Oh my!  My first Costume College has come and gone, and with it, my first Costume College Gala.  Oh, the joy!  Oh, the frocks!  Everyone looked amazing.  The theme was ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

I have a couple hundred photos of the night, but, with much hand-wringing, I managed to narrow it down to a few favourites.

The Gala starts with a ‘Red Carpet’, and an announcer.

Waiting for the red carpet is quite fun too: it’s a more relaxed time to see everyone’s frock, and to make delicious discoveries, like finding out that your entire group, quite without any planning, has shown up in coordinating pastel frocks (aren’t they delicious!):

The red carpet is a chance to get photographed and complemented, and then you are shunted through to other end, where everyone else who has already walked is mingling and admiring and waiting for the Gala ballroom doors to open.

There are more delicious discoveries, like finding out  that someone’s outfit is as amazing as your hair:

(That’s Chris of The Laced Angel and her hair is a thing of beauty and a joy forever).

And that Kaylee came to the party!

Most though, there are just fabulous frocks to photograph.  I loooooove this  blue 1870s!:

Including Cynthia of RedThreaded’s already-justly-famous Worth recreation:

And  The Lady Detalle‘s  bee-covered Napoleonic court gown, and Gloria of In the Long Run in her 1800s court gown:

And Before the Automobile’s Edwardian evening gown.

Once everyone had made it through the red carpet, we sat down to dinner.  There were meat (the Athenians), vegetarian (the Fairies), and low allergy (The Craftsmen) options.

I’m a really slow eater (well, ok.  I just talk too much instead of eating…), and when I was finally done with my salad and ready for the vegetarian main the hotel realised they had mis-calculated and run out of the vegetarian main.  I said I was fine just having the meat main without meat, but instead they brought me out an awesome vegetarian pasta.  I’m pretty sure it was the Donkey option, and it was a leetle bit scary to eat in my dress, but it was delicious.

It wasn’t quite as exciting at the standard Vegetarian option, which, much to everyones amusement, was a pie approximately the size of your head:

After dinner there was dancing, which I would usually be super excited about, except that I can actually dance elsewhere, and I can’t seriously historical costume geek with that often, so I pretty much just admired and talked all evening!

Favourite post-dinner moments include Wearing History’s gorgeous red-silk 1790s dress:

And standing behind the photoshoot area, getting very anachronistic but fun photos of ladies in amazing frocks capturing other ladies in equally amazing frocks.  This is Ginger of Scene in the Past, photographing Taylor of Dames a la Mode  and Jenny Rose.

Ginger’s dress was one of my absolute favourites:

As was Jen of Festive Attyre’s 1790s gown with triangle trim (there is a proper name for it but it’s late and I can’t remember…), in part because it was gorgeous, and in part because every time I saw it I couldn’t help making monster jaw arms!

Aubry of A Fractured Fairytale’s evening robe is giving me serious costume envy, because it’s gorgeous, petrol blue, and the fabric (which I’m pretty sure is a discontinued silk from Burnley & Trowbridge) is so close to this dress  at the Honolulu Museum of Art.

Both Aubry & Jen are wearing Dames a La Mode jewellery.

And, to finish off, a favourite photo, and a favourite dress.  Natalie of Frolicking Frock’s recreation of the 1890s dress from Janet Arnold is so perfect, as are all the fabulous things going on in the background of this photo.

Laughter, admiration, happy conversations everywhere!  It was the perfect night.