Basket Full of Daisies: Black Tie

Kenny and I recently attended a very exciting event in Houston called the Astros' Wives Black Ties and Baseball Caps. Its a dinner and auction that benefits the Houston Women's Center. We were very lucky to get the chance to go, but didn't get the invite until the day before. Kenny called me from work and I could tell he had something to say but was reluctant to tell me. He said something like, "So we got asked to go to this thing tomorrow, a dinner, its in Minute Maid Park, its hosted by the Astros..." (all this was sounding great to me but then he continued with..) "and its Black Tie." The first thing that I thought was, "I have absolutely nothing appropriate for that type of thing" and I told him so. Well, all he had to do to convince me was utter the magic words, "I'll take you shopping for a dress." (any excuse to go shopping and for a fancy dress...count me in!!) So I replied, "OK! and shoes!"

After he came home from work we headed out to find a dress and there is no better place to shop in Houston than the Galleria. The Galleria is the largest mall I've ever been too and it has all the best stores. There's Tiffany, De Beers, Cartier, Valentino, Saks, Neimans, etc. All of which are too rich for my blood (for now atleast ; ) ). So I knew the perfect store to go to. As soon as we walked in, we headed straight for BCBGMAXAZRIA. Within 30 minutes of being in there I found a great dress, tried it on, decided it was perfect and bought it. I was shocked that it was so easy to find a dress and I'm sure Kenny was relieved. Little did he know, we would still be in the Galleria for another 2 hours looking for the perfect jewelry and shoes. I found shoes (and they were fantastic) but had no luck with jewelry. So I went home feeling pretty good about what we found but I still felt something missing without the right jewelry. The following morning, I decided I would try my luck on 19th street in the heights at all the antique stores, vintage shops, and boutiques. I walked in and out of every store. I looked in all the jewelry cases in every antique store and nothing jumped out. Luckily in the last store I went to, a cute boutique called Jubilee, I found gold chandelier earrings that would work just fine. I rushed home and started getting ready. The whole time I was feeling jittery because not only was I going to this "fancy" event but I was also meeting Kenny's boss. I wanted to make a good impression.

K got home and we loaded up. We headed to Minute Maid Park. Upon arrival a valet service took our car and we waltzed right in. Everyone was dressed to a T, but I think we fit right in. Kenny looked great in his dark gray suit and black tie. He didn't have time to get a tux and the only other tux option he had was a tux he had from the 10th grade so the dark suit was the way he went. Why he still has that old tux is beyond, sentimental maybe.

We signed in and walked around the corner to see this.

these were taken by the press
i didn't want to seem uncool by getting my camera out

I was getting very excited. We walked down the walk way to get to center field. Some photographer guy took our picture a couple of times, but I still haven't figured out where those pictures went. He probably deleted them after he figured out we're not famous.

Inside, the food was great. Kenny was excited to see some of his baseball idols and I was enjoying looking at what all the women were wearing. The event flew by. It was over in no time at all, and my wine glass was never empty. Needless to say, the service was great. We left feeling very lucky to have gotten the chance to go.

I was too nervous to take pictures inside the event, which i realize was dumb now that its over with, so I don't have any from inside the field. We took a few when we got home.