what an amazing, ridiculous weekend.

four friends and i headed up to new york city early saturday morning for my bachelorette party. it was one of the most fun weekends i've had in a long time, and was the perfect end to a super stressful summer. we stayed in the gorgeous chelsea hotel - the room was huge! the first thing we did when we got in the room was jump on the beds:

we had a little picnic lunch in central park, complete with wine and cheese, cookies, and little snacks. the weather was absolutely perfect and we were able to actually sit outside without feeling like we were melting:
after some shopping and some lounging and (more) snacking, we got ready to hit the town. first was dinner at kiku:
how gorgeous do they all look? left to right, julia, amanda, jana, me and bernadette:

we went to the beauty bar in gramercy and then litlounge in the east village. it was absolutely ridiculous. i'm convinced that dance parties in NYC have nothing on those in philadelphia, but we had so much fun. we ended up buying a ton of junk food and pushed the beds together and ate mac 'n cheese.

i think bernadette summed it up best with "it's hard not to feel like a rockstar waking up hungover in the chealsea hotel next to 4 girls and a completely trashed room."

so. much. fun.

i'm really on a roll this week.

dress: vintage (1950's)
shoes: vintage ettiene aginer
belt: vintage (from my mom)

i swaddled my feet in band-aids from yesterday's disaster, but even these comfy shoes and layers of protection couldn't make my feet stop hurting. to top it off, i hit my foot super hard against a chair and ended up make the blisters (ew, sorry) bleed. i'll definitely be in sneakers for a couple of days. i also ended up ripping a seam of my dress when i sat down, and the hem completely fell out. awesome! my mom made the day ten times better by sending me a surprise package with:
- a large bag of vintage belts
- about 10 vintage slips and undergarments
- a mandolin and cupcake pan from the pampered chef
- fridge magnets
- bones for my pups (we have 4 dogs right now!)
- a gorgeous vintage lace and chiffon dress

thank goodness for her.

i took some gorgeous graduation pictures of my friend amanda today, at a park a couple of blocks away from my house. she just graduated from temple with an art education degree, and is really one of the most sympathetic, enthusiastic, and energetic teachers i've ever met. she did her student teaching in one of the worst neighborhoods in philadelphia and still saw the best in the kids there, and put all of her effort into the position. here's a little peek:

ps: i'm getting married exactly 3 months from today. eeee!