the garden vibe for the occasion. Williams and her guests sipped on "endless mimosas" and enjoyed a brunch featuring prime rib, broccolini frittata and crème brûlée French toast. The brunch menus were printed with a custom crest with the baby's initials, L.A.W., included in the design.

There was also a champagne toast and cake cutting, during which Williams took a moment to express her gratitude and share her excitement about her daughter's impending arrival.

"It was so special to celebrate this life-changing and extraordinary event with my closest friends and chosen family," Williams tells PEOPLE of the baby shower.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

When she shared the news of her pregnancy last month, Williams told PEOPLE the baby is a girl, due on Aug. 16. She described her pregnancy as a "remarkable miracle," after having revealed two years ago that she was using her frozen eggs to pursue motherhood via sperm donation and in vitro fertilization (IVF).

"Anybody who's gone through IVF or attempted IVF will tell you so many things have to go right for the final result of this journey to be a baby," Williams said. "That's why I've called this 'my remarkable miracle,' because it really does feel like I've been the recipient of some very enormous favor from God above."

She also told PEOPLE that motherhood was not always a desire of hers.

"I was not the little girl that grew up fantasizing about having kids and what I would name them and all of that," the Equal Justice with Judge Eboni K. Williams star explained. "That was not my dream or fantasy. I had no real expectation around it."

Even after completing the process of freezing her eggs at 34, she had no "surefire plan" to use them — until she found herself opening up to new possibilities years later.

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

"I was really thinking I would never use [the eggs], whether I got married again or didn't," she recalled. "It was the pandemic and having some real existential conversations within my own self about legacy and life and love and the different ways in which I really wanted to explore family."

Williams also opened up to PEOPLE about her decision to "pursue the single motherhood by choice journey" as she acknowledged how "extraordinarily stigmatized it still is" for women.

"My mother Gloria raised me all by myself, and did so in an era and at a time where being a single mother in this country — especially a Black single mother — was one of the most disgraceful things you could do. And in the span of a generation, that's shifted to where women like me are not just embracing it, but also choosing it," she said last month.

"It is not the shame-ridden narrative that it used to be. That's not the story," she continued. "These innocent, little babies are so desperately and lovingly wanted that they have mothers who invested exorbitant resources (by way of money, by way of time, by way of what we put our bodies through, etc.) to bring them to this Earth, and to shower them with all the things that all sweet babies deserve. That's love."