Adventures in Heels: July 2018

A Tale of Two Weddings - Paris

Part three of The Story of Us. After a fairytale wedding in NYC on May 19, we woke up in our amazing suite at the Plaza Hotel on Sunday and got ready for our voyage to Europe that evening. Herschel's daughter, Brooke, who I absolutely adore to pieces, also joined us for the trip on to Paris.

Lunch at The Plaza the day after our NYC wedding

After enjoying champagne (if you haven't noticed, we adore champagne) and a very late lunch at The Plaza, it was time to depart NYC for Newark Liberty Airport where we caught our 8:00 PM flight on La Compagnie airline for a direct, business class flight to Paris. (Note, I love travel and it is one of the subjects about which I will write on this blog so stay tuned for a separate post in the future with my experience and review of this fabulous way to travel to the City of Lights).

Enjoying the spoils of the first class lounge at EWR

Paris bound!

Herschel and his beloved pancakes :)

This was Herschel and Brooke's first time to the City of Lights and I was so excited to share my favorite place in the world with them (and eat lots of wonderful food and drink lots of champagne). Our flight took off on time and after a restful yet quick flight, we landed in Paris around 9:30 AM local time.

Ready to get off the plane!

La Compagnie airlines - my favorite way to travel to France

Just as everything happened to align the stars for our perfect wedding in New York, we had the most stunningly beautiful Parisian weather all week. We planned our wedding in Paris for the end of the week so we would have plenty of time to sleep off the jet lag and enjoy our time before the flurry of another day of nuptials.

In addition to shopping and putting my favorite Paris travel book to good use at some great restaurants during the week, we toasted champagne at the top of the Eiffel Tower, took a cruise on the Seine, visited museums, and enjoyed two day trips outside the city to see the French countryside. Here are some photos from the week leading up to the wedding (and from our trip to Champagne).

Cruising on the Seine

When in Paris...

Wearing my new Dior scarf as we head out for the evening on our first night

Wine tasting in Alsace region

My favorite town in Alsace - Riquewihr

On the bridge in old town Colmar

Croque Monsieur...noms!

Yes. I went twice. Because...Dior.

Taking an "old fashioned" photo in front of the Paris Opera

Kiss on the Eiffel Tower

Cathedral Notre Dame

On a tour at Moet Chandon in Epernay, France (Champagne Region)

We *might* have brought some back with us

Favorite street ever!

Champagne tasting? Yes, please!

Our Wedding in Paris

Friday, May 25, 2018. 5:00 AM Paris time. Brooke and I woke early in time to have our hair and makeup done for what was to be another very fancy affair. After having room service breakfast (read: lots of espresso), and enjoying a couple of hours of pampering, our van arrived to pick us up and take us to the ceremony location.

It was an absolutely stunning Parisian day. Even though we were married already, nothing could prepare me for the butterflies and excitement I felt as we pulled up in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Brooke getting her hair and makeup done by Onorina

Bridal look by Onorina

I snapped this right before we got out of the car - so pretty!

My handsome groom bedecked in his new tuxedo

Brooke ready for "bridesmaid" duties (she rocked!)

After meeting with our wedding celebrant/coordinator and the rest of her team (photographer and videographer), we walked across the Champs de Mars and found a shaded and secluded spot just southeast of the Eiffel Tower. We took a few photos before the ceremony started in order to capture some ridiculous lighting.

Aude then started the ceremony, which was completely customized and a wonderful surprise as she had surveyed both of us in the weeks leading up to our trip to France. It was a beautiful celebration of our love, including things we had never before said to each other about when we first met, a beautiful reading, and vows Herschel and I had written to one another. In true Paris form, Aude conducted the reading of our commitment vows to one another in French.

The happiest day of my life

Once the ceremony concluded, we took a tour of Paris to some of her most famous landmarks for pictures, and then joined our group at the hotel to share cake and champagne with them. They had a LOT of fun photographing my wedding shoes :)

On the Pont de Bir-Hakeim bridge

Pont Alexandre III bridge

Below the Pont Alexandre III bridge

Our first family photo :)

On the Esplanade des Invalides

Overlooking the Eiffel Tower from Pont de Bir-Hakeim

Our FAVORITE champagne - Moet & Chandon Rose Imperial Brut

The pink Christian Louboutins I bought months before even planning to get married

Strawberry Champagne cake by Synies Paris

This was my fourth time visiting the City of Lights. It was a powerful trip for many reasons...getting to bond with my new stepdaughter, marrying the man of my dreams, introducing both of them to my favorite city. But most importantly, Paris solidified itself as "home" for me.

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, by Adventures in Heels

In army wife, elopement

A Tale of Two Weddings - NYC

Part two of The Story of Us. Now that Herschel and I were officially engaged, we asked ourselves "Where and when are we going to get married?"

Italy was out obviously due to the deployment, and we already had an upcoming vacation planned to Paris in May, so I said "why don't we get married in Paris? It's my favorite place in the world!" But, after researching it further, it is virtually impossible to get married in France as a foreigner unless you live there or have relatives there.

Since our tickets to Paris were booked on the most awesome French boutique airline, but we still had to get to NYC to catch those flights, we decided to elope to NYC a couple of days before departing for Europe to get the "rubber stamp" out of the way before having our "romantic" wedding in Paris.

Again, fate had other plans. The moment our family and friends heard about our elopement to NYC and then to Paris, there was a resounding "we want to come to New York" from all of them. So we found ourselves planning a wedding for 16 people in Manhattan AND planning a wedding overseas in Paris for less than a week later. Why not? You mean I get to wear that amazing gown twice? YES, PLEASE!

The First Wedding - New York

Thursday, May 17. The weather forecast went from bad to awful with 100% chance of rain, which meant there was no way we were going to get married on the Bow Bridge in Central Park as originally planned. Instead we chose the alternate location of Grand Central Station for our Saturday afternoon wedding.

After acting as travel agent for 10 people for the previous weeks, we all boarded our direct flight to NYC on the morning of Friday, May 18.

The Bride & Groom

Herschel and me along with my mom and dad AKA Mama & Papa Thomas

Upon arriving at the airport, we had to leave the rest of our party in order to meet our wedding coordinator at City Hall in downtown Manhattan. Nothing could have possibly prepared us for the chaos that we were going to witness: hundreds of couples in varying forms of wedding attire, long lines, shouting security guards...it was definitely an assault to the senses. The "wedding business" was a well-oiled machine there, but we were so glad to have Goran with us as he helped us navigate getting our marriage license.

We went from there to Grand Central Station to pick out a spot for our wedding ceremony to take place the following day. I'll give you some foreshadowing here...Herschel and I were both pleasantly surprised at how seemingly quiet and calm it was there given that it was rush hour on a Friday afternoon. I left extremely excited about the picturesque wedding we were going to have the following day.

Saturday, May 19, 2018. The REAL Royal Wedding. After hardly sleeping at all due to excitement and awe that, not only was I going to get married today to the most amazing gentleman I had ever met but my entire family and most of my closest friends were coming to celebrate with us, we ordered lots of coffee and some breakfast to watch the "other" royal wedding.

After I showered and packed my bags, my sister Erin arrived to go with me to the spa at The Plaza Hotel to get our hair and makeup done and where Herschel and I were staying that night to celebrate our wedding. We splurged to stay there and I am SO GLAD we did. It was the best hotel experience I've ever had.

***Side note to all of you travelers out there: a friend of mine told me recently that the best way to score an upgrade for a hotel room is to write to them in advance of your visit if you plan to celebrate a special occasion while you are a guest there. I took her advice and wrote a handwritten letter to the hotel a couple of weeks before our wedding telling them about our story and asked if I could surprise my groom with an upgrade to a suite on our wedding night. And they HOOKED US UP!***

Herschel joined Erin and me at the spa and drank champagne with us as we got made up for the wedding. It was a fun and relaxing morning. Pretty soon, it was time for us to part ways and get dressed for the wedding. Since we were eloping and there were people in from various parts of the country visiting, we wanted to keep things simple so we opted to do "first look" pictures at the Plaza and then travel together with everyone in our group over to Grand Central Station. These photos are some of my favorites from our wedding day in New York.

After the fun of getting to see each other for the first time, we all piled into the limos and departed for Grand Central Station. Herschel's daughter, Brooke, snapped this really cute photo of us walking in. #hashtagawesome

This is right before chaos ensued. As we walked into the picturesque terminal with the beautiful ceiling, clock, and iconic wall of windows, we heard hundreds of people chanting and yelling and then saw a line of NYPD police officers surrounding what we gathered was a heated protest. Note: this was at 3:10 PM. Our wedding was to take place at 3:30 PM.

Here is a photo that we now laugh about when we look at it - the look on my face when we saw what was happening:

Not a happy bride!

NYPD assured us that the permit for this protest ended at 3:30 PM and they would get them out of our way so we could get married. Our wedding planner and photographer took it in stride and used the extra time for photographs while my sister and Brooke went to Magnolia Bakery and got some banana pudding (which they shared with me and it was super yummy).

Here is a photo we found later on social media as the protest goes on:

Our wedding photo on Twitter

After many extra photos, the protest finally ended and our "wedding party" walked over the location we had picked out for our wedding the day prior. The violinist began playing the selection of songs we chose when another large wrench was thrown into our plan: the manager on duty at Grand Central told us that no live music was allowed to be played on the premises. This was the first time I thought "I am not sure we are going to get married today after all." My mom came over and said "You guys have this awesome suite at the Plaza - why don't we just all go there and you can get married in your suite?"

As I prepared to corral everyone together, our wedding coordinator said we could get married but we just wouldn't be able to have the violinist play during our ceremony. At that point, Herschel and I both said to each other "we don't care what else happens as long as we just get married today." That's the kind of attitude you need to have when you elope and there are so many moving parts and pieces. I am glad we had that mindset as we enjoyed each other and our family and friends throughout that day.

We exchanged wedding vows that we wrote to one another and after a lot of tears and laughs, we were pronounced man and wife. It wasn't until that point that I realized that hundreds of people were standing around on the ground floor, on the stairs and hanging over the balcony watching our wedding because they all erupted into cheers and whistles. It was incredibly romantic.

But the romance level was about to get kicked into high gear. Herschel has the most amazing singing voice but, given that he is shy and reserved, I hadn't really ever heard him sing more than a couple of verses to a song while we were in the car or out and about somewhere. The next thing I knew, I heard the beginning notes of one of our favorite songs and Herschel - quiet Herschel - in front of hundreds of bystanders and all of our family and friends - sang to me. Again, more crying and more cheering all around us. It was a moment I will never forget as long as I live.

Once our wedding was over and all of the bystanders wished us a happy life together, we all got back into the limo for a trip to Brooklyn to get some awesome outdoor photos of the Brooklyn Bridge. Luckily it had stopped raining and a dense fog shrouded the tops of the NYC skyline, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

The party could officially start now and we headed over to American Cut Steakhouse in Midtown where we had an amazing steak dinner with our closest friends and family. It could have been the champagne or the fact that I was just so happy, but Brooke snapped this photo at dinner and it speaks 1,000 words to me. Despite all of the surprises and having to roll with the punches, it was the most joyous perfect day.

Herschel, and my dear friends Zach & Liz

Karla Janning and her two daughters, Megan and Lauren (there in spirit was Andy Janning)

Once dinner was over, Herschel and I met Liz and Zach for champagne at The Champagne Bar at The Plaza (I mean...it was our moral imperative to do that since we were staying there!) and celebrated over more champagne and some macarons.