Reason #38,601 why I love New York

Because even though there are 8 million people living here, I still manage to run into at least one friend on the subway every week :)

No, I won't come visit you in the purple part of Queens!

I discovered this really cool "heat" map for the subway system today. You enter in your address in New York, and it tells you by color how long it will take you to get anywhere else in the city. Very neat!

http://www.triptropnyc.com/?f=37th+st,+new+york,+ny&t=&z=13&lat=40.74257499754292&lng=-73.90485763549804

Reason #45,892 why I love New York:

Even the subway rats are ambitious :)

Wedding Reception Location!

Well, first off I should probably apologize to all of you for being so absent lately. Wedding planning has been eating up any and all of my spare time!

I have a few seconds (very few!), so I thought I'd share with you where the reception will be held:

We just put down the deposit and signed the contract on the Midtown Loft and Terrace yesterday! This gorgeous loft is located on 5th avenue and was originally waaay out of our budget, but after the fall of the economy and with some artful wheeling and dealing, we've been able to afford it!

Now everytime I walk down 5th avenue around there I get chills. I can't wait for October.

Signs of the Recession Part 3

I give to you: one photograph taken right near Grand Central of a line that extended out the door and nearly to the next corner for free KFC grilled chicken. 

For starters, a normal KFC meal is only about $5. I'm not saying that's nothing, but still (in my humble and empty-pocketed opinion) not enough to wait in a 45-minute line for. Not to mention, they were offering their gnarly-looking grilled chicken. This from a place called Kentucky FRIED Chicken.

I think this shows just how bad the economy is affecting people.

Preemie Walk recap

Just a quick note to let you all know that the 2009 March of Dimes Preemie Walk was a big success!

It was beautiful weather for a walk through NYC with baby-lovers. We were lucky enough to have friends and family (and our puppy!) walking with us for support.

There's nothing like walking through Manhattan with no cars trying to run you over and the sun shining brightly. Nothing.

It sure as hell beat last year's walk, when it was in the 50's and raining all morning. Either way, we raised lots of money for babies and had a great time!

Playing Tourist : Love Sign

The mister and I had his parents in town this weekend, and so begins our excuse to run around NYC behaving like tourists.

We've always wanted to take a picture in front of Robert Indiana's LOVE sculpture that stands on 6th avenue at 55th street, just a few blocks from the park. Well, we got our chance.

Even though it's such a stereotypical place to take a picture and it's such a touristy thing to do, we had fun sitting amidst the big, red block letters and posing, as if merely the fact that we were taking a picture underneath the word "love" could prove that we were in love. No, it takes a lot more than that. 

But it can't hurt, right?

Wedding planning in NYC

For those of you who are at all interested, I thought I'd share this wedding inspiration board I dreamed up. We're deep in the throes of wedding planning on what would be a lavish budget in any city but this one, and I plan to start sharing a bit more of how we're accomplishing an affordable and yet still elegant evening wedding in Manhattan. Stay tuned for more!

Preemie Walk: Year Three

As most of you probably don't know, my sister was born at 32 weeks (two whole months premature) and as a result, she spent over a month in the NICU fighting for her life. She's now three and a half years old and perfectly healthy and I participate in the March of Dimes Preemie Walk every year to honor both her fighting spirit and my Mom's bravery. This is my third year doing the walk and I have raised over $2000 in total so far! Please help support me and all of the world's tiniest babies.

Shoe heaven

Yesterday, my friend Christina and I had the great fortune of stumbling upon one of the best reasons to love living in New York: wholesale shoe showrooms. Let me explain.

Christina was out on Long Island the other day, when she (of course) made a stop off at the enormous DSW shoe store. Knowing the the hunt for my perfect ivory wedding heels was on, she swung by the dress shoes section and happened to encounter THE PERFECT SHOES. Literally, these shoes look like Stephen Yearick made them himself just to complement my wedding gown. You can see them here if you're interested in exactly what they look like. Let me add for emphasis that the search for beautiful ivory shoes that don't have a three-inch heel and are less than $150  has been particularly difficult.

So she finds these perfect shoes, but the biggest size they have left is a 5 1/2 and I wear a 7. Damn. I checked on the website, still only tiny ones there, too. I called all three DSW stores in the city and nothing. I finally took to scouring the internet for any reference to "Caparros" shoes and couldn't find the exact pair anywhere, but did find a bare-bones website that vaguely reference their warehouse in L.A., their showroom in N.Y., and the fact that Caparros shoes are sold at Lord & Taylor (which is right around the corner from my apartment). After striking out again at Lord & Taylor, Christina and I decided to venture into the unknown of the shoe showroom.

We had to search to find the building up on 57th street and then were told that the showroom was on the 10th floor by a security guard who definitely didn't believe we belonged there. The elevator opened onto a 10th floor filled with offices of well-known brands and we contemplated turning back because, indeed, it didn't look like we belonged there. But we bravely ventured forth into the Caparros showroom! When we rounded the corner, there it was: a BEAUTIFUL room filled with huge windows and shelves and shelves of beautiful shoes. It was like a more spacious and light-filled version of this:

There were two people inside working, a man in an office and a shoe designer named Mo, who immediately greeted us and seemed puzzled at us being there. As soon as I got through my story, they both beamed and immediately offered to help. The man got to work on the computer trying to find the specific style number and Mo showed us around the showroom and let us look at the newest season's ivory shoes. She was delighted at how much we loved all the shoes in the room and eager to hear our opinions on each of her designs (keep in mind there were about 200 shoes in there!). Soon after, the man came out and told us that DSW would be getting a new shipment of my shoes on June 1st, so I should stalk their website for about two weeks and I would be able to get them! What great news! After we spent about half an hour talking to Mo about her designs, they both wished us well and Mo gave me her card in case I wasn't able to get them in June.

What a great (sort of) accidental discovery and great news!