6:15 pm

The Ultimate Girls Weekend in Chelsea NYC

I recently shared a blog post about the Taller-than-Tall-Cake I made for my good friend Amber’s birthday bash in the City. This next post is all about planning the ultimate girls weekend in Chelsea, NYC! For Amber’s birthday, we went all-out (without breaking the bank!) for the girl with a heart of gold; read along for some tips to make your next girls bash a success!

Chelsea, NYC–Hotel Kimpton Eventi

One of my favorite areas in the city is Chelsea; it is close to the High Line, home to Chelsea Market (an indoor marketplace and epic food hall with shopping and specialty food and incredible restaurants galore), and home to some of my favorite restaurants and rooftop bars. SO it was a no-brainer to chose the swanky Hotel Eventi in northern Chelsea off 6th and W 30th. We booked the Presidential Suite (oh yes!) and got an absolute steal by reserving the non-refundable rate (we’re talking 20% discount).

In this suite, we had a queen pull-out couch and generous seating room for even Manhattan standards. Plenty of closet space, mirrors, outlets, and a spacious California King that could easily sleep three. The bathroom was gorgeous with a double sink, tub and shower, but what was absolutely breath taking was the view of the Empire State Building.

Upon booking, reservations asked if this was for a special occasion; because we were booking for a birthday, we received complementary wine hour in the executive lounge. There was even a complementary bottle of champagne with fruit and a welcome note in our room upon our arrival. Kimpton really pulls all the stops for its customers!

We took full advantage of our suite and took numerous photos in the bath, near the windows…so glamorous!

To start the weekend off right, we got ready and had dinner at Buddakan. If you haven’t been, it is absolutely stunning, and with a wide array of delicious foods from the Far East.

This is where we disclosed we had planned the whole weekend to celebrate Amber’s 40th birthday! I had made a cake that day and had my husband and a friend brought it into the city just before the dinner. See how I made the cake here. I made a tall cake with chocolate pistachio ganache filling, and decorated it with Amber’s favorite cookies, French Macaroons. I also made sure it was decorated in real 24 caret gold!

After dinner, we made our way to the Standard High Line Hotel Rooftop, which if you haven’t been you really must check it out. The view from the top is amazing, with full view of the Empire State Building and the West Side.

The lounge below the rooftop has a pool, and you can actually jump in if you want to!

Day 2-Rose Mansion

We tried to scale back on meal reservations for this girls trip (I really had to hold back!) because it had been a while since we had all hung out and we didn’t want to feel rushed on a tight schedule. We kept it simple for breakfast, and just made a morning coffee and breakfast run; there’s a Gourmet Deli and Starbucks right around the corner of the Hotel Eventi. Then we spent a couple hours socializing and getting ready to go to The Rose Mansion!

This year the Rose Mansion is on W 32nd between 6th and 7th (2 blocks up 6th Avenue from the Hotel Eventi). It is the ultimate wine bar meets amusement park meets Instagram photo Ops! Each room is a different theme and a different Rose tasting.

Although the birthday girl, Amber, doesn’t drink alcohol, she still had a blast with all the different themed rooms; and the rest of us just enjoyed her tastings for her! All-in-all, we all enjoyed spending time together taking fun and girly photos in the house of pink!

The lighting is also Ah-mazing in most of the rooms, so you can be sure your pictures will turn out beautiful!

The Mansion will be hosting Rose until October, and if you sign up for their email list they sent out promotions and happy hour specials from time to time. I highly recommend signing up for all the deals!

Dinner and rooftop

For dinner we decided to go Mediterranean; Amber loves Mediterranean foods as do we all. Just 3 blocks down from the Rose Mansion is a fancy Greek spot called Mykonos Blue. This restaurant is nestled in the Hayden Hotel that also has a lovely rooftop (all white–iconic of Greece) with music and food as well. Our good friend Mona met us there which was another surprise for Amber’s birthday!

The food was delicious, just don’t come starving as the portions are not what I’d call hearty. But it is perfect for little bites and lots of socializing. Especially on the rooftop!

Day 3–A Fancy Photo Shoot in SOHO

We ended the weekend with a photo shoot with Lionvale Photographers. We wanted to capture our time together around some of the amazing street art and murals in the city. I didn’t want to branch to far from the hotel as the girls were all heading back to Washington DC that day. We decided on sticking to Soho and a little bit of the Bowery.

We started at the beautiful iconic mural “Flowers by Jet Martinez”on the side of John Fluevog Shoe store: Address 250 Mulberry St., New York, NY 10012. We just loved all the colors, and took many of our photos in front of this beautiful wall.

If you can believe it, it was 98 degrees Fahrenheit this day–we were totally sweating although our photographers hid it well!

From there we headed further into the Bowery taking photos in front of various graffiti-filled walls and some cool looking shops we found along the way. Street-art in the city is constantly changing, so a mural that was there last week may be a new one this week. Always changing!