Brandy’s Entries

No.28

27th Sep 2011

Travel: New York City – Part 1

Top left clockwise: Jeff at Recipe, Colourful Brownstones, The View from our Hotel Room & the Hotel Belleclaire

We flew into NYC and spent four days in the big apple before heading to Delaware for our wedding and I’ll tell you there is no better way to have a few days of no wedding talk than with 5 dudes in NYC – it was exactly what we needed.  So I thought I would share some photos I took and places we went that I would recommend going if you are planning a visit.

Our first day in the city we spent just the two of us, we had some wedding errands to run and a date night planned before the boys arrived the next day.  We had decided to stay at the Hotel Belleclaire on the Upper West Side after having a nice stay there last time and we also like the neighborhood. We started our first day off by going to Sarabeth’s on Amsterdam, a cute little breakfast place.  It’s a bit pricey, but good to fill you up, the portions are large, the coffee is good too and bonus we got to sit on the sidewalk patio so we could people watch – which is a must.  After filling up on coffee and eggs we headed out for a walk to adjust to being back in the area and ended up around Time Square and then Fifth Avenue in Midtown to do some shopping.  Around Rockefeller Center there are a ton of shops like J Crew, Antropologie and Jeff’s favorite the Lego Store, so we popped into them to see the displays and buy a few items like my wedding jewelry and Jeff’s white dress shirt (J Crew).  The displays at both the Lego Store and Antropologie were very inspiring and I took some photos to capture the amazingness of the creative minds at work; doing store displays for Antropologie well this is a job I could love.

Antropologie on

Antropologie on 50 Rockefeller Center

After hitting the shops we decided to finally make it over to the New York Public Library, Jeff has been obsessed about seeing where Ghostbusters was filmed and running down the steps like they did in the movie.  I can’t believe that we haven’t visited this building before, I think it is now my favorite in the city!  It is a beautiful piece of architecture and interior design, everything has been maintained over the last 100 years and I love that the old elements haven’t been updated but taken care of lovingly.  It is a wonderful history lesson and place of inspiration, and right now until the new year they have a free exhibition on showcasing some of their most precious collections to celebrate 100 years, my favorite was all the journals they have from classic writers such as Virgina Woolf- her handwriting was difficult to read – not surprised there.  If I lived in New York I would definitely have to go there to read and take out old atlas’, we stumbled into the Geography wing and found these amazing books with original illustrations of maps and hand painted globes.  This library is an avid readers heaven and I agree with Carrie Bradshaw that the smell of the books is divine.  If you haven’t been make a point to check it out, and look up their website beforehand to see all the activities and exhibitions going on.  Also when you leave the library make sure to wander to the backside of it where Bryant Park is located, it’s a beautiful place with tons of chairs and tables to sit for an afternoon or evening with friends (yep it’s lit with flood lights so people can enjoy it after dark too).  The park also features tons of events, so make sure to see online beforehand.

New York Public Library

For our dinner date we went to a restaurant close by to our hotel that we had seen the night before when we were a little too tired to enjoy it called Recipe.  It’s located on Amsterdam between 81st & 82nd and it features local seasonal ingredients which both of us appreciated.  The interior is rustic, quaint and cozy and there are cute details like the menus are clipped together with a little clothes pin and the napkins are a check pattern, which was funny because Jeff was wearing a matching shirt.  We both really enjoyed our evening there and would recommend it, just make sure to make a reservation because it’s small and can fill up quickly.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our trip which includes stumbling into some classic New York moments and it features me and the boys – so long romance hello beer and dive bars!

No.27

22nd Sep 2011

Sharing: Sunshine

Being at the ocean always brings a sense of calm within me, suddenly all my worries float away and the chatter in my head becomes quiet. It is my meditation.

Last time I was in Bethany Beach on vacation, I woke up one morning and headed down to the beach to watch the sun come up.  It was something I always wish I did more of and it was wonderful.  At six o’clock in the morning and I found myself alone, in the quiet noise of the waves with the crickets and breeze – me and my camera.  So this year after our wedding I did the same thing and I wasn’t disappointed as the sun rose out of the blue grey horizon into a blazing ball of cherry red which turned a burnt orange and then bright yellow before entering the blue sky as brilliant white for the morning.  It all happened in the span of just over an hour and I sat there in awe of the beauty before me, with no nagging thoughts of where I needed to be, or sounds of cars and buses driving by and it was bliss for me to be able to find the quiet in a busy life.

I wish I could find it more often, I find myself distracted again being back in the city on the noisy street we live on and the crazy downtown I work in five days a week, but I fortunately I live close to my own beach and while it’s busier I’m hoping to get down there because I was just reminded while in Bethany Beach where the quiet is and how it fills me up when I’m running on empty.

Where do you find the quiet?

No.26

20th Sep 2011

Sharing: Mr & Mrs Waterfall!

our wedding

Well folks we did it, we are husband & wife and I feel a little bit more complete now because we made those promises in front of people we love and respect, it does feel different.  Our wedding day was so perfectly us, it was fun, playful, full of love, exciting, creative, beachy, and it makes my heart burst to think about now (which I do, constantly replaying all those lovely moments).  Just this morning while listening to my Ipod the song I walked down the boardwalk to during our beach ceremony came on and instantly I was transported back to the moment when I saw everyone with their wands waving in the air, then I heard everyone cheering me on and in the distance was Jeff waiting for me…sigh…it was so wonderful.  I never will forget that moment – teared up again just now.

Just like anticipating Christmas day, we have to wait to see our photos that our photographer took (it may take a few weeks), but once we do I promise to post some on my flickr account and here.  In the meantime I have some beautiful beach photos I will share from the morning I awoke at 6am to watch the sunrise on Bethany Beach, it is the best time of day in my opinion – the closest I have come to feeling completely at peace.  Also I want to write a post dedicated to our side trip to New York City and all my favorite places we went while there.

Thanks again to all our family and friends who made the long voyage to Delaware to be with us, you made our day so very special and we love you all so much!  We already miss you! xx

No.25

30th Aug 2011

Gift Registry

We have received a few emails about our gift registry for our upcoming wedding and to be honest with everything that has happened in the last month we haven’t had the time.  If everyone that would like to give a gift could wait until after the wedding, we can go and registry then and let you know all the details through email and this website.  Is that okay with everyone?

For everyone else coming to the wedding who feels inclined to give a gift, we will set up a box to put envelops in at the reception.

I hope this works for everyone, let us know if you need additional information.

Lots of love,

Brandy & Jeff

No.24

27th Aug 2011

Sharing: Weathering the Storm

a peaceful morning on the beach

This month has been a blur of events that have kept us wondering what’s next, as we get closer to our wedding day in Bethany Beach, Delaware on September 10, 2011.

First our venue Catch 54 had a major fire which forced the restaurant to close it’s doors until next spring for renovations.  We spent a week after receiving the news searching for a similar location (with only the Internet and some generous locals in the area helping us), and we finally came to the decision that staying with the family of restaurants at SoDel was going to be the best one for us.  We would be able to keep our menu, the evenings plans and people we have been working with for the last year, only the decor Catch 54 had to offer and the lovely water views would be missing.  Our new venue is now going to be Northeast Seafood Kitchen, a slightly more modern space inland.  It’s a comprise, but a good one and honestly everything in town and in the surrounding areas is booked solid – it’s wedding season.  We’ll make it work with our decorations, after all we are creative people.

The next surprise in store for us happened the night after our stag and stagette parties when I awoke to a knock at our condo door, thinking it was Jeff who forgot his key I reluctantly got up and answered the door.  It was our strata representative asking if I had noticed anything in our apartment leaking, I ran to our guest bathroom to find about an inch of water and a steady stream of more water coming out of a faulty copper pipe by the toilet.  With a brutal hangover, I spent the day with a bunch of guys who had to vacuum the water up out of the carpet and linoleum and then they brought in big fans and a dehumidifier – FUN.  So now our apartment has to be repaired, which is just poor timing with us being so busy with the wedding and going away soon.

At this point you start to think, okay I get the point I can’t control shit from happening and I need to roll with the punches being dealt, but unfortunately some low moments found their way in between all the above mess, and I completely lost the plot.  I was stressed and sad, here we were a month out of planning our special day and I felt like life was smacking me around asking how much could I take.  What’s worse is I was trying to be brave and positive because everyone (and I love them dearly), was telling me it would all work out and not to stress out about it.  Which I really tried to do, honestly, in my good moments I was a freaking hero and I felt okay, it was just when I wasn’t looking that those damn bad thoughts and feelings found me and took hold.  I now think it’s important to let yourself fall apart a bit when necessary, because from my experience, it will just build up inside and then find a way out.  Keeping a positive view when you can manage it is of course the better option, but we are human and sometimes you just can’t be a super hero.

So now with my newest friend hurricane Irene whipping along the very coast I am to marry on in exactly two weeks from today, I have to again find a way to keep my head straight.  There are people who should have been getting married this weekend in Delaware who probably were told they had to cancel, and my heart goes out to them, it’s a crappy hand to be dealt.  I am more fortunate because it’s happening now and not in two weeks.  All I can do is hope and pray that everyone there keeps safe and that the hurricane doesn’t unleash too much damage on the area.  My thoughts are with the people of Delaware, you have shown such kindness to Jeff and I and we really can’t wait to be there in a week’s time to prepare for wedding.  Let’s all hope this storm passes soon, and the skies clear and the sun shines for us all.