Babies:
Spring 2012 seems to be a popular time for babies - at least in our group of friends. Chris' college friend Brandon, and his wife Courtney had baby Corben. Kate's sorority sister Erin and her husband Craig had baby Avery. And Kate's childhood friend Tracey and her husband Mike are expecting baby Mark in a two short weeks. This spring we've also learned that Kate's college friend Holly is expecting twins later this year. We're so happy for our friends and their growing families. We hope we can visit them to meet their sweet babies.
Wedding Planning:
We've made some major progress with our wedding planning. Since we returned from our trip, we had been searching for venues. We've actually had our venue picked out since November but finally decided on a date and signed the contract in February. Our wedding will take place on October 12 of 2013 at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC. It's a beautiful, vintage hotel which is perfect for the "old NY" feeling we want at our wedding.
Taking full advantage of our long engagement, we've started interviewing photographers and researching music options. Instead of having to choose a vendor by their availability, we can choose the one we really want and book them before anyone else can. And, because Chris already has his mind set on having our rehearsal dinner at his favorite steak restaurant in NY, we'll probably book that before we even officially ask people to be in our wedding! A little out of order but if you can book early, why wouldn't you.
Restaurants:
We never really considered ourselves foodies before moving to NY but as you probably all know by now, NY has some of the best restaurants in the world. And the variety of food available is amazing. Indian, Ethiopian, French, Cuban, American, there's even Texas-style barbecue restaurants up here. Sadly, there's no Tex-Mex, the one food NY is missing. There's always new restaurants opening up. It's been said you can eat out at a different restaurant for every meal and never have to go to the same one twice. Anyways, this spring we've really gotten into trying out new restaurants on the weekends. For anyone out there who lives in NY, is visiting NY, and loves good restaurants... this is for you.
Russian Tea Room - this was were we went for Valentines Day this year. And since that was a Tuesday, it was nice that the Russian Tea Room is a few short blocks from our offices. The food was amazing but very pricey. If you go, walk around and see all the decor. It's truly a beautiful restaurant.
Alouette - An amazing French restaurant in our neighborhood that we discovered this spring. Delicious escargot and duck in a lounge setting only the French can do. The downstairs area of the restaurant turned into a cocktail lounge, DJ and all at night. So after dinner, we headed downstairs for a cocktail before walking home. Would definitely recommend this place!
Picnic Market & Cafe - another amazing French restaurant about 20 blocks north of our apartment. Much more casual than Alouette with a German twist. We went here with our friends Elle and Nate (Nate works with Chris and also went to Columbia for business school). Elle and Kate both had the duck here while Nate and Chris opted for the German-style sausage. We also started with escargot and foie gras. This place is small but we'd recommend this place as well.
Fish - This is the place to go for inexpensive seafood in the West Village. Where else do you get 6 oysters and a glass of wine for $8? Or a whole lobster with two sides for $20? Because of the delicious food for such a good price, the wait can be long and they don't take reservations. We've already been here multiple times after our friends introduced us to this little jewel.
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| After the meal. Lobster, crab, oysters in a bucket. |
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| Courtney and Kate at Flute |
