Enchanted weekend - Part 1

Hello everyone!

I am finally taking a break from work and it still seems like I have almost no time to do the things I have left undone because of Mari. Babies take so much of one's time don't they?

One of the things is this, making a post about my experience in Enchanted.
It was complicated for me to attend this time for several personal reasons but I am glad I did go in the end.

I went with the same person I went with last year, my fellow Porto lolita, Vânia aka lucythewhite. She has a friend who lives in London and he gladly took us in for the weekend which cut down costs.
The flight was ok... we were both very tired and I went feeling super sick as I had been for the last month. Last year I went when I was sick too so it seems like fate.

We got there, got in a cab and arrived safely to the destination. Introductions were in order and then we slept, like babies because we were beat.

I knew I was arriving late to this, I was part of the SFE team and I wasn't there for the interviews, the meeting, the partying... nothing. I missed all pre-enchanted meetings because of my job.

We woke up and started getting ready which was easy since both of us went with somewhat easy to put together coordinated for both days.

This is where we stayed. It's a really lovely flat, small but with everything brand new. I was in awe when i heard the brutal rent he pays for it though, lets just say its more than I make a month from my current job. 

This dress really makes me look short in this picture. What am I wearing? I wonder.

We walked around 2min to the nearest metro station and just headed to our destination: Liverpool street.
At the station we had to get coffee and eat something, we were starving and in desperate need of coffee.

And just a cappuccino and a a sandwich was around 7/8 euro? Super expensive, London is really expensive.

This area looks like this, a big mixture of old buildings and new buildings. Somehow it works. It is charming.

I just really like this selfie. haha

 When we arrived at the venue location there was a man filming the entrance and I guess he filmed us too. I then found out he was the Kawaii International filming staff. Duh Jo, just duh.

The outside seemed really nice but it was inside that my jaw dropped, the ceiling, just look at that ceiling!

Inside Gibson Hall, London

The plan was to arrive at the event venue at 12 to help setting up and we did just that. The only people there were helpers, stall staff and models at the time but i could already see everyone looking amazing.
When finally it was time to open the doors and welcome guests I was asked to help with the queue so I was greeting guests and directing them to a ticket assistant. It was fun but it took a while so i grew very tired in the end. It was nice because i got to see everyone's coordinates, one by one. I saw a bit of everything and i noticed head gear especially, everyone got really creative! I saw people wearing miniatures of all sorts, antlers... magestic hats, the works.

After watching the fashion show and because I had no time to see anything, I decided to go check the stalls very quickly and ran into people I wanted to take photos of and that's when it occured to me that it might be a good idea to start making use of the camera. I did just that.

My first photo was with the handsome Toni Määttä who was modeling for Fidel's fashion show.

This was the garden area outside where one could take photos. Unfortunately I did not stroll around and failed to see a magnificent gate that some others used to take photos. 

I am happy to have finally met both Lempicka Maria as well as the striking 

Julie d'Aubigny. How awesome do these ladies look? 

It was a clear festival of photo taking!

With my dear Sara L Orcajo impecably dressed in Fidel again. I tell you that man can do no wrong. 

And another amazing woman, miss Ada Nutella who inspired me to continue wearing lolita.

I was so glad to be able to meet Sandra Grummel. We have known each other for many many years online and I highly respect her as a lolita as a person. She is amazing. I was not disappointed when I met her and found that we have many things in common. Thank you for everything! I always love that Sina M. J. Maaliz sports metamorphose gear to these things. <3 I also like meeting new people!

I was super happy to see Vief Cumberbatch again. I did not know her before Frock On, she is one of Vânia's favorite lolitas and that's when i met her, when she made the introductions. I was happy to be nearer to her since she was also part of the team. The lady in the pink dress is Christina Dreijer who is one of my best foreign lolita friends. I just adore her. The other lady sporting that rad outfit she made herself (talented!) is another lolita I have known for ages and only met in person now. This event's main + for me was this, i cannot believe i met so many people i only knew online!

I also took a photo of these amazing french lolitas: Tro-Tro Anthropophagie, 

BloodyQueen Lolita-deFrance and Lunie Chan (the lovely lady behind lunieshop).

 Me with ATELIER PIERROT's designer/CEO Ashizawa. She was so nice. I was thrilled to tell her how much I love her brand and also how Osaka's Ap store is my favorite lolita store so far in Japan. They treat me very well there, always! And a photo with my lady crush, miss Aliki-Anastasia Arkomani who is absolutely amazing. You cannot believe her makeup skills!

Another thing that was a dream about Enchanted was meeting a special group of ladies. One of them is, of course, 

Marissa Barnett who is also a lolita mom and that's awesome. She also always has such original coordinates and her hair is always so perfectly styled. She's that sort of lady who would probably look worse in a wig. That's how fab she is!

I also got to meet the amazing DarthMyrrh Noblechaos, Betty Ho, Abby Woodham, Leechy Nut, Arthael Walkingshadow, and Jo Anna Balsamo who were in my opinion best dressed in both days. I have no idea how people can look this awesome but I want in on it! They are also very funny, nice and passionate people. I am really happy I met all of them and I hope this won't be the last time. 

I borrowed this photo from the oficial photographer because its the only nice photo of me and 

Vânia Rodrigues but also because Josine Maaike Annette and her absolutely jaw dropping outfit and Kari van der Voort who is just a living doll are there. I loved meeting them too, they are both genuinely sweet! 

 Unfortunately I do not have photos with everyone but I hope you do not mind not being mentioned this time. Rest assured you all made my day and I am still feeling like it was all a magical dream!

I missed all the cakes, I hate a square of chocolate that Vânia got for me and I ended up doing minimum shopping due to lack of time and will to shop i guess. I think the variety just makes me confused. haha

There were also amazing performances happening by the end of the day which only made the event more complete.

Everything was just amazing for me and i cannot help but be in awe with everything!

The evening ended even more perfectly, with a nice quiet dinner in the company of amazing people (including a "couple" that was super fun and whom I adore now like you have no idea! Me and Scarlet discussed our local communities and other issues. It was very interesting. All this together with very nice Indian food. Actually it wasn't very expensive for us because Indian food in Portugal is super expensive and we ended up paying more or less the same we would pay at a restaurant here.

After this we said goodbye and returned home by metro. We told João about our day, had a cup of tea and passed out a while after. We were beat, happy but beat.

So what did I get on day one?

1. A publicity leaflet from the printing company for Shades of Wonderland (I am waiting for the english version to be published and then i'll buy that in 2 seconds. I considered the german, that's how amazing that book is!)
2. Contact flyers and cards from people who I talked to and who were all super nice to me. Some brand flyers as well.
3. Enchanted SFE team key/wing/bow brooch, i adore it so much i am going to wear it often even out of enchanted <3
4. Purchase: Aatp headbow - Queen of Snow and the Magic - (i have the matching dress!), bought in the second hand stall - the bring & buy
5. Purchase: Angelic Pretty half bonnet - Eternal Rose Bouquet - (i have the matching dress and socks), bought at the dreamy bows stall.

That is it for day one, I hope you enjoyed reading! Stay tuned for day two.

Love always,
Jo