In my last post I explained that we had got in to St. Louis on a Friday and walked around downtown until it started to rain. The next morning we went to my friend Kate's wedding, and spent the following afternoon walking around. That evening, her reception was slated to start at 5:30 Since the reception was not at the hotel, Kate provided transportation to The Franklin Room about 2 miles away. I had thought this was provided by the hotel as a result of booking so many rooms. I think her group had about 30-40 rooms at the hotel, and there were at least 90 of us staying there. Later that evening I found out that Kate had booked the transportation both to and from the hotel. This turned to be very advantageous for everyone who attended.
The venue was built for the World's Fair as a traditionally balloon. The stage can accommodate a moderate orchestra, and the dance floor is large enough for hundreds of people. Not including the head table there were a little over 30 tables of 6. We were seated with one of Kate's parents' family friends, and one of Kate's ex-boyfriends. They were all easy to talk to which made the evening go a little smoother for Valerie and I since everyone else we knew was sitting at the head table or at the same table as Kate's parents.
After the wedding party and the newlyweds made their grand entrance the MC made a few announcements and had everyone get on the dance floor to take a large group photo. Based on the Franklin Room's website and what the MC said this a tradition they do with every wedding they host. After we took the pictures, there was a little break in the procedure. Since the photographer had only been contracted for a short amount of time, the cake was cut before we ate dinner. The dinner itself was nothing fancy or unique. It was a simple buffet with salad rolls, pasta, turkey, and roast beast. Once the wedding party had finished eating the obligatory dances were danced, and Kate starting making the rounds.
At this point, like most the people there, I had a few drinks in me. When Valerie and I were outside during smoke breaks we had some interesting conversations with several people we had never met, and will probably never meet again. Things like, Catholicism, politics, and Wal-Mart. And as I had mentioned earlier, I was able to use this time to talk to people I knew and had not seen in a while like Kate's younger brother Joe. Even though I date Kate for a brief time, the amount of time I have spent talking to Joe over the years is easily quadruple the time I have spent with Kate. As such I was exited to see that he was able to make the from Arizona where he is getting his degree in Art History to be at the wedding. There were some of us who jokingly offered to bet friends on whether or not he would show. It's not that he is a bad sibling, it's just who is and that is a topic for a post all by itself.
Once the reception started to wind down, went out to the dance floor to catch-up with some of the folks in the wedding party like the maid of honor, Jaime, and the matron of honor, Erin. Oddly enough about two years ago I was the chauffeur for Erin's Bachelorette Party. She had rented a van a drove and I drove her and her friends (including Kate) from bar to bar all night. Speaking of transportation, it was a good thing Kate had provided it back to the hotel. Most of us were in no condition to drive, even the measly 2 miles back. I'm not sure if people drank more because of this, but either way it made for a good time and it was great planning on Kate's part.
When we got on the bus we found out Joe had saved Valerie and I a seat in the back. Along with Joe was one of his friends from Tucson, Trent, and oddly enough one their friends who now performs burlesque in St. Louis with The Alley Cat Revue. I can't remember her real name so we are just going to have to call her GoGo. On the way back to the hotel we decided the night was far from over. I had beer back in my room and we also raided the cooler full of beer that was on the bus. We sat and talked in my room for a while and Joe showed me the current project him and Trent had been working on. They call it 90 second sketches. Basically they ask people if they can draw a portrait of strangers and they only allow themselves 90 seconds. Keep in mind, both Trent and Joe's medium of choice used to be photography, and Joe admits drawing is not his strong suit. Once they finish the sketch they ink them in pen, and shade them with pastels, and charcoals. The results are amazing and I have ordered a book from Joe and it's going to go on my coffee table. I mentioned that they had a familiar yet unique style to them and that it would be well suited for a comic book. Joe admitted that he had toyed with the idea, and asked me to submit a script to him to see what we could come up with. I have had time to start on that because of the computer issues I've had this week, but I do plan on working on this weekend or next week.
After an hour or two of sitting around in the room we were getting a little antsy and the smoke was starting to get to us. Trent and GoGo decided to walk around downtown to find some food, while the rest of us decided to take the party down to the bar. We made it for last call and while we lounging in the nice comfy chairs we decided to order some pizza. We found a Papa Johns that was open until 4am and we decided to sit out front and wait for the delivery. Why we waiting we met a few folks from a fraternity that had held their Spring formal at the hotel the night before. There were a few girls with them that Joe struck a conversation with, and later with Trent and GoGo when they got back. Our pizza arrived and we were all a little cold so we headed back to the room.
We chowed down on the pizza and debated on whether to go crash the party the Fraternity was holding a few floors up. We debated it for a while. Valerie was tired and decided to go to bed, while I decided to stay up a little longer but pass on the party. I knew there were kids there that were under 21 and the last thing I needed was a contributing to the delinquency of minors charge. I stayed up about an hour after Joe, Trent, and GoGo left, and hit the sack around 4am. We were supposed to go down to Six Flags St. Louis the next morning, but we had already decided that we were going to sleep in. We did eventually make it down there, but like all my theme park reviews that's going to have to wait for yet another post. In the meantime, check out more pictures the trip in my gallery.