When you have a 20th Anniversary you owe it to each other to celebrate it correctly. For the Wife and I, this meant a trip to the Ritz in Cancun. This was an ideal destination as the plane ride is not too long and in early September it is off-season so there are no hordes of idiot college kids puking Cuervo in the street.
Furthermore, I have a client who used to manage 3 Ritz properties in Florida...he owed me a favor and was thrilled about a result I got for him at trial...so a few phone calls from him garnered my wife and I a luxurious suite on the ocean with 3 balconies at a rate cheaper than a Holiday Inn at the Philly Airport. Plus, the juice from this guy got us the "Sinatra treatment" the entire time we were there.
The trip was fantastic...but the coup de grace was the anniversary dinner. My wife did not know that I had planned and schemed to have our dear friends come and meet us 3 days into the trip. They arrived and brought my evening clothes with them. I left my wife in the room and went to the hotel gym...telling her to meet me at the bar for drinks before dinner. I suited up in my off white dinner jacket in the locker room after a nice work-out, steam,sauna and shave. Bonnie and Glenn met me at the bar so we were waiting in black tie for my wife. I had told her the place we were dining was extremely fancy so she should dress accordingly...thus she was not left feeling under-dressed.
Bonnie and Glenn were both in our wedding and are our closest friends...we Summer in the Adirondacks together and in fact they spent some time in Stowe with us this Christmas and last. They have been featured in many pictures posts over the past year or so.
I had also arranged a private dining room in the Hotel restaurant:Fantino. Imagine my Wife's astonishment when she walked into the hotel bar to see the 3 of us in black tie ready to celebrate the 20th anniversary. She was almost literally floored. The evening that ensued was simply beyond description with the food and service and setting.
Last, for you menswear blogger types...here is the rig:
Joseph Banks Shawl Collar off-white dinner jacket
Brooks Brothers flat front formal trousers.
Brooks Brothers unpleated formal shirt w/ gold knot studs.Shotgun shell cufflinks
Ferragamo patent leather formal slippers.
It was a memorable evening and truly enhanced by the evening wear. Other hotel guests thought we had just gotten married. When I stated we were celebrating an anniversary...you could see the jealousy in the wive's eyes and the frustration in the men's...that suddenly the bar had been set so high.
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