Hi!! You guys may remember that this past holiday season I had the huge honor of being asked to host Animal Haven‘s annual holiday party fundraiser. Animal Haven is the shelter I first started volunteering at when I moved to NYC. Over the years I worked my way up to fostering 20+ dogs from them and adopted Pani from them too! I literally started out walking dogs, cleaning poopy cages and facilitating meet and greets – so being asked to host was such an honor and a pretty surreal full circle moment for me! The party was during the holidays but I’m finally sharing this recap now! I hope you love the pics and videos. It was such a special night and we raised thousands and thousands of dollars for animals in need all while introducing partygoers to some of the most amazing vegan and cruelty-free brands and restaurants.
We invited my favorite vegan and cruelty-free brands to come showcase their products at the party, had food donated from my favorite vegan spots from all around NYC and (probably my favorite part!) gave all our partygoers a rare chance to tour the entire shelter and meet all the adoptable animals while enjoying their drinks and vegan eats.
And the evening even led to the adoption of one of Animal Haven’s long time residents and special needs rescues, Valentina, who you guys saw me post on my Instagram all the time in hopes of finding her a forever home (which we did!).
Here’s a recap of all the brands and restaurants that were featured at the event. Everything below is vegan and cruelty-free.
Food
Orchard Grocer – This 100% vegan deli and grocery store, located in the Lower East Side in Manhattan, donated one of their amazing 3 ft vegan subs for the evening.
Double Zero – One of my favorite plant-based pizza spots, Double Zero donated their vegan margherita pizzas and they were a hit.
Van Leeuwen – We had tons of my favorite vegan ice cream for partygoers to try and it was such a hit. We had the vegan salted caramel and vegan pistachio ice cream.
Beyond Sushi – The party featured gorgeous platters of Beyond Sushi’s 100% vegan sushi. I was so happy to introduce all the partygoers to this sushi alternative.
Erin McKenna’s Bakery – A favorite spot for vegan, gluten-free and allergy safe goodies sent their mini baked goods that everyone loved. Their donuts are amazing too!
Le Botaniste – This restaurant is all about plant food as medicine. They sampled all of their amazing spreads and dips for attendees. Their seaweed “tartare” is one of my favorites.
Matchaful – This super cute cafe (located just a few blocks from Animal Haven), came to sample their unique, super clean matcha drinks for everyone.
Monty’s x Hu Kitchen – You all know Monty’s is my favorite vegan cheese brand, made here in NYC, and they teamed up with Hu Kitchen to share the prettiest spread of vegan cheeses and chocolate covered cashews.
Brands
Together Beauty & Sam Brocato Salon – If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen me share the Sam Brocato Salon before. It’s where I’ve been getting my hair cut and colored the past 5 years. I chose the salon when I first moved to NYC because they made all their hair products themselves and they are clean and cruelty-free. This past year they launched their hair care line nationwide and it is available online and in store at all Sephoras. Ricky, who does a great cut and blow-dry, was at the party on behalf of the salon and product line. Everyone at the party got to walk away with samples of their Whatever Wherever leave-in conditioner.
Talon Nail Polish – This vegan, clean and cruelty-free nail polish line was on hand showing off all their amazing (and super long lasting) nail polishes.
Indie Lee – Clean beauty brand Indie Lee sent their newest products for people to try out at the party and as a part of our raffle. My current favorite Indie Lee product is the superfruit facial cream! Everyone walked away from the night with samples of the purifying facial cleanser (another favorite of mine).
Poured Love – This new local candle company set the mood at our party and kept the whole place smelling amazing. I originally connected with Poured Love’s founder at the dog park a few years back when she recognized me from Instagram and told me that my posts had led her to adopt her dog from Animal Haven, how great is that?!
Mayim Arts – My amazing and talented friend, Ali, who does pet portraits, was on hand showcasing her amazing artwork. If you need a pet portrait for yourself or as a gift – she is your gal!!
Huntd – Huntd is one of my favorite 100% vegan and ethically made shoe companies. While they were going to be at the event (their founder sent the shoes all the way from Australia!!), the shoes ended up getting stuck in customs and never made it to the party. So while you won’t see them in any pics, they’re still a great brand to have on your radar and were so generous to try to send shoes to the party.
Noize – The 100% vegan and cruelty-free winter jacket company that I’ve shared on here numerous times (one of my favorite vegan fashion brands, for sure!) sent samples of their jackets, coats and parkas for everyone to try on and see in person. So fun! My 20% off discount code TEDI20 that worked for all partygoers can be used by you too on the Noize site for just a few more days!
Hourglass Cosmetics – Leaders in luxury cruelty-free beauty sent an amazing package of their products to giveaway in our raffle.
Aether Beauty – Aether is an absolute leader in clean, vegan, cruelty-free, responsibly sourced and sustainable beauty and we were able to giveaway one of their gorgeous crystal-infused eye shadow palettes in our raffle. I have a discount code for them too that you can use as one of my readers – it’s TEDI20 for 20% off everything on the Aether Beauty site.
Angela Roi – One of my absolute favorite vegan leather bag brands! They donated a gorgeous bag as one of the raffle items.
Fetching Fields – This plant-based, healthy dog treat company generously sent tons of samples for our raffle, to display and for the dogs at the shelter (and of course some for Pani too!).
And if that wasn’t a ton of amazing brands already, Unicreamer (plant-based creamers), Cirque Colors (vegan & cruelty-free nail polish), La La Leaf (vegan, cruelty-free and all natural CBD skincare) and PetNotify (pet protection service) all donated to our gift bags too.
As I said in my speech that evening, we can all make little changes everyday to be kinder to animals…so here’s to a kinder and more compassionate 2020!
Xo,
Tedi
Thank you Diana Davis Photography and Brandon Cobian for capturing our evening through photo and video!
WOW!!! Tedi, this looks AMAZING!! Thank you for sharing all of this with all of us – you educate, you enlighten, and most important, help us to make our world a better place. You are incredibly special, and your love and compassion shine
through in all that you do. Truly.