A Candy Day Christmas Party

It feels like I didn't spend any time with the Belgian community these past months. Traveling to Holland and two times in a row to Germany for their meetings, just like I did on the 18th of December. 

On the day before the Candy Day tea party I traveled together with my husband and Saltje to a small city near Frankfurt named Offenbach. This little town was 20 minutes away from the meeting that was held in Seligenstadt. Last year I also attended this annual meeting, it was my first time so I was more that happy when we got our tickets this year. The ticket sale went super fast, it sold out in 2 minutes! But last year we did our trip of 6 hours on the day of the meeting. This was something that I wanted to change. We booked the cheapest hotel I could find and was amazed by it when we arrived. 

Our room was smelling like freshly renovated place, this wasn't on the website but awesome non the less. Saltje surprised me with a peel off face mask, so while my husband was sleeping we did our girly things and applied our masks. While browsing through the latests photo's on tumblr and facebook we waited for our masks to dry. 

Since we traveled the day before the event we had plenty of time in the morning to get dressed. I had everything plannend in my head, make up, coord but not my hair. A couple of days before the event I made my own headpiece, this was the first time I made something like this but the end result was beautiful. 

We arrived just in time, I already spotted some of the lolita girls in the garden of the monastery where the event was held. After we dropped of our cupcakes and cookies we headed towards the group of girls outside. I brought some food to share since I couldn't eat anything from the pre-made items that was made by the catering, it was super nice of the organization that they allowed us to make something and eat it at the event. 

In the garden I saw some of my friends waving at me, but I couldn't tell from that distance who it was. I think I need some new glasses, my eyesight isn't the best these days. But soon enough I spotted who it was! It were May, Jenny and Amaya. Also some other girls, but I haven't met them before. I was super excited when I saw them and we immediately made some photo's together. After we said hi and hugged each other of course. 

I didn't make any single photo's of their coords which made me a bit sad when I was writing this post but I love the pictures of us together. 

We didn't attend the guided tour through the city instead we wanted to have our pictures taken by the official photographer Christian Rösch who makes beautiful photo's. But we didn't want to wait for an hour to get our pictures so we wandered off to explore the church a bit that was just behind the garden. Inside the church we had a little shoot by ourselves but sadly the pictures didn't come out that great. Non the less it was great to hang out with the ladies.  

After a while we came back to the garden where we found some of our other friends and an other amazing photographer named Michael. I already knew him and asked if he could make a photo of me as well, he made my wedding photo's as well so I knew how awesome his work was. It was great to work with him again and the result is stunning as always. 

It was cold that day so after being outside for quite a while we headed inside to drink some hot chocolate in order to wait for the doors to open. I found a little chance to head back outside to get my pictures taken by Christian, I was really surprised by his photo's when I saw them online. I knew the Candy Day community had an amazing photographer but I didn't know he was this good! 

At 2 a clock it was time to head to the event, the doors would open in a minute. Everyone was chatting in the hallway and I met some more of my friends. There where so many people that I knew that day, this really made it so special for me. 

We shared our table with May, Carmen from Liparo, Jenny, and two other girls named Aleister and Larissa if I'm not wrong. And of course Saltje and Alexander. The tables where beautifully decorated with chandeliers, goodies, christmas decoration and little frog badges with gold crowns. They were adorable, we could write our name on it so everyone knew what our names were. 

Hoa, one of the organizers of the tea party opened the event with a little speech telling us that she was very happy with the response she had from the ticket sale and about the fact that there where people coming from Belgium and France this time to attend the tea party. It's getting bigger and bigger every year! On our table we found a little bag of homemade cookies which we could exchange for a vegan version. This was super thoughtful of the organizers and really appreciated by us. 

The buffet was just like last year filled with the most delicious looking desserts and savory snacks. Even some other girls made some vegan treats as well, in total there where 8 vegan participants. This was a lot more than I thought but amazing non the less! Sadly I still don't know who they are but their desserts where delicious. 

I participated in the secret santa so while we were enjoying our sweets the staff brought us our gifts. My secret santa had made the gift herself which is always so nice when they do this. And to my surprise it even matched my coord of the day. She made me a headbow clip and a small bow to go with it. It was perfect, now I have a matching headbow to go with my Drosselmeyer JSK. I was so in love with it that I asked Alexander to put it in my hear so I could wear it the rest of the day. 

It is a sort of tradition to have coordinate contest at the candy day christmas tea party. I knew from some girls that they would enter the contest but I was still doubting. It wanted to enter but I was also very afraid to speak in public. After I made my headpiece a couple of days before the event I started to think about entering but I hadn't made up my mind. Hoa walked by to ask if I would enter the contest, but I said... "Euhm, yah, euhm, I don't know..." I still wasn't sure if I wanted to go through with it all. Hoa laughed and said you fit perfectly in the theme you're in, just like all the other girls standing around me. I thanked her for making the decision for me since I would have been disappointed if I didn't join in the end. May told Alexander that he should join me as well so we could enter as a couple and so we did. 

I was super nervous while we where waiting in front of the christmas tree to do our little talk about our outfit. In my best English I told them about why I decided to wear the coord that I was wearing that day and that we made the accessories ourselves. Everyone clapped their hands and we walked together towards the photographer to get our picture taken. It was all over, but I was in shock about it. My hands where shaking and I almost started crying from all the stress but I did it. I took part in the contest and I talked in front of the group, mission accomplished! 

While I was writing my little valentine cards to put in the little envelopes they started with the raffle. I think everyone won a price, this is why I like this tea party so much. Everyone goes home with a a smile on their face. Not only from the raffle prices but the whole atmosphere gives it something special. I was lucky enough to win a big bow, still not sure if it fits my style entirely since it's so huge but I will find a good use for it some day. Alexander won a cute necklace which he gave to me as well. Since most of the prices are for the ladies, a man like him can't use a dusty pink butterfly necklace. 

Some more time passed by, more pictures where made and it was time to reveal the winners of the outfit contest. Too my biggest surprise we ended in third place! I still getting used to it but I'm so thankful that people liked our coord so much that they wanted to vote for us. Hoa handed over the price and I was so surprised when she held a frame in front of her. Inside was the artwork of this year made by Meri, her work is amazing and I couldn't believe that I won a print of her work. I'm a big fan of original artwork so getting this was the cherry on my pie. The rest of the price was super adorable as well, we won some cute stationary, a small bow, ring and a photobook.

To all good things comes and end and also to this day. I'm still thinking about this day like it was yesterday. Meetings in Germany have a special place in my heart, I don't know why but I love them! 

We drove back to Belgium that evening after we said goodbye to everyone we know. I received little gifts from friends and took my valentines home with me. Every one of them gets a special place in my book.

Thank you all for your time and I'll see you in my next post!