stacyreeves || photography

So before I start gushing about how much I love NYC, I want to gush about one of my clients.. Natalie Furr, who is having her own NYC engagement session in August and whose June 2009 wedding I am super excited to be covering, is a brand spankin’ new New York Jets Flight Crew member!! I know her fiance Andy could not be prouder of her, and I am so blessed to have such a beautiful and talented girl as one of my brides. Congrats Natalie!

Speaking of New York, I have so much to share! Jason warned me that four days would not be nearly enough time there, and that I would leave wanting to see and do so much more. He was completely right, as usual – thank goodness I’ll be going back for three more sessions there later this year.

Since Jason had to work on Thursday, I flew in by myself Thursday morning and wandered the city for a few hours on my own. Our hotel was smack dab in the center of Times Square, and I was just floored at how great it was. That place is a people-watcher’s paradise! I strolled up and down various streets, passing by countless souvenir shops, eavesdropping on snippets of conversation from passers-by, trying not to look too much like a tourist in shock and awe. After a few hours of getting myself oriented, I met up with Carrie and Preston to do the first half of their engagement session. We walked over to the most famous park in the world, Central Park, and it felt like I had stepped into a movie. Kids were playing baseball and soccer, bikers and joggers whizzed by in small packs, big slobbering dogs yanked their owners to and fro, students sat out on the rock formations, reading as they bathed in the afternoon sun.. Everything was so idyllic and perfect. Everywhere you looked, you saw trees and ponds and flowers.. It was hard to believe I was in the middle of the biggest city in the USA, and that huge skyscrapers towered all around us a few hundred yards away. We even saw a movie being filmed there! Keep an eye out for this random girl running past a fountain with a watergun in 70’s getup, then look for me in the crowd of confused people in the background.

Once we finished at Central Park, I split up with the lovebirds and headed off to see my very first Broadway show – Avenue Q! I had heard about this show from various sources, and I was anxious to see if I would find it funny or just plain raunchy. Not only did I like it, I LOVED it, and it has now become my favorite show of all time!! I laughed so hard I cried pretty much from the first line to the last. The whole show was just so smart and witty and well written, and the music was surprisingly complex and catchy. The actors/puppeteers were incredibly talented, the girl who plays Kate/Lucy (Sarah Stiles) was especially good, I could not stop watching her!

Note: I stole this photo from the website, I can’t claim credit for taking it!

Once the show got out, the crowd spilled out onto Broadway and 43rd, and I got my very first glimpse of Times Square at night. I’m not sure if I can ever describe it in words… One of the coolest experiences of my life thus far. Something everyone should see at least once in their lives!

Jason’s flight was supposed to arrive at 1 AM, but due to various delays, he didn’t get in until 3 AM.. We immediately collapsed and fell asleep, but about two hours later I had to get up and head to the Brooklyn Bridge with Carrie and Preston for another round of photos! Those turned out really cool, I can’t wait to share them with you in a few days! Here are a few random artsy shots I took as we were leaving..

When I reunited with Jason, we decided to head to the Museum of Modern Art to see the legendary Starry Night by Van Gogh. I know that pretty much everyone loves this painting, but seriously, I am obsessed. Or at least I was.. I have a Starry Night lamp, cutting board, lightswitch plate, umbrella, car window shield, drink coasters, apron, purse, do-it-yourself painting, and of course a million replica posters. I really, really like Starry Night I got extreeeeeemely lucky, it’s leaving the MOMA this week to go overseas until September – I almost missed it!

We also saw a lot of great other installations and paintings from other artists. I was also really excited to see some works by Piet Mondrian (the inspiration behind modern graphic design), a series of works by Sigalit Landua (including some beautiful crystalline barbed wire chandeliers and a captivating video of watermelons in the Dead Sea), and a whole collection from Olaf Eliasson (possibly my favorite installation was a series of bright yellow-orange lights that turned everything monochrome to the human eye). As you can tell – I loooove modern art!

After the MOMA we headed to the Apple Store, which was very unique.. Above ground, all you see is a big glass cube with a glass tube in the middle. Once you walk in, the tube (which is an elevator) takes you down to the underground store, which was crammed wall-to-wall with people.

I have to admit that I am very much anti-Apple, I really can’t stand their stuff at all, so I like to think that I was a very good sport for putting up with it, but I got Jason back for it at the next store we went to…

Tiffany and Co! Naturally, as a female, my first stop was pearls (my favorite!), which just so happened to be on the same floor as the “forbidden zone” of big, sparkly, circle-shaped diamond holders I was determined to buy something at Tiffany, so I wandered the floors trying to decide what I could purchase that would actually be a useful gift, and not something that I was buying just to buy. I wavered back and forth on the scarf, the dayplanner, the patent leather receipt envelope, and even the umbrella, before Jason realized the perfect purchase for me – a CHARM!! I have a charm bracelet that has charms for every major occasion in my life, and one for all the places I have traveled to throughout the world. It was a perfect choice!  Here is my bracelet….

And my charm! (it’s smaller than it looks)

After he finally dragged me out of Tiffany, we made a quick stop into FAO Schwarz, which turned out to be way more fun that I expected. We saw life-sized Lego displays, played on the famous foot piano, talked with a fellow Rubik’s cube master, and bought enough candy to send an elephant into sugar shock. Here are some of the highlights.. The Lego Statue of Liberty, Barbie Dreamhouse, a Schindler escalator (or “Schindler’s Lift” – *rimshot*), and a stuffed animal that looks pretty much exactly like Sallie Mae when she knows she’s done something wrong.

Despite having seen Avenue Q the previous night, I talked Jason into seeing it with me that night. I had such a blast that I really wanted him to experience it. Thankfully he was just as much a fan as I was!! Here I am at the photo-op with Trekkie Monster (and my extremely fake smile.. Forgive me, I was exhausted!).

The next morning we slept in, and lazily made our way to the historic Gershwin theater for a Behind the Emerald Curtain tour of Wicked, my favorite book/musical of all time. Since Jason and I had seen the show in Chicago, we agreed we wouldn’t see it in New York, but I think he could tell how broken-hearted I was at being so close to the show and being unable to see it, because he suggested we get tickets to the Saturday matinée! It was a perfect combination.. We got to see all the props and set close up, talk to the cast members, learn about the creation of show, and uncover all sorts of hidden secrets and stories about what goes on behind the scenes, and then we got to actually see the show! I had a whole new respect for it after learning about the cast and crew.. Hopefully they will start doing these tours for all the Broadway shows, it really was a neat experience! Here we are outside of the Gershwin, super excited to see Wicked! (well, I am, anyway)

After Wicked, we headed to yet another show – Mary Poppins! I had high hopes for this one, but unfortunately, it wasn’t what I expected. The actors were all very talented, especially the guy who plays Bert, the costumes were interesting, the sets were amazing, but I think the music was just a little dull.. Aside from the famous movie songs, nothing really stuck in my head. It was an entertaining show for kids, but a little cheesy and forgettable for adults, I think.

Sunday is was finally time to leave Our 8 PM flight meant that we had half the day to do anything we missed, and despite having seen FOUR Broadway shows at that point, we decided to go ahead and make it a nice FIVE. You would think we would see something new and unusual, but no, of course not, we chose a show that we had seen together only months earlier – The Lion King!! I think we both couldn’t enjoy it fully because we were so stressed about missing our flight (if only we had known it would get delayed over two hours), but our fifth-row center orchestra seats were too good to be true, and we both had a blast.

A few things we learned about Broadway… DON’T buy your tickets online, DON’T stand in a long ridiculous line at the TKTS booth, DON’T buy some tickets off a street vendor.. We saw five shows, we were ten rows or less from the stage in the center section at every show, and we never once waited in line, and never paid more than about $100 for a ticket. What did we do? We went right to the box office! Even Wicked, which is infamous for having sold out shows every night, had some 8th row center seats available for their Saturday show. And, when you buy them from the box office, you don’t have to pay all those additional fees and taxes, you just pay the seat price! Here’s a collection of just some of our many souvenirs

Alright, that’s it for this week.. My very exciting change that I have been alluding to for awhile now is aaaaaalmost ready, we are putting the finishing touches on it today. My website may by down for a few hours while I make some changes… Don’t fret, it will be worth the wait!

I will also have some great images from Courtney & Marcus’ wedding to show you in a day or two.. Stay tuned