This year is my fifth year in NYC, and my fourth New York Junior League Winter Ball.

2010 Winter Ball

2011 Winter Ball

2012 Winter Ball

In my position on the Management Council, I’ve been working on the communications strategy with my team for months, so it’s always satisfying when the event actually comes around.

The ball raises crucial funding for our community partners, and it is such a beautiful event that brings together so many of my favorite people in one place, all happy and dressed up.

This year, I was attending the dinner (I usually just attend the drinks + dessert portion of the evening), and my good friend Julie was among one of our honorees, so I did a little more dolling up than usual, starting with getting my makeup done at Nars.

True story: there is a purple eyeliner called Manon they make that I am obsessed with. It was recently discontinued, and so I called to see if they had any in stock to do my makeup with. They didn’t, so I brought my own.

I have to give props to the amazing Pierette, who did my makeup. You can see the before (totally naked-face) and after above. A few years ago, I got my makeup for the ball done at Sephora. They have a makeup appointment policy where you have to buy a $50 gift card in order for them to do your makeup, and it’s really crowded. Nars didn’t require me to buy anything or charge me, but I ended up buying a few things anyway.

Afterwards, I got my nails done. Gold on my hands, red on my toes. Done.

The last stop on my prepping agenda was to get my hair done. Ashley had booked appointments for us at DreamDry, Rachel Zoe’s chain of blowout salons.

It is well-documented on this blog that I have no idea how to create curls on my own, so I make other people do them. I wanted some sort of loose waves/curls with some of my hair up.

I was really happy with how my hair turned out, but I was on a tight timeframe, and I’d booked my appointment for 5-5:20 and walked out at 5:50, so I was a bit disappointed with that, though the salon is still new, so I’m sure they’re still working out their kinks.

Julie, her mom, and I dashed back to my apartment to put our dresses on and grab a cab up to the lovely Pierre hotel (which I’d run past yesterday morning on my long run.)

My committee and I greeted the press, I accompanied the president on a few interviews, and before I knew it, it was 8pm and the dinner program was beginning.

Ta da! Gratuitous dress photo.

The evening honored our five outstanding volunteers for their hard work and two outstanding sustainers. I was honored to be there to celebrate Julie.

Congrats!

I didn’t feel it appropriate to whip my camera out at dinner, but we started with lobster thermidor (YUM!) and had coq au vin for our entree, and they were both delicious.

There was a live auction, with the auctioneer straight from Auctioneer Central Casting, right down to his British accent. Live auctions are endlessly amusing to watch.

Random above-the-head shot to show ambiance.

Once dinner was over, I met up with Ashley, Laura, Blake and all of my other friends for drinks, dessert and dancing.

Love these two.

Matching in purple with my lovely friend Kim. I ended up doing Rent the Runway (affiliate link) and did this Nicole Miller dress. I’ve done RTR several times before, but never for an event as formal as this one. I’m fairly average-sized within my size (nothing too big or too small) and average height, so it usually works out pretty well for me. The fit notes for this dress said it ran a bit long, so I just wore the highest, sparkliest heels I have, and it was just fine.

Step, repeat.

This event is always the highlight of my year, and last night was no different. Getting dolled up to celebrate with my favorite people and give back to the community? Done.

Are you involved with any charities? Tell me about the most fabulous event you’ve ever been to.