NYC

The outdoor space at 34 Berry

Rob, Nicole, and Kristen

Keenan the bartender

After a week in California, Kristen and I headed to NYC for a week and a half.  The focus of the trip was to set up for and have our NYC wedding reception/party, but given that we are moving out of the city, we also wanted to see our good friends and visit our favorite haunts.  Our time in the city can be divided into 3 parts: pre-party, party, and post-party:

PRE PARTY

When we first arrived in NYC, we stayed with our friends Rob and Nicole, at their apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  This turned out to be perfect, both because we got to spend a ton of time with Rob and Nicole, but also because their apartment is located very close to our wedding reception venue.

Most of that first week was consumed by party planning and set up (securing the food – BBQ from Fette Sau and some fantastic salads from Cara’s friend Erin, finding helpers – Cara hired some of her friends for us, renting chafing dishes and plates, etc.).  We did manage to do a bit of sightseeing and reminiscing, though.  We took a trip down to Princeton for the day, had dinner at the restaurant where we’d had our first date, went out for my birthday, and went for some long walks and bike rides.

THE PARTY

We had the wedding party on the roof deck at 34 Berry, the apartment building where Cara’s (and our) friend Stacy lives.  Our original location (the roof deck at our old building in NYC) fell through, so Stacy saved the day.  The space was perfect, and my mom and Barb Kasprzak help decorate it with flowers the morning of the party.  Keenan bartended, and he devised a drink that was extremely popular, using some (way too) spicy vodka we had infused earlier that week with chili peppers, kiwi, and lime.  And everyone seemed to appreciate the food we served: 3 appetizer salads, ribs + pulled pork + brisket from Fette Sau, and an Argentine-style steak I cooked up on the outdoor grill.  For dessert, we picked up a few small cakes and cupcakes from what we think is the best bakery in NYC – Two Little Red Hens.  Delicious.

About 50 or so of our friends showed up, and it was great to see everyone.  This seems to be the main function of these sorts of parties – they work as an excuse to get lots of people together you’d normally have to see individually.  Plus, one sort-of-planned consequence of having 3 parties is that we get to actually spend time with individual people at each.  Sure, tons of different people came up to us to say hi, but we got to have several actual conversations, to taste all the food, and to relax and enjoy ourselves.  I get the feeling that “real” wedding receptions don’t offer that kind of intimacy with the guests.  We are very happy we did it this way.

POST PARTY

We had booked a rental apartment in our old building (The Monterey) to stay in for a few days after our wedding party.  This is why we initially planned to have the party on the Monterey roof deck.  But as it turns out, renting out apartments on a nightly basis at the Monterey is against the terms of the lease (as we had initially suspected), and so they freaked out when we mentioned we wanted to have a party on the roof.  I guess the people who had the lease on the apartment were scared we would draw too much attention to their rental operation.  Regardless, we were “checked in” to the apartment we rented the day before the party by an extremely shady and sleazy property manager, who kept telling us we were not allowed to use any building facilities, and that we should lie if the doormen asked us who we were.  Ick.  We really wanted to call the whole thing off, but we have such great memories in that building, we just had to stay there.  And in the end, we had a great time.  We walked around our old neighborhood, went to Central Park, I did a couple bike rides, and we enjoyed the views of the city from the roof.

One thing I will say about NYC: we forgot how cramped everything is.  After being away for a year (and in the rural middle of nowhere at that), it was sort of a shock to remember how small the spaces are (apartments, restaurants, etc.), how busy the sidewalks are, and generally how congested it all is.  It took us a few days to adjust.

In all, we had a fantastic time in NYC.  The wedding party was really the perfect way to say hello (and goodbye) to all our friends there, and our time before and after the party was the perfect way to say hello (and goodbye) to where we used to live.