the aub-blog: A NYC Get-Together

I had the fun opportunity to get together with some fellow brides-to-be this past Saturday in the city. The thing we all have in common: we're getting married in October! It has been so much fun to plan virtually with these other brides, get their input and compare where we are on our various checklists for the big day. The online web board is hosted by a large company that has a national magazine. The gal in charge of the online operations lives in NY, so she stopped by to say hi and organized this fun day for us. There was also a professional photographer on hand as well as a videographer. We were all interviewed for the website's online tv channel. This was a get-together for all the October brides in the tri-state area, so we had girls come from New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

Our get-together started off at The Plaza Hotel, home of some of the swankiest weddings out there! (Also seen in the movie Bride Wars) I would never even be able to afford the $600 stay in a tiny room for one night! Sheesh! We got a brief tour of the wedding areas (super gorgeous!) and then the retail section of the hotel, which was also super pricey. They have two bridal salons there as well. One is from a designer based in Milan. He comes in twice a month to custom-make dresses for brides, and he uses some special loom to weave the fabric that Leonardo da Vinci made and only he has access to... yeah. Big bucks! We were treated to a cup of tea and some petit fours from the hotel's little cafe, Dremel. I checked out their pastry case and wasn't really impressed. For what they were charging, I could have done better!

After our interviews, photos, tea, and chatting, we headed uptown a couple blocks to Flute, a champagne bar/lounge. Ultra swanky! And what a great idea. In addition to a full selection of all kinds of champagne, they also served appetizers and a few desserts. It was comfy, dark, and warm from the chilly outdoors! We celebrated our upcoming weddings with a champagne toast and some food. We even had a few wedding cake samples brought in for us from a bakery! After we chatted it up some more, we called it a night and then parted ways! It was my second get-together with these girls and my last, seeing as I will be moving from the tri-state area in about five weeks! Eep!

It was a GREAT experience and it was nice to be treated to a good time, as well as turning some virtual acquaintances into real friends. How cool! Here are some pictures:

Petit Fours from Dremel