There was no point in arguing, once we finished with the church ceremony, we were on a suicide mission with the Campestre Ballroom. Boy's GF was with us, and she was curious where Wife had lived since this is only the 2nd or third time she has been down to visit, well us taking an extra turn got us the "family cops" called within a minute of that extra turn. Before we turned down Wife's street a block away from where we got out of line (we were all driving in a convoy), my brother on the phone wanted to know where we were headed. I said "never mind," and we turned back towards the ballroom. The house doesn't look anything like it used to. When Wife and her family lived there, the house had a Spanish wall in front made of stucco, complete with big open half circular openings. I guess the people that bought it removed the wall.
Anyways, we were defiant for another minute as we overshot the ballroom which is next to the "campestre" river crossing (part of the Nueces River), when it is flowing, it is a rather pretty thing to look at, luckily it was. Without water, as it is most of the time, it is a sad excuse for a river crossing. But enough about the area, we are now late to the ballroom.
Walking in, I was surprised at the beauty and dramatic change the inside had taken on. The last time I had been inside this particular ballroom, I assumed it would probably be the last time and it would be torn down at some point. I'm thinking I hadn't seen the inside of this building since the early 90's and it was not in good shape. Most any celebrations have been in the other "ballroom" and the floor is a little bigger in the other one, but there is no height to it, the ceiling is probably 9 or 10 ft tall, which makes it hard to hang decorations that hang and look right. This ballroom had a more square dance floor and the ceiling was probably 25ft or so and they had hung satin drapes from the center headed out in all directions covering the dance floor in a dreamy pink hue. I guess my niece has a thing for Paris as there were little Eiffel Towers as centerpieces along with balloons and drapes on the tables that boy's GF said belonged as material for ball gowns as they were covered in sequins. The cake was a 4 or 5 layer tower of beauty again adorned with imagery from Paris. It sat in one of the corners of the dance floor next to the band's stage overlooking the festivities, while another corner had a "candy buffet" which was a hit with everyone. I looked at it before it was open and it had all sorts of candies and cookies and even a chocolate fountain. This was sitting on one side of the bar (the ballroom has to make a buck selling beers and drinks), and on the other side was a cute "photo booth" where everyone was encouraged to take those 4 picture type of slides and in return the quince girl got a copy to fill an album of all the guests and the people taking pics got a few copies to share with friends. We, the family of the dad sat on 4-5 tables next to the entrance and in front of where the food was served, then the area where the quince girl and her court sat, followed by another 4-5 tables for the mom's side of the family. The families tables were circular and on the actual dance floor, behind that and all around the dance floor, there were probably 50 tables for guests to join.
We got there probably at 5:00pm, which gave us time to sit around. Our cousin catered the food which was turkey with all the normal trimmings, and also my brother thought the court consisting of thirty 14-16 year olds would prefer pizza, he also ordered like 20 pizzas, so they would have a choice. My mom said there would be an intermission, which I thought great, a chance to escape for an hour or so, but that never happened. Basically, we waited and ate for the party bus to arrive. All the kids in the court were transported in a party bus from the church to the ballroom, but they took a scenic hour long ride, which Javalina was a traveler and he said it got loud and silly, even if he didn't know any of the kids well..... (Then the music started, con't.)
No comments:
Post a Comment