Anniversary Of A Lifetime: Couple Stays At Waldorf For Under $20

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - A Connecticut couple will mark their 60th wedding anniversary at New York's Waldorf-Astoria for the same $16.80 per night that they paid on their honeymoon.

Isidore and Joan Schwartz, of East Lyme, Conn., still have their hotel bill from March 2, 1952.

"My wife was talking to our daughter-in-law and she said, 'Give me the bill, I'm going to call the Waldorf,'" Isidore said. "And she contacted them and they said, 'We'd like them to stay for the same thing. We'll only charge them $16.'"

In comparison, rooms at the Waldorf nowadays start at $319 a night.

The hotel charges the original room rate for returning guests celebrating a milestone. It said that two to three couples a year take advantage of the deal.

The Schwartzes have a nice little day planned for their ceremonious occasion. The Waldorf has offered to give the couple a Saturday morning tour of the glamorous hotel, which will be followed by lunch. The couple's kids will then take them out for dinner. Not a bad day for just over $16, eh?

The former New Yorkers met on a blind date in 1950. Their wedding reception was on the Upper West Side.

"I have the peignoir, it's a diaphanous bathrobe," Joan said. "It's this beautiful lacy thing that you wear over your nightgown. I'll wear the peignoir, but the gown I can't get into anymore. My waist line must have been like 20 inches wide."

Joan told the Daily News that on their wedding night 60 years ago, it cost $4.75 a head for a catered steak dinner and ice sculpture decorations.

Have you ever heard of  an anniversary celebration cooler than this one? Let us know...

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