Category: Travel

Wedding Bliss

Sadie1 Comment

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend my good friend’s wedding in NYC, and I must say it was a pleasure to celebrate her marriage in such an elegant and personal way. 

I loved that you could see Anne and Josh’s personality throughout the ceremony and the reception which really made the day significant to them.  The typical events of a wedding were edited down to those that the bride and groom found meaningful, which, in turn, made more meaningful for the guests.

Anne and Josh are quinticential New Yorkers in my mind, so nothing was more fitting than celebrating their marriage at Chelsea Piers on the West Side of Manhattan.  It’s right on the Hudson River, with a beautiful view of my old stomping grounds: Hoboken and Jersey City.

The whole happy family.

Happy Couple

Fussing family

So happy

View up North

View down South (I can see my old office building)

These kids took the first dance seriously and really showed us their stuff.  All of a sudden I felt like a sports photographer trying to get a decent action shot!

No, I have no comment on the girl in the foreground wearing a completely white dress…

The cake and all of the food at this wedding was phenomenal.  So phenominal that I couldn’t be bothered to stop and take pictures.  We enjoyed a cocktail hour after the ceremony with passed hors d’oevers and buffet stations, followed by a four course dinner, and then cake!  The food was thoughtful and eclectic, and though I ate enough to start hibernating for the winter, I wasn’t uncomfortably stuffed.  I’m not sure if this can be attributed my skills as a power eater, or the appropriately sized and conveniently spaced courses.

I loved Anne’s bouquet because it was simple and beautiful.

The theme of the speeches was how much Anne and Josh belong together and were good for each other.  I couldn’t agree more, they’re such a perfect match!

Action shot skills (or lack there of).

From what I could tell the cake was chocolate with hazelnut frosting, and possibly another vanilla type of frosting on the outside.

One of the highlights of the evening for me was seeing Josh preform one of his own songs with a friend.  If I didn’t know he wrote it, I would have sworn it was right out of Stephen Sondheim’s catalogue.

Since it was a four course meal, every square inch of the tables were covered with various wine and water glasses and several silverware options.  It got to be kind of comical by the end of the night as we were trying to determine which glasses were our own and what they were filled with.  Between the open bar and the waiters attentively refilling wine, the spirits were flowing!
The wedding band was great.  Besides playing some of the standards and swing music they also forayed into some unexpected pop hits from people like Usher and Michael Jackson.  It was pretty funny.

All in all, it was a grand affair, and I wish them nothing but happiness and a fabulous honeymoon in Tuscany!

Always Do Right

Sadie3 Comments

Always do right.  This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

-Mark Twain

Where was Mark Twain’s only permanent house?  You guessed it: Hartford, CT.  Just one of the many cultural attractions the city has to offer.  So of course I did the tourist thing and took a tour of the house.  It turns out, he bought five acres in Hartford after he got married and commissioned a house that is truly unique.  They did not allow photography inside and I forgot my camera, so I borrowed some pictures from the house’s site.

Here’s the kicker.  The deed was in his wife’s name because it was her family’s money that bought the house.  Mark Twain (actually Sam Clemmons) made a lot of money over his life, but was also very good at spending it and sinking it into stupid business ventures.  One reason this field trip intrigued me is the similarities I found between SC and Thomas Jefferson, one of my all time favorites (except for the Hemmings stuff), Clemmons also seemed like a renaissance man.

The house is a patchwork quilt of design elements from different cultures and periods in time because Clemmons traveled a lot.  There is a lot of great metallic stenciling on the walls with Middle Eastern and Indian influence.  Also a lot of fabulous Victorian furniture that was fashionable when the house was built basically because it showed off the family’s wealth.  Here’s a mantle that he had shipped from a castle in Ireland.

Clemmons had four kids total, but his only son died as a baby and only one of his daughters out-lived him.  It was clear that the girls basically ran the house and Clemmons loved them.  He did, however, find the need for a man cave, or man attic to be more precise.  He created a pool room/office on the top floor where he wrote some of his best work.  And I stood in the room where it all went down (a pink mancave? Someone was secure with himself).

It’s pretty impressive that they recreated the whole house, because while the skeleton pretty much stayed the same, the house went through multiple owners and was even a school at one point between the time when the Clemmons inhabited the house, and the historical society decided to restore it.  There are fragments of authentic wall paper and some of the furniture is original to the house or the family, but I wonder how close it is to the real deal.  They said his last living daughter helped describe the rooms for the restoration, but frankly I’m not sure how many details an elderly woman would remember about her childhood house. 

Some of my favorite words of wisdom from the man himself:

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.

-Mark Twain

PS- All of this information is stuff I retained from the fabulous tour guide at the house.  It was a good time, you should stop by if you’re in the area.