Wedding in St. Louis 11/6/10

I went to Brooke and John's wedding in St. Louis last weekend. The weather was fabulous and so were ALL the festivities!! Phil came in on Friday and came to Noni and Papa Shorts for dinner. It was great how he and Noni discussed recipes and ingredients! : }

Christopher stopped over after dinner to pick Phil up. They had an evening planned to be with all the cousins. Rob stayed with his best friend since 1st grade, Louie.Rehearsal Dinner on Thursday evening. This is John Zingrich, Brooke's soon to be husband! He was thanking everyone for coming and for all the planning that had been done. Papa was getting ready to say the prayer before dinner.

Brooke and her mom, Venessa.

This is Danny, Brooke's brother, the baseball player of the family standing with cousin Stephanie [Greta's daughter] and Brooke, the bride to be.

Venessa, Greta, me and Mom.

The wedding!! Brooke and John had 9 bridesmaids and

grooms men, with a 2 year old ring bearer and 2 year old flower girl.

Taking red roses to their moms

Exchanging rings

Aunt Greta reading from the book of Tobias in the Catholic bible

Wayne giving his daughter away

Here comes the bride.......

The girls wore platinum tea length strapless dresses with patent leather peek-a-boo spiky high heels , pearl necklaces and bracelets and all had up-do's. They all carried long stemmed white calalillies....beautiful!

Danny escorted Stehpanie down the isle

Venessa on the right, mother of the bride and Janet on the left, mother of the groom just coming from lighting the Unity candle

Man and Wife!! : }

So the wedding was at 1:00pm and the reception didn't begin until 6. The reception was simply elegant and wonderful. John is a manager at Butler's Pantry Catering Co. and they provided the food and hall.
They had a DJ, open bar, 330 guest showed up, a sit down steak dinner for everyone and a candy bar set up as you left that evening. Fun had by ALL!!! : }

Brooke and her father dancing

Brooke and John's first dance

All the grandson's around their Papa! He loves them all sooo very much <3

Aunt Dee and her son Christopher

Stephanina and Danny

John giving a toast before his grandmother said grace before the meal. See the huge lite of their initials JZB to the right!

Aunt Ness and Uncle Al

Aunts Nessa and Greta

Brooke and her Noni

Me and my wonderful sons! : } We missed you Am!

Cousins!! Rob, Chris, Phil, Steph, and Todd

Aunt Greta and her kids, Stephanie, Todd and his girlfriend, Courtney.

Aunt Dee and Uncle Mark

This was the hall, the Palladium, before everyone arrived

Above the main floor was the balcony where tables and a bar were also set up. John's friends from the Butler's Pantry all sat up there. They ALL donated their time this night as a wedding gift to John : }

Standing up in the balcony looking down on the main floor as the guests arrived.

Wedding Cake

The Student Restaurant at KC Art Institute 10-10

I drove 3 hours to have lunch at The International Art Institute of Kansas City and let me tell you, it was well worth it!! This is where Phil goes to school and will be graduating in March, 2011. The senior class has a semester of running the restaurant that is open to the public for lunch. The student chef's rotate between the different positions of serving/clearing the tables, hostessing/greeting, and the many positions of chef that include soups/appetizers, main entrees, and bread/desserts. Phil just happened to be the dessert chef of the day! This was the table Phil reserved for me! Right in front of the picture window that allowed me to watch the chefs at work.

I got an up close and personal tour of the kitchen. It was so impressive and its so obvious Phil is happy and content in his choice of career. I'm soooo proud of him!! OK, so now I am sitting at my table watching Phil work and taking pictures until my heart is content. I think I took about 51 pics in an hours time : } Here he's preparing the soup of the day which was tomato soup with dill and a frothy cream of sorts dolloped on top. The presentation was beautiful! I would never had thought to put dill in tomato soup [usually its basil] and this was simply luscious!

Phil discussing something about food [I'm sure] with another chef : }

During my lunch, He would come out and just talk or see what I was thinking about "everything". Literally, I LOVED the entire experience and wish with all my heart I lived closer because I certainly would visit this restaurant often. I ordered homemade lemonade and Cioppini, which was a fish stew that had a slice of garlic toast on the side. Loved it! And it just happened to be my Chef's recommendation for the day!

As I'm eating and observing the business of the kitchen, I continued to take pictures. Below Phil is preparing my dessert. I ordered his pumpkin creme brulee' and I got to watch him create it.

Voila'!! He sent out 2 sugared shortbread cookies he had made that were literally to-die-for and a steaming cup of coffee. I could have licked the creme brulee' bowl clean! It is so surreal to think that my son is cooking like this.......I am so very proud of him! : }

So after eating ALL this, and I mean I didn't leave a crumb, I am sitting at the table sipping on the coffee and just was in heaven watching my son "cook" and discuss things with all the other chefs. The chef with the white hat that stands tall is the Instructor [on the left]. All the student chefs wear white hats that lean over.

He's now preparing chocolate souffle's.


And before I know it, the Instructor Chef comes out and serves me "another" dessert saying, "Compliments of the Dessert Chef". I look up and there is my Phil looking at me with this huge beautiful smile on his face! He made me a miniature chocolate souffle' with a vanilla cream poured into the center of it. Well, I just "had" to eat the whole thing! : }

I had a day a mother dreams about. Thank you my son for inviting me and sharing your love of cooking. You really are a "Foodie" and I absolutely love discussing recipes with you and being able to call you and ask cooking questions. God is so good and blesses those who have patience : }