Amayzine’s birthday: the party

I’m writing this in a lunch room around the corner from our office, where I’m sitting with May-Britt and Jet because our office is still in rather bad shape. Around 300 people came to our party to celebrate our birthday and that means that the office is now, forgive me, a bloody mess. But we’re taking it well because it was the nicest evening ever and I’m still reliving it, now even as I sit working with trembling hands and slitty eyes behind my computer. We unveiled the cover of our Winter Issue with HNTM winner Nicky on the cover, cheered the last year with full glasses of Veuve Clicquot, and were surprised with the news that we’ve been nominated for a Mercur Award, the most important prize in magazine world.

Our outfits were hanging ready and our friend Leco van Zadelhoff came by for hair and make-up. When all eyelashes were in place, we went inside with the team to welcome the first guests who had arrived. Our new girlfriends from Holland’s Next Top Model were all there with Nicky out front, the finalists together made us want to jump back in Leco’s chair to be made as beautiful as they are. Anouk Smulders and Fred van Leer were both there, and later on we spotted Winonah de Jong and Victoria Koblenko posing in front of the photo wall.

DJ Claire Timmermans aka Cat Carpenters played tune after fabulous tune, people made selfies everywhere, the Gin & Tonics made with Bombay gin and Fever Tree tonic and the Veuve Clicquot flew over the bar. It was so extremely enjoyable that I’m still in a cloud of happiness reliving the evening.

When May-Britt took the stage to launch the Winter Issue and to show the cover to the HNTM girls, she asked the Amayzine-team to join her. So with shaking knees (stages are scary) we walked to her and it turned out that she had a surprise for us. It turns out that Amayzine.com is the first digital platform ever to be nominated for a Mercur award in the category of Launch of the Year. In the television world it’s the Televizier, in the film world it’s the Oscars and in the magazine world it’s the Mercurs. A seriously big deal. Three other titles are in the same category as us including Harper’s Bazaar, so we’re in good company and have already spoken to editor-in-chief Cécile Narinx about the choreography for during the award ceremony on December 10.

After the official opening moment, the bottles were uncorked and we hit the dance floor with hands in the air. We were so happy and still are. Amayzine has been around for a year and that was enough reason for a party, but now with the nomination in we could barely contain ourselves. We stayed dancing till the wee hours, well after the last guests had left, but then on bare feet. The hangover will come soon I’m sure, but you know I’ll embrace it tenderly because an evening like this does not happen very often. Till next year!

Photo credits: Elinoor Veldman