The morning started off with an awesome breakfast at our hotel's restaurant. Ya baby, I'm all about the buffets, lol.
After that was all said n done, we did a few last minute errands (again, lol) for my friend's folks' anniversary party comin' up later that evening, and then took a quick cruise around the nearby neighborhood where we were staying, pretty interesting. There were like these huge office building and near every building and even near the housing duplexes, there were statues/sculptures to be admired.
The duplex style housing area were pretty impressive, I really like the stone n plaster look to it...
A little up the way from the housing area there was also a natural energy lab, it totally looked like an X Files secret top mission location...
After our little cruise, we returned to the hotel and I snapped away at a bunch of pics around the area...
In the lobby area...
So we grabbed our ish together in preparation for the party I was about to setup, and we had a "lil situation" where the toilet and shower got backed up. I won't get into the specifics of how that all happened, lol, but the hotel's management hooked us up with an apology and a little gift, with some goodies and bottled water...
We headed on out to Mount Vernon Country Club to set things up for the party, and on our way, I got some killer scenery shots...
Setting up the party was a big reason why my friend wanted me to come along for this trip because she knew this creative head would come up with something classy for the party, and being that this is the 1st of three upcoming anniversary parties, I really wanted to make something special. So this is how it all turned out. Near the receiving table we displayed some of their fond memories from 50 years back. Below is a photo of Uncle's CSU college t-shirt, and to the left, Aunty's skirt from back in the day...
Some photos of when they got married...
Their wedding photo album, and you see those dolls right above? These were made as replicas for what the groom, bride and bride's maids wore, pretty cool stuff. Oh and in the right photo of the photo album, Aunty's dad is putting a penny in her shoe. According to Aunty she said it might be an Irish tradition to assure that the married couple would never go broke, I thought that was pretty cool. It's kinda true for this couple of 50 years too, lol...
The wedding planning list, which cost a lil under $350 for the entire shindig and in the upper lefthand corner, Aunty's garter belt. (I guess she held on to it instead of tossing it to the single men like we do nowadays)...
Orchid lei for all of the guests...
The receiving table...
Table decor for all of the guests...
I had my friend order these "Filthy Farm Girl" handmade soap from Hawai'i as favors for all of the guests. It's a pretty cool brand, and I really like how they name all of their scents (you gotta check out their website for a complete listing of their soaps, it's pretty hilarious), and they smell pretty awesome too. If you're interested in ordering from 'em, here's their link: http://shop.filthyfarmgirl.com...
The dessert cake which included the couple's cake topper from 50 years back, how cool is that?!...
Guests were treated to pupu's aka horderves, some of which included California sushi, char siu/sweet n sour meatballs and shrimp cocktail. Checkout how big those bad boys were, man, I so wanted our waitress to leave that entire tray at my table, lol...
Some of the photos I snapped away at...
After the pupu sesh, everyone gathered for a little slideshow, Dr. Phil (Aunty's brother) put together. Okay, jus' a little quick note, yes, his name is Dr. Phil, and yes he's a doctor. He's one cool dude, he's a chemistry professor and get this, he's the guy who came up with the vibrant edible colors for M&M's. How friggen cool is that?! He also worked as an advisor for CSI and has been called in for a number of forensic court cases. But ya, he also led the prayer for dinner...
As you all know, I don't normally post pics of people's faces in my blog, but this is too killer of a photo to pass by...
Aunty and Uncle did their thank you speeches, man, it was super heartfelt, and everyone in the room got choked up. Imagine, 50 years these two wonderful people have been together. What I didn't realize was the location where we had the reception, was the exact place Aunty's folks celebrated their 50th anniversary party, you seriously gotta love it. Uncle sang "Beautiful 'Ilima" to Aunty, and because it was such a special and intimate moment, I made the personal decision to not post any photos, sorry folks.
And then it was time to eat, one word...yummy. Bread basket...
Salad...
Prime rib...
Dessert...
The guests many of which was Aunty's family from Colorado thanked my profusely for setting up the party so nicely and really making the evening a special one for Uncle and Aunty. For me, it was an honor to put something special together for them, the entire family are really special people.
After the party was done and everyone went their separate ways, we went cruising near the outskirts of Denver, in search of custard (ice cream) from Good Times. Get this, we went to four of 'em in the area, and they were all closed, lol, DAAAAMN! We had to settle for McDonald's cones, but it was all good, I still got some shots from our evening cruise. Ohhhh, we hit up this outdoor mall (which was closed), Belmar Mall. Check out how friggen huge their Target store is, amaze balls. Their Whole Foods store is also friggen two stories tall, double amaze balls...
When we returned to the hotel, the front desk sent chocolate covered strawberries to Uncle and Aunty, how cool of them to do that...
At the party, my goddaughter introduced me to one of her close college buddies, a 7th generation Colorado native. She was hella cool and dropped lil factoids left and right (for those of you who know me, I too like to drop random 411 about whatever). But ya, she's a Fine Arts major at CSU. I noticed the necklace she was wearing man it was KILLER! She made it all by hand out of silver, copper and quartz. Check out the chain, she made that link, by friggen link, which took her about 11 hours total to make. I'm seriously contemplating having her make me a chain...
What a day/evening it was, and again an honor for two very awesome people. Much congrats to Aunty and Uncle!
