Happy Halloween! While I am not dressing up this year, I can’t wait for this evening’s Halloween festivities. Our neighborhood, Carroll Gardens, takes Halloween very seriously! Last year we had over 500 kids come by our house. This year, our entire building is going to hang out on the front stoop for an evening of Fall fun while giving out candy. Once we’re done handing out candy my sister-in-law, Meg, is going to hang out while we cook dinner and watch Hocus Pocus together. Since I’m not in an office setting this year, it’s easier to resist the Halloween candy but I am looking forward to a few handfuls of my favorite candy tonight – Reese’s Cups, Candy Corn and Twix! What is your favorite candy? 

Unfortunately, this morning I slept through my alarm. I evidently turned it off at 5:45 when it went off but have no recollection of this. Oops.  Clearly my body needed more sleep after an exhausting work week and an equally exhausting, but fun weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, here are a few highlights from our busy weekend.

Ten Over Ten– By the end of last week, my nails were in horrible condition. I knew I wanted to get a manicure before the wedding festivities started Friday evening but didn’t know when I could squeeze it into the schedule since my meetings ended on Friday just before my hair appointment. Luckily, I found out from a friend that Ten Over Ten Financial District location opens at 8 AM on weekdays. I was able to enjoy a 20-minute manicure including their more natural nail polish lines, TenOverTen and RGB.

Drybar Boerum Hill – You may have seen that I had a less than stellar experience at Drybar Greenwich Village on Friday night. I didn’t get seated until an hour after my appointment and ended up running late for the rehearsal dinner. Since the wedding on Saturday night was black tie, I wanted to have my hair blown out. After exchanging emails with the Drybar team, I gave their new Brooklyn location a try on Saturday. Luckily, Saturday’s experience at Drybar Brooklyn was wonderful! I was seated exactly at my appointment time and my stylist was able to bring my vision to life in just 45-minutes. The new space is bright, airy and as cute and fun as the rest of their locations.

Rent the Runway Success – After years of buying dresses for cocktail and black tie events, I’ve switched to exclusively using RTR for these events. This weekend I rented a knee length, black and gold Shoshanna dress for the rehearsal dinner and then a floor length, black and blue one shoulder Slate & Willow gown for the wedding.  The black and gold dress required a stick on bra which was less than ideal, but I still loved the dress and the fun details. I paired it with nude hose and my favorite black heels.  The floor length gown was one of the most comfortable gowns I’ve worn complete with pockets, side zipper and boning that helped it maintain shape.

Wedding Festivities – We were lucky to celebrate our friends Scott and Liz this weekend during their rehearsal dinner at Saxon+Parole and then the wedding at La Sirena at the Maritime Hotel. Even though we’ve lived in New York for years, this was actually our first local NYC wedding. After a long work week I was thankful that we didn’t have to travel for the wedding and it was fun to try two new restaurants as part of the celebration. The food at both locations exceeded our expectations! I especially loved La Sirena as a wedding venue since the split room allowed for the ceremony and cocktail hour to take place in one area before the group moved to the family style reception and dancing. They didn’t forget a single detail including a fun photo booth, oyster shucking hostesses during cocktail hour, great music for hours of dancing and even masks and props to transition the party from wedding to Halloween theme at midnight!  It was a glamorous affair as you can tell from these few pictures – such a fun night!

Long Walk through Brooklyn Bridge Park – Even though I slept nine hours Saturday night, I woke up yesterday feeling less than stellar after the wedding festivities. I was craving a run or other sweaty workout, but I knew that due to the humid weather and a nagging hamstring, I should choose another workout or rest. Instead of skipping my workout, I decided to head out for a long walk to enjoy the gorgeous 70 degree NYC weather. I listened to two podcasts while power walking through Brooklyn Heights and through Brooklyn Bridge Park.  I was wearing a giddy smile on my face the entire time. While I wished I could have been running, similar to the other people who were out completing their final long run before the marathon but due to the gorgeous weather and podcast, I still found myself enjoying the power walk.

How was your weekend?