Our Week in LA!

Last weekend, Joe and I traveled to California for my friend Sammy's wedding! We spent the weekend in Newport Beach, and then headed up to LA for a few days -- we'd never been! We had such a great time the entire trip and I'm excited to share a proper recap here!

If you've followed for a while, I'm sure you know Sammy; we met back in 2014 at a "conference" in NYC that we used to go to with all of our other little blogger friends at the time... those were the days!!!  It's so crazy to think that we've remained such good friends over the past 10 years. Despite having only spent time in person a handful of times, we've talked almost every day for years, so it was so special to be able to celebrate with Sammy and Shane!

We flew into Orange County on Friday morning and checked into the Balboa Bay Resort. It was so serendipitous because we ran into Sammy and Shane as we were checking in! We all were so excited - I think we'd all been waiting for this weekend for so long, it was just so exciting to finally be there!! 

Joe and I explored the Lido Marina Village and had lunch at Circle Hook. We walked around, popped into a few shops, and then spent the afternoon napping back at the hotel; it wasn't exactly pool weather like I'd been hoping for, but it worked out just as well since we were so tired from our early flight.

Friday evening was the welcome party, so Joe and I headed to dinner at Bluewater Grill before popping over to the party venue for drinks & dessert. 

Saturday was wedding day; I started my day catching up with my friend Sasha who I hadn't seen since she moved from NYC to Newport Beach a couple years ago! We went to a Pilates class together and then breakfast at Haute Cakes. The ricotta pancakes were amazing.

After our lovely brunch, Sasha was kind enough to take me over to the mall so I could purchase a wrap for the evening! I had heard about "June gloom" in California, but I didn't realize it would be soo chilly in the evenings. Thankfully I found this perfect cashmere wrap (on sale!) that went with my dress and saved the day. 

I had been struggling so much to find a dress to wear to this wedding... I seriously couldn't find anything I liked for less than $900, and obviously that would've been ridiculous, so I re-wore the blue dress that I'd worn to my friend Taylor's wedding in September. It couldn't have been more on-theme for Sammy's wedding! It's such a comfortable dress and there were no overlaps of guests so it was no-brainer to wear it again; I'm so glad I did! Normalize re-wearing your favorite dress!!!

We came back to the hotel, of course, to get ready, and as Joe and I headed downstairs at the hotel to go to the church, we ran into Sammy and her mom, Mimi, heading downstairs as well! I got a special sneak peek and Sammy just looked absolutely perfect! I loved her dress and it was so special to see her on her way!!!

I can't even begin to describe how wonderful, lovely, and beautiful Sammy's wedding day was! The ceremony was at a darling little chapel on Balboa Island, and Shane had the sweetest reaction when Sammy came walking down the aisle. The sun came out just as we were all leaving the church, so the reception was perfectly sunny and gorgeous! The entire reception was blue hydrangea heaven, and the branding, decor, and band, were all absolutely unmatched. I just feel so lucky that Joe and I were able to be a part of Sammy and Shane's wedding! It was so, so lovely.

On Sunday, we went for a walk back to Balboa Island for the cutest coffee at Huskins and a little more exploring. We then stopped by the wedding brunch, said goodbye to Sammy and Shane, checked out and made our way to Los Angeles! 

We didn't end up renting a car for the trip; with traffic, parking, gas, etc. it just didn't feel worth the hassle, and honestly, it ended up being fine. We probably spent a little less or about the same amount of money on Ubers & Lyfts as renting a car + all the parking, etc would've been. I think next time it would be nice to have a car to explore even more, but it really wasn't a problem just uber-ing everywhere.

In Los Angeles, we stayed at Hotel Erwin in Venice. Honestly, it was great! We knew the whole trip was going to be pricey, so we wanted a hotel that was nice and in a good location, but not too expensive. The Erwin was in a fabulous location for us, as two people who'd never been to LA, and our room was really cute and big! They even have a rooftop bar where we popped up to on Sunday afternoon while we were waiting for our room to be ready.

Anyway, upon arrival on Sunday, we dropped our bags and walked along the boardwalk in Venice to lunch at Gjusta. Lunch at Gjusta was incredible; the Tuna Conserva and Italian sandwiches were probably the best things we ate the entire trip! The vibe of Gjusta was just sooo cute... order at the counter, sit outside, fun sodas and treats on the menu, rustic, cute decor... we just loved this place. 

Sunday evening was chill; we walked to local Mexican place and then watched the sunset on the beach! The sunset was gorgeous - I'm so glad we did this because the rest of the nights were overcast. We dipped our toes in the water and it was just a really lovely, casual evening. The entire trip we were honestly so tired. We went to bed by 9 every single night (except the wedding when we were still in bed by like 10:30, lol, oops). Something about traveling east to west just really took it out of us!

Monday was a great day. We took an Uber to hike up to the Hollywood sign, which is something I just really wanted to do! The particular hike we did was perfectly easy, which was great - it took about an hour up and 45 mins down. Apparently some of the hikes to the Hollywood sign are really hard!

We went to Alfred for coffee after. I'd been hearing about their vanilla latte for years and it completely lived up to the hype - delicious! We walked around Melrose for a while in an attempt to find a spot for breakfast/brunch, but I couldn't stop thinking about Gjusta (lol) so we ultimately decided to head back there for more sandwiches, and their amazing pesto salmon pasta salad. 

Monday afternoon we changed and headed up to Malibu, and I think this was the one part of the trip when I'd really wished we'd had a car... I think it would've been nice to drive around and see some of the fancy houses, and jump out of the car on the PCH and explore, and you just can't really do that when you're at the mercy of someone else taking you from point A to point B. So, we walked around the Malibu Country Mart (kind of lame, in my opinion) and then Malibu Pier. We ultimately didn't stay very long before we made our way back down to LA.

We had drinks at Élephante in Santa Monica, which was so chic and great vibes! Our bartender recommended Water Grill around the corner for dinner, so we went there after. Dinner was great and again, we were in bed by 9, haha.

Tuesday was our last full day and this was our Beverly Hills day! We originally had a lunch reservation at the Ivy in Beverly Hills, but I woke up sooo starving, and we were staying across from the highly-recommended Great White, so we opted for breakfast there instead and canceled our lunch res. Omg, the breakfast burrito at Great White was amazing!!

After breakfast, we got changed and ventured over to Rodeo Dr. I wore this cute set!! We popped into a few stores and just had fun shopping and exploring for a few hours. Eventually we made our way to Erewhon where I tried the Hailey Bieber smoothie!! It was honestly delicious; worth the hype and the $19 (for once).

We walked up Rodeo to Sunset Boulevard where I was soo excited to grab a drink at the Beverly Hills Hotel! I was blown away - it is gorgeous and so much bigger than I expected! We walked around the grounds and had a cocktail by the pool, which is all specially decked out in Dior for a pop-up they're doing this summer. I, naturally, loved it. (more photos from this afternoon here)

We made our way to the Brentwood Country Mart for a little more shopping before heading back to Venice.

Back in Venice, we explored the canals and Abbott Kinney before having dinner at Gjelina (sister restaurant to Gjusta!) It was incredible. My favorite thing we ordered was the anchovy pizza! 

I think one of my favorite things about LA was how easy it is to get into any restaurant you want to go to... at least, it was easy for us to get into everywhere we wanted to go to. For example, it felt like everyone recommended Gjelina and we made our reservation no problem the day before. In NYC, it's almost impossible to make a reservation anywhere decent if you're not 2 or 3 weeks out, and walking in places can be hit or miss.

Wednesday morning we grabbed coffee's at Menotti's. I had the Spanish latte, which was delicious. We picked up a few snacks at Erewhon for the flight and breakfast burritos before packing up and checking out. Overall it was a very chill vacation... I never really like to have too many plans, I prefer to just explore, eat delicious things, and enjoy spending time somewhere new... this trip was just that! 

Congratulations to Sammy & Shane!! The FOXES!

xoxo