Surprise Wedding!

Despite having lived in a couple of the most desirable locations in the country, I have a soft spot for the lesser known "underdog" cities.  Louisville, Kentucky has never disappointed me, and, if you can meet a friend like Kelly Gold, it will never disappoint  you.

Kelly Gold is the curly haired, rollerblading, rock-climbing, raw-egg eating, "fern" that everyone loves.  Though she has an actual twin (hi, Evan), I have always made it my goal to be as twin-like with her as possible.

In high school, she had this German exchange student boyfriend.  After college, Kelly lived in New York where she had a lot of fun until she didn't.  That old high school boyfriend called her up and said, "wanna move to Germany?" So, Kelly packed her bags and never looked back.  Then he proposed.  Kelly was going to marry her first boyfriend!

Because they love Germany, they decided to get married in Benny's hometown near a beautiful lake in the south of Germany.  In the meantime, Kelly's family and family friends decided to throw the couple an engagement party in Kelly's hometown - Louisville.  Since it was a great excuse for everyone to get together, no one had any hesitations about going.  

When Jess and I were picked up at the airport in a LIMO and taken to the beautiful Marriott, we knew it was going to be a special weekend.

We were greeted with gift bags!

The Engagement Party

I'll start with the highlight of the weekend - the "engagement party."

We pulled up in the limo to Kelly's family friend's home.  This is one of those homes that has a name and the street is named after the home.  The same architect who built the New York public library near Bryant Park also designed this house.  You could tell.

We entered the vast hallway through the large columns and were greeted with mini beef wellington and glasses of bourbon.  We excitedly caught up with old friends, met  and ate the delicious hors d'oeuvres, while having our bourbon glasses refilled multiple times.  Finally, we came to the part in the evening where we were going to watch the engagement video that Jeanice put together.  Jeanice is good at these videos and takes them very seriously.  As we watched and danced in our seats to the cheesy German music on the video, Jeanice began fuming because Kelly and Benny were not in the room to watch what she had worked so hard on!  At the end of the video, we were told to enter the middle room for another activity.

When all 100 guests were assembled, Paul Gold (Kelly's dad) stepped to the front of the room and said the next activity would require the assistance of Meredith, Shaina, Jessica, Jeanice, Julia, Lisa, Stacey, Lynne, Annie, and Becky.  We all looked at each other as we were ushered to the back.  No one knew what was going on and Lisa kept telling Julia to calm herself down and not rile the crowd.  In a very surreal moment, we were lined up at the front of the room and handed bouquets.  The music began and Kelly and Benny burst into the room having changed into wedding attire.

Bridesmaids and Bride

Me and Kel before we knew what was happening

For once in my life, I didn't have to bend down to take a picture

So excited to celebrate Kelly and Benny

iphone5 rocks

Did I wear white to one of my best friend's weddings?  Yes.  Do I blame it on the fact that no one knew it was a wedding or the fact that I still wanted to be her twin?  We'll never know...

Moments before she was hitched!

Feeding her groom cake

The Bourbon

The weekend involved a lot of other Kentucky traditions...mostly drinking bourbon.  We all got decked out in our Kelly and Benny T-shirts and went off to moonshine university to learn the distilling process but mostly taste the final product.

We surprised Kelly and Benny with the shirts

Standing in front of a masher

Back in the limo traveling to the next bourbon establishment

We went to lunch

Drank some tea

And woke up the next morning for more bourbon tasting at Woodford Reserve where we got to see all of the aging barrels.

And drink more bourbon...

...Before noon

Ryan photo bomb!

Later we walked around Midway Kentucky for some antique shopping.

Julia's a good instagrammer

Like, really good.

This is a Kentucky "hot brown"

I don't think I'll have it again.

The Gala

To top the weekend off, Kelly's brother, Evan, was the chairman of a Gala to support the MS society and her family bought us all a table!  This gala had everything from a 6 course meal prepared by Louisville's best chefs, to dancing, to girls in skimpy outfits, to bourbon.

I was able to enjoy my first chocolate fountain!  I've never seen a white chocolate fountain before and I was so excited, I went back 4 times!

The Dinner Menu

See below for pictures of the food

Kelly and Benny's first dance!

Perhaps we stole the feathers from the centerpieces and handed them out to everyone on the dancefloor!

Conga line!

Dirty Jerzzz

New Jersey has always scared me. I recall in college thinking that it was some type of porthole for aliens. Seriously, New Jersey is sooo tiny on a map yet somehow one out of every four people I meet are from there. I haven't heard any other reasonable explanation.

This weekend I spent a nice amount of time in the real dirty Jerz - Lake hopatcong. Turns out the Jerz isn't so bad after all.

After arriving on Saturday, we had turned on one of my favorite documentaries- idiocracy - and played some billiards before going to dinner.

As we left the house, I looked at the Jersey establishments.  I saw two stores called "the liquor factory", "snono" gas station, and "Food Mart." Then I realized New Jersey is pretty much in the year 2505. I looked for the trash heaps and when I saw some, I became uncomfortable that I was unscannable.

Okay enough of that (but if you haven't seen idiocracy you need to).

Darren took us to pub 199 for dinner where you can get a lobster and 24 clams for only $21!

Then we went to the landmark Cliff's Homemade Ice Cream Shop. Mmmmmmm.

But the real reason we came was for lake fun on Sunday!!





































We boated over to a lakeside restaurant for brunch where Darren used to work as a dock boy!



 Fueled on bacon and eggs, Darren was the first to jump on the wakeboard.

Since he's been doing it all his life, he's pretty awesome!  Nice jump!

This is me water skiing!  

Then we went tubing!  Darren tried to kill Mike.

I told them to take it easy on me, but no such luck!

The Leopard Lady Turns 80!

Meet the Matriarch of Mike's family - Roz Rosenblum.

Believe it or not, this woman turned 80 years old, and, as always, she threw a party you definitely did not want to miss.

I frequently tell people about Mike's grandma.  Usually it comes up when I am complimented on a beautiful piece of clothing and I have to confess that it was a hand me down from Grandma Rozi.  "A Grandma gave you that?" is always the question I get.  And I have to tell everyone that she is no ordinary grandma.

For her 80th birthday party, this fashionista decided to throw her party at the Lotos Club.  This is an extremely fancy literary club where we have had many Rosenblum family occasions like Thanksgiving where we relax in suits and ties and eat traditional Thanksgiving fare such as wild boar gnocchi and smoked salmon.

Okay, I tease, but it is a beautiful location and the perfect spot for an 80th birthday party.  The room was exquisitely decorated with gorgeous flower bouquets, waiters serving elegant cocktails and appetizers, and a piano player singing beautifully in the corner.

We were all excited about the dinner,

But first, there was dancing to do!

Mike's Parents

Grandma Rozi and Grandpa Bob (he's almost 90)!

Lee and Gail

Silly kids

Dancing with his mom!

The dinner was fabulous, but the real reason for the night came out over and over again in the speeches.  Friends from all over came to celebrate and the sentiments about what a wonderful woman Grandma Rozi is unified the crowd.

Everyone at the party talked about how lucky we were to be in Roz's life.  I think one of her son's said it best, "You're all here because you're my mother's friend.  And when Roz is your friend, you don't need a lot of friends."

It's true.  She has taken care of all of us.  In return, we put her on a chair and swung her up and down!

After some wine induced group singing,

and playing in the library

(The picture hanging on the wall is actually of Mike)

we had to go home.  But, the 80-year-olds raged on into the night.  I hope to be half as vivacious as this group when I'm 80!

Happy birthday, Grandma Rozi!  We love you!