And that totally makes ours better!
Seriously, though, while I wait for the movers, thought I'd post this so you can learn about another wedding! Also, click on the link about hard feelings from those not invited--the cartoon and article is pretty funny!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Michelle sipping water, Eric through the glass, Danielle on the go, a partridge in a pear tree, and it's moving time!
Some of you may remember earlier pics of 10 Faxon Ave from Easter lunch--but sadly, Apt. 314 no longer bears much resemblance to that. Tomorrow Eric and I will start a lease in Watertown, in an apartment close to Eric's work. It's an exciting move--we'll have a second bedroom for guests, hopefully with the same style bed by my cousin Lydia has in her guest bedroom that I've been coveting for about 8 years--but it's also pretty nostalgic. Seems like just yesterday that Matt and Meri came on moving day and helped me unpack and assemble furniture, or that Dawn helped me exchange my full size bed frame for a queen one at Ikea with the help of her Jeep (that was an adventure) because my uncle told me that a full size bed was bad luck for meeting a husband.
There have been murder mystery dinners, and birthday dinners, and birthday murder mystery dinners, and shrimp in a giant pumpkin, and card games with Michelle--who always wins--and my parents' anniversary brunch with amazing cake, and nights watching Big Love and Doctor Who with Eric. It's been a quiet space to study Arabic and Hebrew, and a playful environment for house guests. I, at least, will miss it.
But memories aside, it is time move to a new part of Boston where Eric and I can start our new lives together! In the meantime, though, here are some pics to mark the event:
Eric through the glass
Boxed up apartment!
Michelle and I having one last friend bonding session--or rather, she's talking, and I'm a moving blur, probably frenetically reaching out to tape a box shut!
There have been murder mystery dinners, and birthday dinners, and birthday murder mystery dinners, and shrimp in a giant pumpkin, and card games with Michelle--who always wins--and my parents' anniversary brunch with amazing cake, and nights watching Big Love and Doctor Who with Eric. It's been a quiet space to study Arabic and Hebrew, and a playful environment for house guests. I, at least, will miss it.
But memories aside, it is time move to a new part of Boston where Eric and I can start our new lives together! In the meantime, though, here are some pics to mark the event:
Eric through the glass
Boxed up apartment!
Michelle and I having one last friend bonding session--or rather, she's talking, and I'm a moving blur, probably frenetically reaching out to tape a box shut!
Mini-mooning
There is this new phenomenon for newly wedded folks on the go: the mini-moon. Designed for couples who can't take time off of work (or who are too indecisive to commit to a full-fledged honeymoon), the mini-moon is a 1-4 day trip that is either within driving distance or a short flight away. Since I am TAing in the fall and Eric doesn't have enough vacation days saved up yet, we're planning on cashing in on this new tradition, and we created a poll on the blog for you to help us decide where to go! (For those of you reading via e-mail, if you follow the link to the blog, you can vote on the right hand side of the page). You can vote multiple times, if you're confused like we are!
To help you make an informed decision, here are links to the hotels we're considering!
The Royal Sonesta in New Orleans (Note: I already looked into trip insurance, and there are reasonable plans that cover hurricanes)
Casa Monica in St. Augustine, Florida
Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World
The Bellagio in Las Vegas
Hyatt Regency Newport (honeymoon registry will not be used here; we're saving for the real deal!)
Yale Club New York City
To help you make an informed decision, here are links to the hotels we're considering!
The Royal Sonesta in New Orleans (Note: I already looked into trip insurance, and there are reasonable plans that cover hurricanes)
Casa Monica in St. Augustine, Florida
Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World
The Bellagio in Las Vegas
Hyatt Regency Newport (honeymoon registry will not be used here; we're saving for the real deal!)
Yale Club New York City
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
How we acquired Silly Bandz, became psychics, visited Baltimore instead of Atlanta, and got home six hours too late
I know this post is woefully overdue, but honestly, it's taken Eric and I this long to get over the trauma that was our departure from Orlando.
I should start by saying that apparently Florida loves me and my family and friends, because every time I visit and try to leave, Florida makes it very hard. For instance, once I went to Palm Beach with my friend Kate. On our return flight, we boarded the aircraft, spent four hours on the tarmac without air-conditioning, a long-haired chihuahua named Pedro--traveling with the girl sitting next to me--found a home on my lap, a high school choir started singing the national anthem out of tune, a lady receiving chemotherapy nearly threw up on Kate, we all disembarked, and a half an hour later we were told the flight was canceled.
All this due to storms in New York, which my mother, sitting under an umbrella by her friend's pool, said were nowhere to be found.
Kate made it onto another flight; I did not. So with nothing left to do alone in Palm Beach during the off season, I rented a car, entered "Walt Disney World" into the GPS, and drove three hours surrounded by swampland and trucks, in the company of a good country music station, to ride Space Mountain.
In the meantime, Kate's new flight was cancelled, so she rented a car and headed up to Orlando as well, but her luggage was stuck on the other flight, so I zoomed on over to downtown Disney, where I purchased a Tink toothbrush, a Mickey t-shirt, and some Disney-fied nightgown for my friend. Then I headed to a hotel, the cheapest one on the property, assuming since it was the off-season, that they would have rooms.
No rooms.
I tried another.
No rooms.
At the third, I was told that all of Disney was sold out.
It was nearly midnight.
Finally, a security guard at the Caribbean Beach took pity on me, called someone who must have been very important, and secured a room for me and Kate at the Coronado Springs.
Kate arrived shortly thereafter--whatever lead I had was lost in the hotel search. It was about midnight at this point, and we went to bed, setting the alarm for 7, so we could be at the park by 8, because we were going to ride Space Mountain.
8am rolls around, and the park is packed, with everyone wearing pink shirts. Curious about this, I went up to one person who said, "It's Gay Day!" Turned out Kate and I had inadvertently crashed Gay Day at Disney, so we wound up riding Space Mountain with three gay guys and a transgendered chick before watching a parade standing next to the real life cowboys from Brokeback Mountain.
We both got on flights that evening.
If this story is not enough to convince you that I don't have a narcissistic complex, and that Florida really does love me and my friends and family, consider this: last March when my parents, Eric, and I went to Disney, we boarded the plane four times before the flight was canceled.
We were subsequently stuck in Orlando another three days.
Which brings us, after a long diversion, to this trip.
So there Eric and I are, running about 10 minutes late for our flight, trying to find our itinerary to check-in. The line is incredible. We learn the flight is 20 minutes delayed and think, "Great, now it doesn't matter that we're a little behind!" So we check-in and go to a security line that is even more incredible, spanning the entire terminal. We make it through security, go to the terminal, board the plane and....
Deplane due to storms in Atlanta (our layover destination). We're told we can wait an hour or get on another flight. I turn to Eric and say, "Nothing good ever comes of waiting here. Let's take the new flight."
So they put us on a new flight to Baltimore, which is overbooked. We volunteer to get bumped and are psyched about getting another day in Orlando--we'll go have dinner at an African restaurant we like, we'll go to a waterpark....we are psyched.
While we wait for the plane to board, Eric strikes up a conversation with Max, a young boy who was sitting on the floor with his mom on his way back from Disney World. He offers each of us a T-Rex Silly Band, which is a rubber band bracelet in the shape of a dinosaur. We tried to return his generous gift, but his mother told us that Max was learning to share, so we didn't want to stop that conditioning, right? We explained to Max that we were sharing our seats with people who needed them.
He looked at us blankly.
Then he said to guess his name. His mother mouthed it to us without him seeing, and he declared us psychics.
At that point, he boarded the plane, and we were left pretty much alone.
"Danielle and Eric," the guy at the front desk called. We were psyched--this was our moment! Another free hotel and 800 dollars in vouchers! Particularly great because this trip had been booked with vouchers from when Eric tried to go home after visiting me a year ago and all of Air Tran's computers were down. So this was just the gift that kept on giving.
Except that they didn't need us. And that was sad. In fact, we didn't even have seats next to each other anymore. Things only got worse from there: the flight was rocky, there was nothing to eat in the Baltimore airport terminal, we couldn't get on an earlier flight to Boston and were stuck waiting four hours, we had a wretched, awful dinner that still makes both of us feel vaguely sick, and we didn't get home until midnight, disgruntled and with Silly Bandz wrapped around our wrists.
The lesson: Florida definitely wanted us to stay!
I should start by saying that apparently Florida loves me and my family and friends, because every time I visit and try to leave, Florida makes it very hard. For instance, once I went to Palm Beach with my friend Kate. On our return flight, we boarded the aircraft, spent four hours on the tarmac without air-conditioning, a long-haired chihuahua named Pedro--traveling with the girl sitting next to me--found a home on my lap, a high school choir started singing the national anthem out of tune, a lady receiving chemotherapy nearly threw up on Kate, we all disembarked, and a half an hour later we were told the flight was canceled.
All this due to storms in New York, which my mother, sitting under an umbrella by her friend's pool, said were nowhere to be found.
Kate made it onto another flight; I did not. So with nothing left to do alone in Palm Beach during the off season, I rented a car, entered "Walt Disney World" into the GPS, and drove three hours surrounded by swampland and trucks, in the company of a good country music station, to ride Space Mountain.
In the meantime, Kate's new flight was cancelled, so she rented a car and headed up to Orlando as well, but her luggage was stuck on the other flight, so I zoomed on over to downtown Disney, where I purchased a Tink toothbrush, a Mickey t-shirt, and some Disney-fied nightgown for my friend. Then I headed to a hotel, the cheapest one on the property, assuming since it was the off-season, that they would have rooms.
No rooms.
I tried another.
No rooms.
At the third, I was told that all of Disney was sold out.
It was nearly midnight.
Finally, a security guard at the Caribbean Beach took pity on me, called someone who must have been very important, and secured a room for me and Kate at the Coronado Springs.
Kate arrived shortly thereafter--whatever lead I had was lost in the hotel search. It was about midnight at this point, and we went to bed, setting the alarm for 7, so we could be at the park by 8, because we were going to ride Space Mountain.
8am rolls around, and the park is packed, with everyone wearing pink shirts. Curious about this, I went up to one person who said, "It's Gay Day!" Turned out Kate and I had inadvertently crashed Gay Day at Disney, so we wound up riding Space Mountain with three gay guys and a transgendered chick before watching a parade standing next to the real life cowboys from Brokeback Mountain.
We both got on flights that evening.
If this story is not enough to convince you that I don't have a narcissistic complex, and that Florida really does love me and my friends and family, consider this: last March when my parents, Eric, and I went to Disney, we boarded the plane four times before the flight was canceled.
We were subsequently stuck in Orlando another three days.
Which brings us, after a long diversion, to this trip.
So there Eric and I are, running about 10 minutes late for our flight, trying to find our itinerary to check-in. The line is incredible. We learn the flight is 20 minutes delayed and think, "Great, now it doesn't matter that we're a little behind!" So we check-in and go to a security line that is even more incredible, spanning the entire terminal. We make it through security, go to the terminal, board the plane and....
Deplane due to storms in Atlanta (our layover destination). We're told we can wait an hour or get on another flight. I turn to Eric and say, "Nothing good ever comes of waiting here. Let's take the new flight."
So they put us on a new flight to Baltimore, which is overbooked. We volunteer to get bumped and are psyched about getting another day in Orlando--we'll go have dinner at an African restaurant we like, we'll go to a waterpark....we are psyched.
While we wait for the plane to board, Eric strikes up a conversation with Max, a young boy who was sitting on the floor with his mom on his way back from Disney World. He offers each of us a T-Rex Silly Band, which is a rubber band bracelet in the shape of a dinosaur. We tried to return his generous gift, but his mother told us that Max was learning to share, so we didn't want to stop that conditioning, right? We explained to Max that we were sharing our seats with people who needed them.
He looked at us blankly.
Then he said to guess his name. His mother mouthed it to us without him seeing, and he declared us psychics.
At that point, he boarded the plane, and we were left pretty much alone.
"Danielle and Eric," the guy at the front desk called. We were psyched--this was our moment! Another free hotel and 800 dollars in vouchers! Particularly great because this trip had been booked with vouchers from when Eric tried to go home after visiting me a year ago and all of Air Tran's computers were down. So this was just the gift that kept on giving.
Except that they didn't need us. And that was sad. In fact, we didn't even have seats next to each other anymore. Things only got worse from there: the flight was rocky, there was nothing to eat in the Baltimore airport terminal, we couldn't get on an earlier flight to Boston and were stuck waiting four hours, we had a wretched, awful dinner that still makes both of us feel vaguely sick, and we didn't get home until midnight, disgruntled and with Silly Bandz wrapped around our wrists.
The lesson: Florida definitely wanted us to stay!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Oops!
Sorry! Uploaded that one before I was done editing it. So where did I leave off...oh, the Jewish bagpiper who was in Philadelphia. Great, awesome guy. Billed himself as the Jewish Shillelagh. His playing was great and he also played classical guitar skills, but his price was higher since he was traveling so far, so we went with Darius Kaufmann, who, among other things, has played with Sinead O'Connor!
We also put in a bid for a group called Two Bagpipers From Long Island, but they never responded.
We also put in a bid for a group called Two Bagpipers From Long Island, but they never responded.
Scotland comes to the wedding!
In honor of our Scottish meeting grounds, Eric and I got a bagpiper to come walk us from the hotel to the church and then back with all our guests after the ceremony! We found him through this awesomely interfaced website called Gigmasters.com that I cannot recommend highly enough.
I also cannot recommend bagpipers enough. What lovely people! We put in requests to about 5 of them and all of them responded within two or three hours! Most then e-mailed or called with thoroughly non-pushy but informative insights as to their services and bagpiping through NYC in general! Could not be kinder lads! One of them, who we particularly liked but who was going to have to travel too far to get to us, was Jewish! A Jewish totally non-Celtic-origined bagpiper. Only in America!
I also cannot recommend bagpipers enough. What lovely people! We put in requests to about 5 of them and all of them responded within two or three hours! Most then e-mailed or called with thoroughly non-pushy but informative insights as to their services and bagpiping through NYC in general! Could not be kinder lads! One of them, who we particularly liked but who was going to have to travel too far to get to us, was Jewish! A Jewish totally non-Celtic-origined bagpiper. Only in America!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Harry Potter Day 2
We arose early on Saturday to enter the Harry Potter park before the rest of the crowds (park guests had earlier admission than everyone else). The crowds much better when we arrived at 8:20, and we got to ride on immersive tour of Hogwarts Castle that is simultaneously a jolting amusement park ride and Imax movie with weak plot. We got to walk through the castle--perched high on a hill in Hogsmeade--before the ride and saw the Sorting Hat and plants in the conservatory, as well as laser-beamed Harry, Ron, and Hermione giving us instructions for the ride. We waited 20 minutes to get on the biggest attraction in Hogsmeade, which we thought was pretty swell!
Hogwart's Castle!
From there, the line situation deteriorated. We waited two hours to see Olivander's Wand Shop, where an actor actually assigns a wand to one of the people in the crowd. I snuck out of line to get us a frozen butterbeer, as we were standing in the sun, and that, along the Harry Potter app on Eric's iphone and gazing at the crowd's kept us fairly amused. True to the materialistic ripoff that characterizes all amusement parks, the attraction dumped us into a small room where you could purchase your own wand and then into Dervish and Bang's, a store where all sorts of important wizarding gear were available:
The Monster Book of Monsters! Careful--it moves and bites!
Surprised to be Gryffindor!
Eric, in contrast, is super proud!
After leaving Dervish and Bang's, we waited a thoroughly reasonable 20 minutes on line for the dueling dragons roller coaster (the dragons are those who appeared at the Triwizard Tournament) and then big Hogsmeade farewell. The rest of the day could be summarized like this:
1. It was 100 degrees out.
2. We had to wait 30 minutes on line for lunch and then wait about 20 minutes to get a table. People were milling around and others were asking people who just sat down if the table could be theirs when they finished!
3. It felt hotter after lunch.
4. We rode a variety of jolting yet amusing rides, including on one the Simpsons. The ET ride was definitely best of them all, though--not jolting, and you got to ride a bike through 50 million galaxies!
5. I overheated, had no appetite, was nauseous, lightheaded, and had a terrible neckache turned headache. I tried lying down and drinking water. Nothing.
6. Two hours later, I located drugs and true to Dr. Meredith's (aka MOH) prescription, three ibuprofen and two Tylenol did the trick.
7. We had dinner with Connie Neal, a well-known writer on the Harry Potter series, who was one of the first to defend them from a Christian standpoint and got death threats by so doing. We had talked on the phone before, and I assign her readings to my class, but we only got to meet at this convention. She was a lovely, spiritual, and joyous conversation partner for our last evening. We dined at Mamma Della's, an Italian restaurant in our resort that had mediocre bolognese sauce but excellent decor (really looked like an Italian home, with waitstaff who looked and dressed like my grandma and her other relatives!) The waitress, a loyal Italian woman like myself, graciously put up with conversations like this one:
D: So pardon me, but I'm Italian and really picky about eating Italian food out because I think I usually make it better at home.
Gracious Waitress: No problem. I'm the same. What can I do for you?
D: The gnocchi.
GW: Yes.
D: Is it handmade? Or do you buy it at a store? Because you know when you buy it and it's kind of dense and hard like a rock? But it should be soft and fluffy like a cloud? See, I only really like the second kind. Should I get it?
GW: It's dense. Don't get it.
And then later in the meal:
GW: We have cannolis for dessert. They're very good cannolis.
D: Ooh! I love cannolis!
(E looks at me skeptically.)
D: Well, I do, it's just that I'm very picky.
GW: Picky?
D: Yes. You see, I grew up on Long Island where there are good cannolis. But now I live in Boston, and I went to the North End where the Italians supposedly recreate Italy in miniature, and I went to the best place for cannolis, but they weren't very good cannolis. So then I went to another bakery and another, and by the time the evening was done, I'd bought five cannolis, and none of them were right. They were made with cream cheese or marscapone or something, and, well, it just wasn't a real cannoli.
GW: Hold on a sec.
(GW scurries into back of restaurant. She emerges five minutes later with a small bowl with cannoli cream squired into it.)
GW: Taste this.
D: (Takes out spoon and skeptically has a bite) That's it!
Connie Neal: Bring the girl cannolis!
While I don't have a picture of us eating the delicious, creamily good, brings me back to my childhood cannolis, I do have this, which somehow seems a worthy substitute:
Hogwart's Castle!
From there, the line situation deteriorated. We waited two hours to see Olivander's Wand Shop, where an actor actually assigns a wand to one of the people in the crowd. I snuck out of line to get us a frozen butterbeer, as we were standing in the sun, and that, along the Harry Potter app on Eric's iphone and gazing at the crowd's kept us fairly amused. True to the materialistic ripoff that characterizes all amusement parks, the attraction dumped us into a small room where you could purchase your own wand and then into Dervish and Bang's, a store where all sorts of important wizarding gear were available:
The Monster Book of Monsters! Careful--it moves and bites!
Surprised to be Gryffindor!
Eric, in contrast, is super proud!
After leaving Dervish and Bang's, we waited a thoroughly reasonable 20 minutes on line for the dueling dragons roller coaster (the dragons are those who appeared at the Triwizard Tournament) and then big Hogsmeade farewell. The rest of the day could be summarized like this:
1. It was 100 degrees out.
2. We had to wait 30 minutes on line for lunch and then wait about 20 minutes to get a table. People were milling around and others were asking people who just sat down if the table could be theirs when they finished!
3. It felt hotter after lunch.
4. We rode a variety of jolting yet amusing rides, including on one the Simpsons. The ET ride was definitely best of them all, though--not jolting, and you got to ride a bike through 50 million galaxies!
5. I overheated, had no appetite, was nauseous, lightheaded, and had a terrible neckache turned headache. I tried lying down and drinking water. Nothing.
6. Two hours later, I located drugs and true to Dr. Meredith's (aka MOH) prescription, three ibuprofen and two Tylenol did the trick.
7. We had dinner with Connie Neal, a well-known writer on the Harry Potter series, who was one of the first to defend them from a Christian standpoint and got death threats by so doing. We had talked on the phone before, and I assign her readings to my class, but we only got to meet at this convention. She was a lovely, spiritual, and joyous conversation partner for our last evening. We dined at Mamma Della's, an Italian restaurant in our resort that had mediocre bolognese sauce but excellent decor (really looked like an Italian home, with waitstaff who looked and dressed like my grandma and her other relatives!) The waitress, a loyal Italian woman like myself, graciously put up with conversations like this one:
D: So pardon me, but I'm Italian and really picky about eating Italian food out because I think I usually make it better at home.
Gracious Waitress: No problem. I'm the same. What can I do for you?
D: The gnocchi.
GW: Yes.
D: Is it handmade? Or do you buy it at a store? Because you know when you buy it and it's kind of dense and hard like a rock? But it should be soft and fluffy like a cloud? See, I only really like the second kind. Should I get it?
GW: It's dense. Don't get it.
And then later in the meal:
GW: We have cannolis for dessert. They're very good cannolis.
D: Ooh! I love cannolis!
(E looks at me skeptically.)
D: Well, I do, it's just that I'm very picky.
GW: Picky?
D: Yes. You see, I grew up on Long Island where there are good cannolis. But now I live in Boston, and I went to the North End where the Italians supposedly recreate Italy in miniature, and I went to the best place for cannolis, but they weren't very good cannolis. So then I went to another bakery and another, and by the time the evening was done, I'd bought five cannolis, and none of them were right. They were made with cream cheese or marscapone or something, and, well, it just wasn't a real cannoli.
GW: Hold on a sec.
(GW scurries into back of restaurant. She emerges five minutes later with a small bowl with cannoli cream squired into it.)
GW: Taste this.
D: (Takes out spoon and skeptically has a bite) That's it!
Connie Neal: Bring the girl cannolis!
While I don't have a picture of us eating the delicious, creamily good, brings me back to my childhood cannolis, I do have this, which somehow seems a worthy substitute:
Thursday, July 22, 2010
First song!
Breaking news everyone: We just decided on a first song! We've decided to keep it a secret, but I'll give you two hints:
A. It is not Teri Hatcher stealing Carrie Underwood's song as revenge for stealing her Desperate Housewives character's man;
B. An Australian blog listed it as a funky choice for a first wedding dance, which officially makes it legen--wait for it and if you have shaggy red hair and horns and you're from the highlands, you just might produce--dary!
A. It is not Teri Hatcher stealing Carrie Underwood's song as revenge for stealing her Desperate Housewives character's man;
B. An Australian blog listed it as a funky choice for a first wedding dance, which officially makes it legen--wait for it and if you have shaggy red hair and horns and you're from the highlands, you just might produce--dary!
More evening amusement...
So Eric and I are on a quest for a first dance this evening. Unfortunately (or perhaps not?) the most amusing thing we've found so far has been this link. I cannot believe I haven't seen this before! It's awesome!
Clean Sweep
Tonight Eric and I both took the Clean Sweep Test, which I needed to take for my life coaching course. It's a 100 question examination for four aspects of your life: physical environment, well-being, money, and relationships. Each section is worth 25 points and at the end, you add up your points and stack them beside one another to see which areas of your life you need to improve.
As you can imagine, as a student my money situation was pretty dismal. In fact, the only thing Eric and I shared in common were the following:
1. I have excellent medical insurance which covers prevention and emergency;
2. I have no current or impending legal/tax infringements.
Sigh. Smile. Sigh again.
As you can imagine, as a student my money situation was pretty dismal. In fact, the only thing Eric and I shared in common were the following:
1. I have excellent medical insurance which covers prevention and emergency;
2. I have no current or impending legal/tax infringements.
Sigh. Smile. Sigh again.
Harry Potter Day 1
The long-awaited blog post! Even we're super excited about it! :)
So. We leave the super awesome, amazing, and basically free Hampton Inn and armed with Paris Hilton sunglasses, Clif bars, and SPF 85 sunblock to prevent tan lines on the wedding day, we depart. We program the GPS to take only the streets. No more tolls for us! 20 minutes later, we arrive glitch free--the magic has begun!
Our hotel was AMAZING! So beautiful! It was Italian-themed and modeled after a little village, with winding streets and courtyards and everything--even really good cannoli cream! But we'll come to that. For now, I'll just say that they upgraded us to a junior suite with a view of the reconstructed Portofino Bay! Here's the view from our room!
As soon as we were done checking in, we wanted to zoom over to the park, but since there were only about 3 hours until my talk and the talk was supposedly an hour away (at the other end of the park from the one we were staying in), I figured it would be best if we didn't go back to the room for me to change from theme park casual to clergy professional. Hence, the following:
Who ever would have thought--a clergy person at Universal Studios? Ha ha ha!
Luckily, I didn't get much attention because folks were zooming around dressed as Rita Skeeter and Delores Umbridge, and I didn't stand a chance against their elaborate garb!
We lunched at Mythos, reputed to be the best theme park restaurant in the country, and it certainly was! The meals were really reasonably priced for a theme park (around 9 dollars--which is great, considering it was sit down), and it was a bargain compared to Disney World, where a lunch like this would have been 15 dollars at least! We ordered tempura shrimp sushi as an appetizer and then for a main meal, we split pad thai and a chicken wrap that was amazing! It was like one of those Vietnamese summer rolls but with chicken in it. The best part: three dollar dessert sushi with fruit rollup and sushi rice made of...you guessed it....rice krispie treats! I loved it. Eric described it as, "Sugar embedded in sugar, wrapped in sugar, sprinkled with sugar and covered with....powdered sugar."
Did I mention the dentist told me I had my first cavity two days ago?
Following lunch (which took a little longer than expected because we had three yummy courses instead of one), we headed to the talk. Eric loved the convention--he got such a kick out of seeing everyone all dressed up! His excitement was probably the best part, as the talk was pretty uneventful and then we headed back to the park! We decided to circle around the different Islands of Adventure leaving the Harry Potter area for last, as a kind of reward. Our first stop: the comic-themed Island.
Now, for those of you who don't know, Eric loves comics! He knows the location of just about every comic shop in Boston (even though he's only lived here four months) and can give you an evaluation of each. He reads at least three comics a week and participates in a comic book podcast with his fellow Iowan enthusiasts. So visiting this part of Universal made Eric like, well, a kid in a comic shop! He was talking so quickly and excited, trying to educate my ignorant mind about the difference between Batman and Spiderman and how the Fantastic Four have skills that are supposed to mirror the four elements. In fact, here he is in the Fantastic 4 car!
This was another point at which our amazing hotel became even more amazing! Our hotel room keys doubled as a kind of fastpass for every ride, so that we covered virtually everything in the park in about two hours, which meant....we had time for Harry Potter before dinner! The lines for rides were too long, so we decided to come back another day, but we did manage to make it into Hogsmeade, and it was amazing!
The whole area is very small, packed with people in gear from the conference, and since it only opened a month ago, the lines were insane. Here we are snagging a pumpkin juice and butterbeer (I preferred the former, Eric the latter) before we stood on line to get into Zonkos and Honeydukes, which was all we could manage before dinner.
The line for Honeydukes was well worth the wait! We bought candied pineapple and cauldron cakes and all sorts of other delicacies, like blood lollipops! Zonkos was a little less exciting but still atmospheric to walk around.
Chocolate covered frog at Honeydukes!
Oh, and the taste of the pumpkin juice and butterbeer! I really loved the pumpkin juice--it almost tasted like liquid pumpkin pie. Yum! The butterbeer, sadly, was not what I thought it should taste like (like those buttery coverings on pretzels). Eric surmised it was cream soda topped with a butterscotch cream foam, which was the highlight of the drink!
The best part about the world for us that night was how immersive it was. Our friend Monica, who went a few weeks prior, told us to go in the evening because it was more believably England than at 2pm on a hot Florida afternoon. This was definitely true. There was something wonderfully magical about sipping our drinks and watching Draco Malfoy slither into the Hog's Head while the sun set over Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
From Hogsmeade, we walked to Louisiana for dinner! Okay, that was me totally channeling my inner Samantha Brown Travel Channel cheesiness--basically, we walked out of the Islands of Adventure to Emeril's, where our friend Monica had given us a giftcard for our shower, complete with reservation! The dinner was amazing, so elegant and chic! We ordered this andouille sausage with carmelized onions as an appetizer that left us dipping bread into whatever remaining sauce was on our empty plates! For dinner, Eric had a ribeye with lobster mashed potatoes and I had duck that came with this soy butter sauce which tasted like caramel (I asked for extra it was so good).
We walked back to our room that night (or, if I'm honest, we took a rickshaw because Eric had gotten some bad blisters) feeling so blessed for all the people who'd made our trip possible--for Air Tran for botching up Eric's flight 6 months ago and giving him two free round trip vouchers, for the support I got from BU to give the talk, and for Monica's amazing dinner arrangements!
Stay tuned for another day of adventures! Up next: a visit to Hogwarts Castle and a roller coaster where you could choose your own background music!
So. We leave the super awesome, amazing, and basically free Hampton Inn and armed with Paris Hilton sunglasses, Clif bars, and SPF 85 sunblock to prevent tan lines on the wedding day, we depart. We program the GPS to take only the streets. No more tolls for us! 20 minutes later, we arrive glitch free--the magic has begun!
Our hotel was AMAZING! So beautiful! It was Italian-themed and modeled after a little village, with winding streets and courtyards and everything--even really good cannoli cream! But we'll come to that. For now, I'll just say that they upgraded us to a junior suite with a view of the reconstructed Portofino Bay! Here's the view from our room!
As soon as we were done checking in, we wanted to zoom over to the park, but since there were only about 3 hours until my talk and the talk was supposedly an hour away (at the other end of the park from the one we were staying in), I figured it would be best if we didn't go back to the room for me to change from theme park casual to clergy professional. Hence, the following:
Who ever would have thought--a clergy person at Universal Studios? Ha ha ha!
Luckily, I didn't get much attention because folks were zooming around dressed as Rita Skeeter and Delores Umbridge, and I didn't stand a chance against their elaborate garb!
We lunched at Mythos, reputed to be the best theme park restaurant in the country, and it certainly was! The meals were really reasonably priced for a theme park (around 9 dollars--which is great, considering it was sit down), and it was a bargain compared to Disney World, where a lunch like this would have been 15 dollars at least! We ordered tempura shrimp sushi as an appetizer and then for a main meal, we split pad thai and a chicken wrap that was amazing! It was like one of those Vietnamese summer rolls but with chicken in it. The best part: three dollar dessert sushi with fruit rollup and sushi rice made of...you guessed it....rice krispie treats! I loved it. Eric described it as, "Sugar embedded in sugar, wrapped in sugar, sprinkled with sugar and covered with....powdered sugar."
Did I mention the dentist told me I had my first cavity two days ago?
Following lunch (which took a little longer than expected because we had three yummy courses instead of one), we headed to the talk. Eric loved the convention--he got such a kick out of seeing everyone all dressed up! His excitement was probably the best part, as the talk was pretty uneventful and then we headed back to the park! We decided to circle around the different Islands of Adventure leaving the Harry Potter area for last, as a kind of reward. Our first stop: the comic-themed Island.
Now, for those of you who don't know, Eric loves comics! He knows the location of just about every comic shop in Boston (even though he's only lived here four months) and can give you an evaluation of each. He reads at least three comics a week and participates in a comic book podcast with his fellow Iowan enthusiasts. So visiting this part of Universal made Eric like, well, a kid in a comic shop! He was talking so quickly and excited, trying to educate my ignorant mind about the difference between Batman and Spiderman and how the Fantastic Four have skills that are supposed to mirror the four elements. In fact, here he is in the Fantastic 4 car!
This was another point at which our amazing hotel became even more amazing! Our hotel room keys doubled as a kind of fastpass for every ride, so that we covered virtually everything in the park in about two hours, which meant....we had time for Harry Potter before dinner! The lines for rides were too long, so we decided to come back another day, but we did manage to make it into Hogsmeade, and it was amazing!
The whole area is very small, packed with people in gear from the conference, and since it only opened a month ago, the lines were insane. Here we are snagging a pumpkin juice and butterbeer (I preferred the former, Eric the latter) before we stood on line to get into Zonkos and Honeydukes, which was all we could manage before dinner.
The line for Honeydukes was well worth the wait! We bought candied pineapple and cauldron cakes and all sorts of other delicacies, like blood lollipops! Zonkos was a little less exciting but still atmospheric to walk around.
Chocolate covered frog at Honeydukes!
Oh, and the taste of the pumpkin juice and butterbeer! I really loved the pumpkin juice--it almost tasted like liquid pumpkin pie. Yum! The butterbeer, sadly, was not what I thought it should taste like (like those buttery coverings on pretzels). Eric surmised it was cream soda topped with a butterscotch cream foam, which was the highlight of the drink!
The best part about the world for us that night was how immersive it was. Our friend Monica, who went a few weeks prior, told us to go in the evening because it was more believably England than at 2pm on a hot Florida afternoon. This was definitely true. There was something wonderfully magical about sipping our drinks and watching Draco Malfoy slither into the Hog's Head while the sun set over Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
From Hogsmeade, we walked to Louisiana for dinner! Okay, that was me totally channeling my inner Samantha Brown Travel Channel cheesiness--basically, we walked out of the Islands of Adventure to Emeril's, where our friend Monica had given us a giftcard for our shower, complete with reservation! The dinner was amazing, so elegant and chic! We ordered this andouille sausage with carmelized onions as an appetizer that left us dipping bread into whatever remaining sauce was on our empty plates! For dinner, Eric had a ribeye with lobster mashed potatoes and I had duck that came with this soy butter sauce which tasted like caramel (I asked for extra it was so good).
We walked back to our room that night (or, if I'm honest, we took a rickshaw because Eric had gotten some bad blisters) feeling so blessed for all the people who'd made our trip possible--for Air Tran for botching up Eric's flight 6 months ago and giving him two free round trip vouchers, for the support I got from BU to give the talk, and for Monica's amazing dinner arrangements!
Stay tuned for another day of adventures! Up next: a visit to Hogwarts Castle and a roller coaster where you could choose your own background music!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Yale Club Dress Code
Not the most exciting post in the world (we'll go back to Harry Potter soon, I promise!), but I thought it would be useful to post the Yale Club Dress Code here. Please bear in mind that this code does NOT apply when walking in and out of the club (i.e. to go sightseeing from your room) but it does apply if you want to go into a lounge or restaurant at the club. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I'll do my best to answer them (I didn't know about the dress code until recently, so I'm learning along with you)!
Yale Club Dress Code
Traditional business attire (jackets and neckties for men, equally appropriate attire for women) is always welcome in all public rooms.
Business casual dress is required in all public rooms at all times except the athletic facilities.
Business casual dress for men includes: collared shirts or sweaters, turtlenecks, dress slacks, khakis or corduroy trousers and socks.
Business casual dress for women includes: collared shirts, blouses, turtlenecks or sweaters and skirts or tailored pants. (I assume khakis are fine for women as well).
Not permitted are: denim, tee shirts, casual sandals, athletic wear of any kind (including footwear and caps) and torn, provocative or revealing clothing.
At all times, a reasonable standard of neatness should be observed.
If you google the Yale Club in New York and look for reviews, it's pretty interesting what people say about the dress code. Some folks find it annoying and others see it as a slice of propriety in an otherwise unproprietous world! I'll be curious to hear what you think too!
Yale Club Dress Code
Traditional business attire (jackets and neckties for men, equally appropriate attire for women) is always welcome in all public rooms.
Business casual dress is required in all public rooms at all times except the athletic facilities.
Business casual dress for men includes: collared shirts or sweaters, turtlenecks, dress slacks, khakis or corduroy trousers and socks.
Business casual dress for women includes: collared shirts, blouses, turtlenecks or sweaters and skirts or tailored pants. (I assume khakis are fine for women as well).
Not permitted are: denim, tee shirts, casual sandals, athletic wear of any kind (including footwear and caps) and torn, provocative or revealing clothing.
At all times, a reasonable standard of neatness should be observed.
If you google the Yale Club in New York and look for reviews, it's pretty interesting what people say about the dress code. Some folks find it annoying and others see it as a slice of propriety in an otherwise unproprietous world! I'll be curious to hear what you think too!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Bleach and Peach
Some snapshots of our lives from today:
1. Today I planned on folding laundry that had been in the dryer over a day and to prevent wrinkles, I ran it again for about twenty minutes, only to later discover I washed, dried and redried one of my favorite black dresses (albeit a seven year old one—see the Iowa wedding blog post for a representation) which needed to go to the dry cleaners. The result: the unshrinkable lining was about 4 inches longer than the outer layer of the dress, which had lost its gauziness and felt vaguely like a rubber band. It went in the trash.
2. The white pants that I was going to take to Florida also wound up in the wash, in the dryer that dried twice. I discovered a yellow curry stain on the upper right thigh. Determined not to be defeated by heat’s effects on stains, I turned to bleach, reaching it on the top of my stackable washer/dryer with the help of my desk chair. I opened the top, had a vague memory of using a Q-Tip to apply bleach to whatever the last stain was that crossed my white clothing’s path, but I bypassed that brief flash and gently poured the bleach onto the stain. And the dress I was currently wearing. Oops.
3. At the airport in Baltimore, I pulled out peaches I’d wrapped in a plastic bag for our breakfast only to find that they were smushed. The following conversation took place:
D: Oh no, I smushed our breakfast!
E: Don’t worry about it. It’s just our peaches, and we have protein bars, so we’re fine.
D: I know, but I feel like the peaches didn’t fulfill their purpose in life because they weren’t eaten, and we’re not getting nutrition from the peaches, so we’re going to wind up being really unhealthy and then we’re going to die.
E: Oh dear! That’s a lot of stress to carry all about six peaches (hug). But look, it’s not you’re fault.
D: Yes it is.
E: No it’s not. There was nothing on top of the peaches in your bookbag except the box of Annie’s white cheddar bunnies [picture Goldfish gone organic].
D: Yes there was. There were two books, and then I turned my book bag over on the floor on the plane and was using it for a footrest on the first flight.
E: Okay, well, you murdered the peaches.
4. We arrive in Orlando and need to rent a car. (Why is it that the actual price of a renting a car for the day is always three times less than what you wind up paying?) So we approach the Thrifty desk and the rate was 60 dollars a day. Too high. We go to Alamo. Same thing. We know it was only 45 online, so we go on the free internet (which we were familiar with from the last time we were stuck in the Orlando airport—must blog on that) and try to get the better rate. But the internet decided to be slow. Very slow. Called Matt, who we knew would be up at 11 o’clock. He wasn’t near his computer. Called Erica who lives in Seattle; she didn’t pick up. 45 minutes later, we gave up on Priceline and tried Expedia which loaded in about two seconds and we booked the car. I ate a lot of fair trade chocolate in the interim.
5. Do not drive in Florida. All roads lead to a toll and all tolls lead to another toll, and eventually you find yourself back at the very first toll with the nice Arab guy who sings to himself while calculating your change. Then the exit you need is closed down. Result: 20 minute drive takes an hour.
6. My GPS, Samantha, tells us to turn around at the Holy Land Theme Park. Eric announces that she brought us this way to receive much needed divine intervention.
7. I start to wonder whether it was a good idea to stay in this particularly hotel. Because our flight was coming in so late, we didn’t want to pay for the room at the Universal Hotel and got a 40 dollar room at a Hampton Inn about half an hour from the conference site. The next day, we were going to switch to the nicer hotel. Penny wise and pound foolish perhaps?
8. It’s nearly 1am. We try the self-toll booth. We found the country music station on Sirius. There seems to be no civilization in sight. The self-toll takes a credit card, but it doesn’t like any of ours. The car behind us honks and we look through our wallets for change:
E: I have 75 cents and a penny.
D: I have 25 cents.
E: Great!
[beep]
D: Oh no! Actually, I have 24 cents! I need your penny!
[beep]
9. We drive past a Chick-Fil-A. The last time we encountered a Chick-Fil-A was when we searched for one during the move from Wisconsin to Boston and our GPS took us off the parkway and onto a long and scenic tour of Indiana that ended with Karen (E’s Australian GPS personality) announcing to us, “You have reached your destination” in front of a cornfield. We decide to blame the Chick-Fil-A for our travel woes.
9. We arrive at our hotel and calculate it will be approximately $2.50 per person per hour for us to stay here. Practically free. We decide this is the best buy we’ve had yet in Florida, although we did drive around in circles on the tollways so much that we did get more miles per dollar than most folks do! And then it turns out: this is the best hotel EVER! It’s super quiet, has a mini-fridge, microwave, leather laptop desk, flat-screen television, chair with moveable footstool, super comfy bed, soft sheets and duvet cover, clean bathroom, free internet, free parking, free breakfast, pool, fitness area….all for 40 dollars a night! Oh, and best part: it doesn’t smell like Florida! Totally worth it! Now we’re wondering whether the Universal Hotel will be worth the splurge!
I’ll let you know. If Florida’s tolls and Samantha ever let us ever arrive, that is.
1. Today I planned on folding laundry that had been in the dryer over a day and to prevent wrinkles, I ran it again for about twenty minutes, only to later discover I washed, dried and redried one of my favorite black dresses (albeit a seven year old one—see the Iowa wedding blog post for a representation) which needed to go to the dry cleaners. The result: the unshrinkable lining was about 4 inches longer than the outer layer of the dress, which had lost its gauziness and felt vaguely like a rubber band. It went in the trash.
2. The white pants that I was going to take to Florida also wound up in the wash, in the dryer that dried twice. I discovered a yellow curry stain on the upper right thigh. Determined not to be defeated by heat’s effects on stains, I turned to bleach, reaching it on the top of my stackable washer/dryer with the help of my desk chair. I opened the top, had a vague memory of using a Q-Tip to apply bleach to whatever the last stain was that crossed my white clothing’s path, but I bypassed that brief flash and gently poured the bleach onto the stain. And the dress I was currently wearing. Oops.
3. At the airport in Baltimore, I pulled out peaches I’d wrapped in a plastic bag for our breakfast only to find that they were smushed. The following conversation took place:
D: Oh no, I smushed our breakfast!
E: Don’t worry about it. It’s just our peaches, and we have protein bars, so we’re fine.
D: I know, but I feel like the peaches didn’t fulfill their purpose in life because they weren’t eaten, and we’re not getting nutrition from the peaches, so we’re going to wind up being really unhealthy and then we’re going to die.
E: Oh dear! That’s a lot of stress to carry all about six peaches (hug). But look, it’s not you’re fault.
D: Yes it is.
E: No it’s not. There was nothing on top of the peaches in your bookbag except the box of Annie’s white cheddar bunnies [picture Goldfish gone organic].
D: Yes there was. There were two books, and then I turned my book bag over on the floor on the plane and was using it for a footrest on the first flight.
E: Okay, well, you murdered the peaches.
4. We arrive in Orlando and need to rent a car. (Why is it that the actual price of a renting a car for the day is always three times less than what you wind up paying?) So we approach the Thrifty desk and the rate was 60 dollars a day. Too high. We go to Alamo. Same thing. We know it was only 45 online, so we go on the free internet (which we were familiar with from the last time we were stuck in the Orlando airport—must blog on that) and try to get the better rate. But the internet decided to be slow. Very slow. Called Matt, who we knew would be up at 11 o’clock. He wasn’t near his computer. Called Erica who lives in Seattle; she didn’t pick up. 45 minutes later, we gave up on Priceline and tried Expedia which loaded in about two seconds and we booked the car. I ate a lot of fair trade chocolate in the interim.
5. Do not drive in Florida. All roads lead to a toll and all tolls lead to another toll, and eventually you find yourself back at the very first toll with the nice Arab guy who sings to himself while calculating your change. Then the exit you need is closed down. Result: 20 minute drive takes an hour.
6. My GPS, Samantha, tells us to turn around at the Holy Land Theme Park. Eric announces that she brought us this way to receive much needed divine intervention.
7. I start to wonder whether it was a good idea to stay in this particularly hotel. Because our flight was coming in so late, we didn’t want to pay for the room at the Universal Hotel and got a 40 dollar room at a Hampton Inn about half an hour from the conference site. The next day, we were going to switch to the nicer hotel. Penny wise and pound foolish perhaps?
8. It’s nearly 1am. We try the self-toll booth. We found the country music station on Sirius. There seems to be no civilization in sight. The self-toll takes a credit card, but it doesn’t like any of ours. The car behind us honks and we look through our wallets for change:
E: I have 75 cents and a penny.
D: I have 25 cents.
E: Great!
[beep]
D: Oh no! Actually, I have 24 cents! I need your penny!
[beep]
9. We drive past a Chick-Fil-A. The last time we encountered a Chick-Fil-A was when we searched for one during the move from Wisconsin to Boston and our GPS took us off the parkway and onto a long and scenic tour of Indiana that ended with Karen (E’s Australian GPS personality) announcing to us, “You have reached your destination” in front of a cornfield. We decide to blame the Chick-Fil-A for our travel woes.
9. We arrive at our hotel and calculate it will be approximately $2.50 per person per hour for us to stay here. Practically free. We decide this is the best buy we’ve had yet in Florida, although we did drive around in circles on the tollways so much that we did get more miles per dollar than most folks do! And then it turns out: this is the best hotel EVER! It’s super quiet, has a mini-fridge, microwave, leather laptop desk, flat-screen television, chair with moveable footstool, super comfy bed, soft sheets and duvet cover, clean bathroom, free internet, free parking, free breakfast, pool, fitness area….all for 40 dollars a night! Oh, and best part: it doesn’t smell like Florida! Totally worth it! Now we’re wondering whether the Universal Hotel will be worth the splurge!
I’ll let you know. If Florida’s tolls and Samantha ever let us ever arrive, that is.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Dance Lessons!
No pics of this one, but last night, E and I went for a ballroom dance lesson at Arthur Murray. Before the lesson, we went to Finale--my new favorite place to eat in Boston--where we shared a Caesar salad and white pizza with rustic chicken. Finale is known for its desserts, so we got creme brulee, which was topped with lots of yummy fruit, and a fair trade chocolate/whipped cream parfait that came with raspberries and cookies! Mmmm..... It was a really fun, reasonably priced romantic and classy way to start our evening.
The first thing we did at Arthur Murray was a private lesson with our teacher Lauren, who looks like an adult Peppermint Patty. She worked on the foxtrot (we learned how to walk around a corner--a useful skill so as to avoid walls) and the swing (she taught us how to do a simple turn both for me and Eric). At one point, I was supposed to reach my hand over Eric's head, and he would walk under it....that didn't work so well because my arm didn't make it that high! Ha ha ha!
After our lesson, we went to the group class with the other beginners; the leaders got in one line and the followers in the other, and then we rotated every minute or so for the hour. I found it was a really illuminating way to get 30 second soundbites of someone's life: when I was partnered with the balding older gentleman, we talked about how he planned on coming for one lesson and now has been at Arthur Murray five years; when with the man in the striped shirt, we talked about his upcoming wedding and how he feels like he's not getting any better at dancing; when accompanied by the fella in the wine-colored shirt, we discussed his engineering internship.
In the last hour, we went to the center's dance party, where we got to try out our moves. We switched partners here too, and they taught us how to correctly approach and leave a dance. So here are some tips for our wedding:
1. The leader (usually a guy) approaches the follower (usually a girl) and asks him/her to dance. They go onto the dance floor and foxtrot, cha-cha, or bolero it up!
2. At the end of the dance, the leader raises his left hand and the follower twirls under it, releasing herself from dance hold. Then they clap, each saluting the other, and the leader escorts the follower back to where he left her, thereby not leaving her stranded on the dance floor!
Can't wait for you all to practice your moves on the big day!
P.S. Did I mention that we went to our dance lesson 12 hours after the early morning bootcamp at our gym?
The first thing we did at Arthur Murray was a private lesson with our teacher Lauren, who looks like an adult Peppermint Patty. She worked on the foxtrot (we learned how to walk around a corner--a useful skill so as to avoid walls) and the swing (she taught us how to do a simple turn both for me and Eric). At one point, I was supposed to reach my hand over Eric's head, and he would walk under it....that didn't work so well because my arm didn't make it that high! Ha ha ha!
After our lesson, we went to the group class with the other beginners; the leaders got in one line and the followers in the other, and then we rotated every minute or so for the hour. I found it was a really illuminating way to get 30 second soundbites of someone's life: when I was partnered with the balding older gentleman, we talked about how he planned on coming for one lesson and now has been at Arthur Murray five years; when with the man in the striped shirt, we talked about his upcoming wedding and how he feels like he's not getting any better at dancing; when accompanied by the fella in the wine-colored shirt, we discussed his engineering internship.
In the last hour, we went to the center's dance party, where we got to try out our moves. We switched partners here too, and they taught us how to correctly approach and leave a dance. So here are some tips for our wedding:
1. The leader (usually a guy) approaches the follower (usually a girl) and asks him/her to dance. They go onto the dance floor and foxtrot, cha-cha, or bolero it up!
2. At the end of the dance, the leader raises his left hand and the follower twirls under it, releasing herself from dance hold. Then they clap, each saluting the other, and the leader escorts the follower back to where he left her, thereby not leaving her stranded on the dance floor!
Can't wait for you all to practice your moves on the big day!
P.S. Did I mention that we went to our dance lesson 12 hours after the early morning bootcamp at our gym?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Iowa Wedding Festivities
The same weekend that we were in Iowa checking out tuxedos for our wedding, we also got to see tuxedos at another wedding, this one for Eric's friends Eric and Michelle. Aside from being in the unique position of having our names differ by only four letters, we share another bond: The two Erics are united by their ushing duties! Eric (not mine, Michelle's) will be one of the ushers at our wedding, so you will all be able to congratulate him on his recent nuptials. Eric (not Michelle's, mine) was an usher at Eric and Michelle's wedding, where he very responsibly seated everyone according to the etiquette book we read on the plane (hold the eldest woman's arm; turn around to face the back while people file into the pews; let women sit nearest the aisle, etc.). I was really proud of him!
Michelle looked beautiful in her lacy dress and her bridesmaids looked terrific in red; the groom and his groomsmen also looked really suave! After the ceremony, we feasted on delicious Iowa pork and homemade cake (there was a layer of pink lemonade cake that was really yummy) and tested out our dancing skills from our recent Arthur Murray lessons!
Michelle and her Eric at the altar.
Danielle and her Eric at the reception
The next day, Eric's parents threw us a beautiful shower. His parents, family, and friends had been preparing non-stop to make sure we had a wonderful time, and the day felt abundantly filled with their love and care. They decorated the party space, displayed pictures of us as children, and invited all the people who are close to Eric in Iowa. I got to meet many of Eric's friends and relatives who I've heard him talk about in the past, and I was particularly excited to meet Corey, Gina, and their triplets--three darling girls who were almost intimidating in their beautiful tripletness!
Although people are always the most important gift at any party, one of the best gifts we received was our cake, which was the cake from Eric's sister's wedding. We had all fallen in love with the raspberry swirl and the yummy white frosting last summer, and I ate more than I should have on both occasions!
Us with the coveted cake in our Bride and Groom caps that Eric's mom gave us!
Michelle looked beautiful in her lacy dress and her bridesmaids looked terrific in red; the groom and his groomsmen also looked really suave! After the ceremony, we feasted on delicious Iowa pork and homemade cake (there was a layer of pink lemonade cake that was really yummy) and tested out our dancing skills from our recent Arthur Murray lessons!
Michelle and her Eric at the altar.
Danielle and her Eric at the reception
The next day, Eric's parents threw us a beautiful shower. His parents, family, and friends had been preparing non-stop to make sure we had a wonderful time, and the day felt abundantly filled with their love and care. They decorated the party space, displayed pictures of us as children, and invited all the people who are close to Eric in Iowa. I got to meet many of Eric's friends and relatives who I've heard him talk about in the past, and I was particularly excited to meet Corey, Gina, and their triplets--three darling girls who were almost intimidating in their beautiful tripletness!
Although people are always the most important gift at any party, one of the best gifts we received was our cake, which was the cake from Eric's sister's wedding. We had all fallen in love with the raspberry swirl and the yummy white frosting last summer, and I ate more than I should have on both occasions!
Us with the coveted cake in our Bride and Groom caps that Eric's mom gave us!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Tuxedo Time!
A couple of weeks ago, Eric and I went out to Iowa for a friend's wedding and an amazing Iowa shower! We arrived in Moline late Friday night, and the second we walked out of the airport and breathed in the fresh grassy air, Eric was jumping up and down! As he hopped in our rental car and took to the parkway, he announced, "I just feel so much calmer here, and like I don't have to concentrate as hard on the road." Then he paused and added: "Of course, maybe that's because the roads are straight and there isn't any traffic!"
We stopped at the cannot-be-missed Iowa 80 (aka largest truck stop in the world) for a late night Orange Julius, and then continued to Eric's parents where we went to sleep quickly because the next morning was....
Tux shopping!
To make it easy for groomsmen from Iowa and California and Eric on the East Coast to get matching tuxes, we went to Men's Warehouse in Cedar Rapids, where Megan was amazing at helping us to pick out the right look.
Mike, Gail, Eric, and best man Brad checking out vests!
We decided to go with red vests and ties for the groomsmen, black for the dads, and champagne and gold for Eric. Here are Eric and his best man basking in their brilliant choices and handsome looks!
Eric's tuxedo!
We stopped at the cannot-be-missed Iowa 80 (aka largest truck stop in the world) for a late night Orange Julius, and then continued to Eric's parents where we went to sleep quickly because the next morning was....
Tux shopping!
To make it easy for groomsmen from Iowa and California and Eric on the East Coast to get matching tuxes, we went to Men's Warehouse in Cedar Rapids, where Megan was amazing at helping us to pick out the right look.
Mike, Gail, Eric, and best man Brad checking out vests!
We decided to go with red vests and ties for the groomsmen, black for the dads, and champagne and gold for Eric. Here are Eric and his best man basking in their brilliant choices and handsome looks!
Eric's tuxedo!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Ordination and One Year Birthday!
Eric and I drove to Connecticut a couple of weeks ago for my ordination and for A&E's one year birthday. The ordination was incredibly moving, and I even teary as I gave out communion to my family and friends at the event. I was barely able to get the words out!
This is a picture of the actual ordination. In The Episcopal Church, a deacon is ordained by a bishop. There are three bishops in our diocese--on the left is Bishop Curry; in the center is Bishop Douglas, and on the right is Bishop Ahrens. This was Bishop Douglas's first ordination!
In our tradition, one of the signs that you are a deacon is that you wear a stole diagonally across your body. My dear friend Pamela bought this one in Jerusalem and had it blessed by the Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf! Here is Bishop Laura Ahrens tying it on for me. Bishop Ahrens will actually be doing our wedding ceremony in September, so you will see her again there!
Eric and I at lunch after the service!
The next day, Eric, my mom, and I all drove down to New York for another big celebration: our flower girl and ringbearer's first birthday! A&E were in great spirits for the big day, and they even had their own cakes (one in the shape of an A and the other in the shape of an E) with different flavors and frostings. They were initially a bit reticent about eating the cake, but they eventually dove in and at one point, Baby A tried to put the whole piece into his mouth!
Me and my green tutu-ed flower girl giving the camera a hug!
Our ringbearer in the onesy Eric, my parents, and I got for him in Disney World! He sure looks great in a tie, doesn't he? We can't wait to see him in his baby tux!
This is a picture of the actual ordination. In The Episcopal Church, a deacon is ordained by a bishop. There are three bishops in our diocese--on the left is Bishop Curry; in the center is Bishop Douglas, and on the right is Bishop Ahrens. This was Bishop Douglas's first ordination!
In our tradition, one of the signs that you are a deacon is that you wear a stole diagonally across your body. My dear friend Pamela bought this one in Jerusalem and had it blessed by the Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf! Here is Bishop Laura Ahrens tying it on for me. Bishop Ahrens will actually be doing our wedding ceremony in September, so you will see her again there!
Eric and I at lunch after the service!
The next day, Eric, my mom, and I all drove down to New York for another big celebration: our flower girl and ringbearer's first birthday! A&E were in great spirits for the big day, and they even had their own cakes (one in the shape of an A and the other in the shape of an E) with different flavors and frostings. They were initially a bit reticent about eating the cake, but they eventually dove in and at one point, Baby A tried to put the whole piece into his mouth!
Me and my green tutu-ed flower girl giving the camera a hug!
Our ringbearer in the onesy Eric, my parents, and I got for him in Disney World! He sure looks great in a tie, doesn't he? We can't wait to see him in his baby tux!
More travel info for out of town guests
My mom just found this travel deal for flying and staying in New York. Travel has to be started by August 31, so the dates are a little off, but it may be worth looking into (or seeing if there are others that work for Labor Day weekend).
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Big Day!
I got the phone call that my dress came in today! I haven't seen it yet, but I've got an appointment on Thursday! I can't wait to meet her and say hello! Soooo exciting!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Boston Independence Day!
It's no secret that I have a love-hate relationship with Boston: when it comes to restaurants, the gym, and walking around Boston Common or the harbor front, it's love. When I'm trying to get to any of these places...it's hate. But last night, I felt nothing but love for my city as they put on what is without doubt the best Fourth of July celebration in the country. And of course it has to be--because this is where it all began, and it's impossible to live here without being reminded of that: the site of the Boston Massacre, the plaque that commemorates the Tea Party, Paul Revere's House, and the Bunker Hill monument are just some of the many monuments to our city's historic past. In fact, Eric and I live within walking distance of the home of two presidents (John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams) and my apartment is a mere five hundred feet from their final resting place. Every night when I go to sleep, I think of the two presidents and their wives sleeping so close by and think, "Wow, I am sleeping within spitting distance of Abigail Adams!"
But I digress! Every year, the city of Boston puts on a free concert with the Boston Pops, a special guest, and a spectacular fireworks show. About a million people crowd the esplanade, the area right by the Charles River, to hear the concert, and some camp out over night just to get good spots on the lawn! But instead of having to sit in the sun all day waiting for the concert to begin, Eric and I had the unique opportunity of getting to watch the spectacle from the rooftop of the Museum of Science. Members of the museum were invited to the event, which was alcohol-free and very kid friendly (there were lots of little science activities for the kids as well as face painters and balloon makers--it was pretty great!)
View from the roof of the Museum of Science before the sun set; we watched the Pops concert on that big screen!
Beautiful sunset on the roof! We could see all the way to the horizon!
Most people brought lawn chairs and you could bring your own picnic. We wound up eating dinner at the Kinsale, one of our favorite Boston pubs, where we had fish and chips in honor of our nation's past (because I burned the baked beans we were going to have for a picnic!). We arrived on the rooftop at 7, spread out our blanket, and read a book together out loud while waiting for the show to begin.
Eric and I with our homemade smores!
The Pops started around 8:30, and they played the 1812 Overture and American folk songs. Because we were so high up, we could see fireworks erupting from all different parts of the city--from Charlestown and the North End to out in Newton. Midway through the concert, special guest Toby Keith appeared, which made me want to don cowboy boots and a hat and dance. I was bopping and singing along and poor Eric was cringing, having had the bad luck of encountering the one country music star he fervently dislikes!
Poor Eric!
At 10, the fireworks began, and all the children who had patiently sat through the concert were squealing in excitement. The show lasted about 25 minutes and was incredibly gorgeous--lots of those white shimmery fireworks that I love!
This picture doesn't really do justice to the fireworks, but it's the only one that came out! Kinda looks like a solar system with planets orbiting, though, doesn't it?
The best part: getting home. Yes. Can you believe I just said that? Getting home. I, who do nothing but complain about the Boston transportation system--so much so that I have the customer service number preprogrammed into my phone!--was amazed at how easy it was to get back to Quincy! The MBTA let people ride the T for free all night. Because we were at the Museum of Science and not with the other million folks at the esplanade, we walked a block to the green line, got right on and then transferred and got on the first train to Quincy (which came in about after 10 minutes at Park Street). The crowds at Park Street were pretty bad, but there was a lot of crowd control, and they kept the trains from getting too packed, which was great! We were home in about 40 minutes, having experienced not a single delay or breakdown, leaving me with the burning question: "If they can do this so efficiently tonight, why doesn't it always run like this?"
But oh well. I guess we need room for our nation to grow. Wouldn't want to peak too soon, right?
But I digress! Every year, the city of Boston puts on a free concert with the Boston Pops, a special guest, and a spectacular fireworks show. About a million people crowd the esplanade, the area right by the Charles River, to hear the concert, and some camp out over night just to get good spots on the lawn! But instead of having to sit in the sun all day waiting for the concert to begin, Eric and I had the unique opportunity of getting to watch the spectacle from the rooftop of the Museum of Science. Members of the museum were invited to the event, which was alcohol-free and very kid friendly (there were lots of little science activities for the kids as well as face painters and balloon makers--it was pretty great!)
View from the roof of the Museum of Science before the sun set; we watched the Pops concert on that big screen!
Beautiful sunset on the roof! We could see all the way to the horizon!
Most people brought lawn chairs and you could bring your own picnic. We wound up eating dinner at the Kinsale, one of our favorite Boston pubs, where we had fish and chips in honor of our nation's past (because I burned the baked beans we were going to have for a picnic!). We arrived on the rooftop at 7, spread out our blanket, and read a book together out loud while waiting for the show to begin.
Eric and I with our homemade smores!
The Pops started around 8:30, and they played the 1812 Overture and American folk songs. Because we were so high up, we could see fireworks erupting from all different parts of the city--from Charlestown and the North End to out in Newton. Midway through the concert, special guest Toby Keith appeared, which made me want to don cowboy boots and a hat and dance. I was bopping and singing along and poor Eric was cringing, having had the bad luck of encountering the one country music star he fervently dislikes!
Poor Eric!
At 10, the fireworks began, and all the children who had patiently sat through the concert were squealing in excitement. The show lasted about 25 minutes and was incredibly gorgeous--lots of those white shimmery fireworks that I love!
This picture doesn't really do justice to the fireworks, but it's the only one that came out! Kinda looks like a solar system with planets orbiting, though, doesn't it?
The best part: getting home. Yes. Can you believe I just said that? Getting home. I, who do nothing but complain about the Boston transportation system--so much so that I have the customer service number preprogrammed into my phone!--was amazed at how easy it was to get back to Quincy! The MBTA let people ride the T for free all night. Because we were at the Museum of Science and not with the other million folks at the esplanade, we walked a block to the green line, got right on and then transferred and got on the first train to Quincy (which came in about after 10 minutes at Park Street). The crowds at Park Street were pretty bad, but there was a lot of crowd control, and they kept the trains from getting too packed, which was great! We were home in about 40 minutes, having experienced not a single delay or breakdown, leaving me with the burning question: "If they can do this so efficiently tonight, why doesn't it always run like this?"
But oh well. I guess we need room for our nation to grow. Wouldn't want to peak too soon, right?
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Invitation Making!
Here's the thing about invitations: they all look alike. Well, not exactly alike. To be fair, they fall into three categories: those that look like Martha Stewart mass-produced them (these tend to have a lot of pink, brown, and mint green flowers and leaves); those that would make a man cringe (channel images of pink hearts and kissing couples); and those that are just plain expensive (imagine thick ivory paper and embossing).
Up until several weeks ago, Eric and I were stuck in the land of all these these bland possibilities, having leafed through at least 2,000 such invites. None of them stood out to us in any way, except for one that my mom criticized because the paper was too flimsy.
Which brings me to my mom: My mother loves scrapbooking, and since her retirement, she has become a virtual scrapbooking aficionado. She goes on scrapbooking days, saves coupons to Michael's, and an entire room in my parents' home is dedicated to her craft. So one day she showing us a card she had made for a friend, and Eric and I took one look at it and thought, "That is what we want our invitations to look like!"
So began the invitation adventure, a project my mom undertook with gusto! She found a printer who could use thermography on the invitations; she spent several days cutting out and embossing small pieces of paper with Aunt Marie; an entire afternoon and evening were wiled away with her college crony Michele trying to choose ribbon, figuring out how to tie it (credit goes to Michele for that), and cutting out hearts. Then she spent a number of evenings painting the embossed paper.
And all that was before the big invitation assembly day! Eric and I drove down from Boston in preparation and then we all got in one car and drove the rest of the way to Long Island, where Aunt Marie was hosting the event in her home. Aunt Christine was also there, along with her new daughter-in-law Melissa, who handmade her own beautiful invitations and is a whiz at scrapbooking generally and glue guns specifically. She came prepared with two of them so that we could assemble all the pieces of paper together onto the invitation. Add in Bonnie--a scrapbooking teacher who came to cut out butterflies with her press--and Amanda--my friend who works at the church where we are getting married--and Gino's Pizza and Front Street black and white cookies and chocolate fudge cake, and the day could be nothing but perfect.
Except for the fact that half of the assembly kit got left at my parents' home. In Connecticut. 2 hours away.
Sigh.
Thankfully, after initial panic, it turned out that we had plenty to amuse ourselves. Bonnie and Aunt Christine cut out butterflies, Amanda and I painted them, Melissa and Eric glue-gunned and attached pieces of the invitation together, and my mom and Aunt Marie assembled them, making sure that they were perfectly--and I mean exceedingly perfectly--straight.
Amanda, Aunt Marie, Bonnie, Aunt Christine, and Melissa working on the assembly line!
Eric, Amanda, and Aunt Marie. Check out their intensity!
When we had done all we could do, we ordered takeout from my childhood favorite Gino's Pizza and then, since it was Melissa's birthday, we made sure to celebrate with Front Street cake and cookies.
At the end of the afternoon, we were able to make one complete invitation. Here's Melissa showing it off!
Eric, my mom, and I returned to assembling that evening in Connecticut. Here are a batch of finished invites!
These on the table were finished the next morning. Each had a bit of painting that needed to be fixed before they were mailed out, so you see them all drying, neatly in a row!
Up until several weeks ago, Eric and I were stuck in the land of all these these bland possibilities, having leafed through at least 2,000 such invites. None of them stood out to us in any way, except for one that my mom criticized because the paper was too flimsy.
Which brings me to my mom: My mother loves scrapbooking, and since her retirement, she has become a virtual scrapbooking aficionado. She goes on scrapbooking days, saves coupons to Michael's, and an entire room in my parents' home is dedicated to her craft. So one day she showing us a card she had made for a friend, and Eric and I took one look at it and thought, "That is what we want our invitations to look like!"
So began the invitation adventure, a project my mom undertook with gusto! She found a printer who could use thermography on the invitations; she spent several days cutting out and embossing small pieces of paper with Aunt Marie; an entire afternoon and evening were wiled away with her college crony Michele trying to choose ribbon, figuring out how to tie it (credit goes to Michele for that), and cutting out hearts. Then she spent a number of evenings painting the embossed paper.
And all that was before the big invitation assembly day! Eric and I drove down from Boston in preparation and then we all got in one car and drove the rest of the way to Long Island, where Aunt Marie was hosting the event in her home. Aunt Christine was also there, along with her new daughter-in-law Melissa, who handmade her own beautiful invitations and is a whiz at scrapbooking generally and glue guns specifically. She came prepared with two of them so that we could assemble all the pieces of paper together onto the invitation. Add in Bonnie--a scrapbooking teacher who came to cut out butterflies with her press--and Amanda--my friend who works at the church where we are getting married--and Gino's Pizza and Front Street black and white cookies and chocolate fudge cake, and the day could be nothing but perfect.
Except for the fact that half of the assembly kit got left at my parents' home. In Connecticut. 2 hours away.
Sigh.
Thankfully, after initial panic, it turned out that we had plenty to amuse ourselves. Bonnie and Aunt Christine cut out butterflies, Amanda and I painted them, Melissa and Eric glue-gunned and attached pieces of the invitation together, and my mom and Aunt Marie assembled them, making sure that they were perfectly--and I mean exceedingly perfectly--straight.
Amanda, Aunt Marie, Bonnie, Aunt Christine, and Melissa working on the assembly line!
Eric, Amanda, and Aunt Marie. Check out their intensity!
When we had done all we could do, we ordered takeout from my childhood favorite Gino's Pizza and then, since it was Melissa's birthday, we made sure to celebrate with Front Street cake and cookies.
At the end of the afternoon, we were able to make one complete invitation. Here's Melissa showing it off!
Eric, my mom, and I returned to assembling that evening in Connecticut. Here are a batch of finished invites!
These on the table were finished the next morning. Each had a bit of painting that needed to be fixed before they were mailed out, so you see them all drying, neatly in a row!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Hotel links for out of towners!
Dear Out of Town Guests,
We are thrilled that you are making arrangements to come to our wedding. We know that many of you do not know the New York area well, so we hope that this information sheet will be useful in your planning.
Regarding transportation, we suggest that you do not rent a car. Parking is very expensive in Manhattan and public transportation is both accessible and reasonable. If you are flying, John F. Kennedy, La Guardia, and Newark Airports all have access by public transportation to Manhattan (taxis are also available but will be pricier).
As you may know, hotels in New York can be quite pricy. We have tried to include a wide variety of price points on this list while maintaining a high standard of quality! All of the hotels listed have the D&E Seal of Approval for Quality to Price Ratio, and unless otherwise noted, they are all within walking distance of both the ceremony and reception sites. For those of you who are familiar with the blog, these hotels are also all endorsed by A&E Wedding Planners, Inc. Prices are accurate as of the time of this posting; there's also a link for each hotel, so you can easily check each one out!
The Yale Club: There are a limited number of rooms at the Yale Club where the reception is being held. The rate is $200 a night plus tax. When you call, ask for our wedding block. The one catch is that in order to reserve a room at the Club, you will need to pay Danielle instead of the Yale Club—this is because she is a member of the Club and all financial transactions have to go through her.
The Roosevelt: This historic hotel, named after former president Teddy Roosevelt, is around the corner from both the Yale Club and Grand Central Station. It has a spectacular lobby and is within walking distance of both the ceremony and reception sites. Rates start at around $225 a night.
Doubletree Suites Times Square: A great option for those who want to be within walking distance of it all! This hotel is right in the heart of Times Square and about ten minutes walk from the ceremony and reception sites. Rates start at $169 a night.
St. Giles Court: There are two St. Giles hotels in New York—the Court and the Tuscany. The Court is five to ten minutes walk from the ceremony and reception sites. This modern hotel is equipped with everything—including gumball machines in each room! Rates start at $188 a night.
The Desmond Tutu Center: For those of you searching for an oasis in New York, we strongly recommend considering the Desmond Tutu Center. The Center was constructed several years ago and is a converted part of the historic General Seminary, the first Episcopal seminary in America. The seminary has a courtyard the size of a city block in its center, sheltering it from the hustle and bustle of the street. This hotel is in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, about thirty minutes walk from the wedding sites. It is easily accessible to the wedding using the subway system. Rates start at $178 per night.
House of the Redeemer: Run by The Episcopal Church, this guesthouse offers reasonable accommodations in a historic building. A variety of rooms are available, though some may share bathrooms or lack air-conditioning. The guesthouse is about thirty minutes subway ride from the wedding and reception sites on the Upper East Side, the poshest area of New York. It’s also about 8 blocks from Madonna’s new townhouse, so keep an eye out for her doing yoga on a nearby street corner!
Landmark Guest Rooms at Union Theological Seminary: Situated in Morningside Heights, across the street from Columbia University, these rooms are attached to Union Theological Seminary, an interdenominational seminary where Danielle’s former advisor is now their first female president! All rooms come with mini-fridges and complimentary continental breakfast. Rates range from $135-165 a night. Expect to spend about 45 minutes on the subway in transit to the ceremony and reception sites.
Hotels in North Bergen, New Jersey: If you’re adventurous enough to venture across the Hudson River, you may want to consider staying at either the Holiday Inn Express North Bergen Lincoln Tunnel or at the Comfort Suites North Bergen. Each received good reviews from travelers on Expedia, and though you will be staying across the state line, public transportation to Manhattan is available at a reasonable rate (about 5 dollars each way). To get to Manhattan, you will take the 125 bus across the Hudson to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and then transfer to the M42 to Grand Central (I’m unclear whether you will need to purchase a New York City ticket for this bus—if so, it will be about 2 dollars for the bus from New Jersey to the bus terminal and then another 2 from the bus terminal). The M42 will leave at Grand Central Station, which is about ten minutes walk from the reception site. Google maps says to leave 45 minutes for this route from the Holiday Inn Express and an hour from Comfort Suites; you may want to leave a bit longer, because traffic in New York can be erratic, especially coming from New Jersey. Staff in the hotel will be better able to estimate how much time to leave, and they will also be able to let you know the location of the nearest bus stop. Also, if you fly into JFK or LaGuardia airports, the trip to the hotel will take quite awhile (probably about 2 hours on public transit). Please bear this in mind when you book your flights, especially if your flight will arrive or depart late at night. New York is a safe city overall, but as with any city, it is not wise to be on public transportation at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning! Also, the cab fare from these airports will be over 100 dollars. If possible, fly into Newark Airport if you are staying in these hotels and take a cab from there. Rates at the Holiday Inn Express and Comfort Suites start at $119 and $102 a night respectively. Both hotels include breakfast.
Vanderbilt YMCA: Located about a fifteen minute walk from the church and five blocks from the reception site, this YMCA works as a hostel with beds available from $48 a night. Rooms are modest and bathrooms and bedrooms are shared, but air-conditioning is available.
The Gershwin Hotel and Hostel: Located a twenty minute walk south of the church and about 25 minutes south of the reception sites, this colorful hostel and hotel have rooms starting at $39 a night. One benefit to this hotel: You will be across the street from the Museum of Sex! Where else but New York would that happen! Be prepared to pay more if you want to stay in the hotel section, but if you’re willing to stay in hostel-styled accommodations, this could be a memorable location.
Some Concluding Notes:
There are many other hotels and hostels in the New York area besides the ones listed here, and you may well want to exercise your travel agent muscle by checking out Priceline or Expedia. If you want a hotel close to the site, you should limit your search to hotels in the Midtown East Side/Grand Central neighborhood. If you don’t mind traveling, there are a number of other hotels in the Hoboken/Jersey City/North Bergen area just across the river. These are easily accessible to the ceremony and reception sites using public transportation, though you will want to leave extra time (probably about an hour) for travel.
Two caveats: first, we are sorry to say that expensive hotels in New York are expensive for a reason. Inexpensive hotels and hostels (less than $120 a night) often have shared bathrooms, and you may find yourself sharing a room with New York’s finest wildlife—the cockroach! So…Please be sure to look up reviews of these residences before booking! They may be a great catch but they may also ruin your trip.
Second, hotels will book up for Labor Day, so we encourage you to book a room earlier rather than later. And if you have the vacation time, stay awhile in the Big Apple. New York is an incredible city, and both Danielle and Eric will be happy to give tips for how to plan a great getaway in the city that never sleeps!
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