Celebrating my Senior Prom birthday with my handsome husband! Cheers to 60 years!!!
This is Part Two of a two part story of my 60th birthday party celebration in 2019.
“You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
Dance floor ready with balloons!
The last week of party prep, Eddie was really able to help with a number of things, including completing our 50s couple look by buying a white tux jacket online! He helped get the wine and beer bought and anything else bar related. One huge item he helped with the day of the event was blowing up gold and black balloons! Boy! That was a dizzying task! We really needed to have those blown up before heading to Miami Café. Then we had to fit them into the car with everything else!!! These balloons covered the floor in the restaurant and were the last decorations we set up for the party.
I headed down to Miami Café about 4 hours before the party ready to decorate! My prom committee – Denise and Vanessa – and later, Cristina and my daughter, Emily, joined in to help get the restaurant party ready. This included tablecloths, centerpieces and getting the photo backdrop done. We added assorted yearbooks as décor in the restaurants front windows in keeping with the theme.
Eddie arrived a few hours beforehand to set up the bar. We had agreed only to have beer and wine and a signature Tito’s cocktail. But Eddie decided to bring some bourbon from his collection and boy was that a hit! He proceeded to set up the bar displaying everything we had. Eddie played bartender for most of the night and had a blast!
Denise told me back in January she wanted to create a corsage table for my guests to choose from. Being the event planner extraordinaire that she is, she not only created wrist, lapel corsages and boutonnières, she even put them in plastic containers. They were all so beautiful and I know it took a lot of time to pull together. This was such a special part of the party to me.
Right at 7 p.m. the guests started arriving…and what fun it was to see everyone all dressed up and really getting into the theme of the party! I found out that night, that so many of my guests did not attend their own proms, so they were really doing it up right that night. There were a few who REALLY went over the top, like my friend Chris Miller. I saw him walking in but I didn’t recognize him. In fact, I thought he was walking through the restaurant to see the owner, Luis. As he got closer to me, I realized who it was and I couldn’t stop laughing! He came dressed in full on 70s with a black rock star hair and he even dyed his beard to complete the look! Every time I look at any photo of Chris from my party I literally laugh out loud!
A close second to Chris was my friend Marie. She made her dress out of orange, white and gray duct tape! I couldn’t tell what she was wearing until I got closer and I was completely floored at how great it looked! In the 2001, Duck Tape brand duct tape started a prom competition awarding scholarships to the best duct tape prom dress. I swear, Marie would have won had she been in high school at that time! She even wore a roll of tape as a bangle bracelet!
Luis brought out his incredible food – jerk chicken, rice and beansas the crowd grew and even added some Cuban sandwiches to the buffet. I was all over those! Everyone took full advantage of the photo backdrop and gave their best cheesy prom poses. Vanessa and Cristina served as official photographers until Cristina’s boyfriend Jerrod (a professional photographer!) arrived. I’m usually the person taking the photos so it was a little strange handing off my camera to someone else. I definitely had fun the next day looking through all the photos!
Once everyone was fed, it was time to crown the prom king and queen. My daughter, Emily, served as the MC during this portion of the party. Eddie was crowned prom king. Then I was crowned prom queen, as a few of my friends commented that the voting was fixed. Of course, there wasn’t any voting so the joke was on them! (Ha-ha…I love my friends and this is so typical!) DJ Rod quickly began playing our first dance song, Ed Sheeran’s, “Perfect.” It was at this point that I really thought I was going to cry. Everything had turned out so perfect and I was just so happy to be celebrating with so many friends and family members. As we danced, Eddie was grinning ear to ear and that made me even happier. We danced a short while together when I called everyone to join us on the dance floor, and they did…
I used my new Designs by Lolita “Sixty is Sassy” wine glass for the evening!
Sadly, my mother couldn’t be at the party because she had been sick all week. We were both disappointed but I felt like she was with me because I was able to wear a rhinestone bracelet she wore to her senior prom in 1956. I also brought along my “60 and Sassy” Lolita wine glass to use at the party because Designs by Lolita creates a wine glass for every occasion – I kid you not!
Louise’s Cake was enjoyed by everyone! So much so that we didn’t have anything left over!!! Emily Redmond helped with the cake and making sure everyone got a slice. You really can’t go wrong with cakes from this great little shop in Hoover. As I’ve said before, we get all our Zuniga-Odom special occasion cakes from this bakery.
I wish I could post all the photos that were taken that night. Reliving the party through these photos always puts a huge smile on my face and brings back great memories. My friends and family still talk about this party and I’m so glad they had a memorable time as well. Here are a few more photos and I dare you not to smile as you go through them!
Southern Señora 