Paris, Day 2 – Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Tea Party

On Friday morning Emilie and I woke up really early, because today was the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Tea Party! After talking a little in bed, we got up and got dressed to get breakfast at the bakery only 20 meters away from the hotel. I chose a chocolate viennoise, a brioche sucrée and an orange juice and Emilie chose some similar things. We went back to the hotel and ate our delicious breakfast on our beds. The weather looked wonderful from our French balcony, but it also looked like it was going to be hot (which was not very convenient for Lolita of course). Oh well, nothing to do about that. ^^
We finished our breakfast and then put down the things we would need for our outfits on the bed. My outfit was based on my Pas de deux in the blue moon Odette jumperskirt, the dress I had bought at Baby on my previous trip to Paris. Since the dress has a Swan Lake ballet theme, I tried to put some ballet-like details into my outfit, like a black feather head piece and a little ballerina clip. In the end I didn’t look that ballerina-ish, but I loved my outfit a lot, so it was perfectly fine. ^^
Emilie had decided on an Alice and the Pirates outfit for the first time she went to a Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Tea Party! She would wear her beautiful long Elizabeth Bride of the Death jumperskirt in ivory with a wonderful hand made sash.
We started to get ready. Our room had a ridiculous amount of mirrors (six mirrors for two persons!), but in this case it was quite convenient, since we didn’t get into each other’s way. It was a lot of fun getting dressed with another Lolita, since we could help each other wherever needed and we could chat too. I took ages to get my hair into two ponytails and then braids (damn my awful perfectionism, Emilie must have thought I was crazy!), but she could help me zip my dress up and I could help her too. Finally, we were done! And so incredibly on time! We got our things together and went on our way to the Baby shop!
We walked up to the metro station and waited for a while until the metro would arrive. I must say people didn’t stare that much at us this time, but that was probably because we weren’t wearing bright pink. ^^ We took the metro to Concorde, where we transfered to line 8 and got out at Ledru Rollin. I was quite excited, because it had been so much fun to go to the Baby shop before the Tea Party last year. There were a lot of people and I met Sydney and Yumi. It was so great! Emilie and I walked up to the store and we joked about how it would be funny if we were the first ones to arrive. We approached the store and discovered to our great surprise that we were the first ones to arrive! The shop was completely empty, except for shop girl Claire! Emilie and I laughed and just started to browse the shop a bit again. Emilie looked at a cardigan she had fallen in love with. If I had been rich, I would have bought it for her, haha. :3 We also had the perfect opportunity to take outfit pictures before the Tea Party now!

My ‘Tea Party Ballerina’ outfit. What do you think? :3
Emilie and I know eachother’s cameras pretty well by now, which is a very good thing. ^^ In this way, we can take great outfit pictures!

Emilie in her beautiful Elizabeth dress! Don’t you just love her outfit?
We also asked Claire to take some instant pictures of us! Emilie has an amazing instant camera that she used a lot during our days in Paris (lucky me, huhu :3). Instant pictures are really in these days, I love them!
Just as Emilie was taking pictures of the details in my hair, some people were coming in! I couldn’t see who they were, but just as Emilie was finished, I heard a familiar voice saying my name. It was my friend Cat, who was also coming to the Tea Party! She had entered the shop, together with a girl wearing a lovely Baby outfit with a hat and basket covered in colourful flowers. She had made them herself! So lovely.
We left the shop for a while and took some pictures outside as well.
Then I saw lovely Yumi walking up to us! I was so happy to see her again! She looked absolutely stunning in her navy blue Baby dress. I was so excited to see her, I had to hug her twice! XD Soon she was joined by her friend Karima, who I had only met once last year. I was so happy to see her again too. Both girls would come to the Tea Party, yay! ♥

Yumi, Karima and me. ♥ Beautiful girls, inside and out.
We took some more pictures outside, when suddenly I saw someone walking up to us from the corner of my eye. It was Constance, one of the Lolitas I had met last year. I was so glad to see her, since she wasn’t coming to the Tea Party!
We took some more pictures (so many pictures~!) and the Baby shop closed. Eventually the group split up and Emilie, Constance and I went to McDonald’s to get something to drink. I had a delicious raspberry frappé. It was so good! ^^
We sat down for a while and just talked. It was so nice to just chat with Emilie and Constance. After a while, we decided it was time to go to the Marriott Hotel where the Tea Party would take place. Even though she wasn’t going, Constance decided to join us on our way to the hotel. We took the metro to Richelieu Drouot and apparently took the perfect exit, since we could see the hotel on the other side of the street. We crossed the street and arrived at the front door at the same time as some other lovely Lolitas.

Hotel Marriott, the hotel that changed its name five days before the Tea Party, haha!
Soon we were joined by many people and I was really happy girls recognised me and came up to say hi, like Lou, Sam and Lili! I would have felt so stupid if I had said hi to someone and they’d be like: ‘Who are you?’ XD We also talked a lot with Vera, a lovely German Lolita who looked beautiful in her black and pink outfit with bonnet. She would also come to the Angelic Pretty Tea Party! We had actually already met her at the AP Party last year, but we hadn’t talked so much back then. But now we did! ^^
Within the blink of an eye the group became really big and in the distance I saw Mila, a lovely French Lolita I had met via Facebook. We were looking forward to meeting each other and she quickly came up to me. I was so happy to finally meet her! ♥ She looked absolutely stunning in her pink dress with princess cape and hand made Baby logo scepter (!). I immediately knew she would win the best dressed contest for Baby, I just knew it! The girls automatically formed a circle and we had a lovely group conversation. I am very much impressed by the English skills of the French Lolitas! I was too shy to speak French myself, ahem. ^^’
Then finally Sawada-san, Baby Paris’ owner, walked out of the hotel and invited us in. Unfortunately, Emilie and I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to Constance anymore (again, so sorry dear!), but we were the first ones inside thanks to the fact we were standing close to the entrance. We followed Sawada-san to the Vendôme room. Just around the corner of the doors, a table was set up. Behind it was Claire, in a beautiful white kodona/ouji-style (I never know the real difference) outfit that I completely fell in love with. She looked so stunning! I must have awkwardly gawked at her accidentally, whoops! ^^’
Emilie and I got our names checked on the list, got a pin with our number and a voting card and received a bag with our Tea Party gift! We quickly chose a table: the one in the middle of the room, close to the food table (I swear: the fact the table was in the middle of the room was the reason, not the food) and we sat down to check our gift. To our surprise we didn’t get one gift, but two! First, a lovely gold necklace with the Baby logo attached to it (I was sooo happy, because I was hoping for a necklace) and a cute hair bow set. There were different colours of bows, both for Baby and Alice and the Pirates. I got a lovely set of white x pink bows, while Emilie traded her black AatP bows for a yellow Baby set with someone.

My Tea Party gifts! I love them so much! *_*
Quickly, some girls walked up to our table and asked us if they could join us. We had a lovely table: Emilie, Lou, Lili, a lovely girl whose name I can’t remember unfortunately, a very talented drawer, Yumi, Karima, Vera and me of course. We had the cool table, huhu (I am joking. :3)! While people were getting seated, Emilie and I walked around the room a bit. The food table had macarons and glasses with fruit on the food table. There was a beautiful pink dress with matching bonnet on display on one side of the room. On the other side was a dark green dress with a clock print on the bottom. Later Claire told us she was supposed to wear the green dress, but the white ouji outfit didn’t fit on the dressing form, so she got to wear it!
Finally, after a while, everyone got seated and we were welcomed. We were thanked for coming and were invited to have some food and champagne. ^^

The food table.
Since our table was close to the food table, we all managed to get some nice things. I had three macarons, some grape fruit parts and a little glass of pineapple juice. Now, this is one part about the Tea Party that was a little less fun. Many people, including Emilie and me, were expecting a lot of food. It has always been like that on Baby Tea Parties: pastries and then another big cake. So all the guests usually don’t eat much before the Party. This year, the macarons and the fruit was all we got. And even that wasn’t enough for all the 90+ guests. I felt quite bad for having three macarons, but I was under the impression there would be enough and more! I talked to Claire about it later and she told me she and Sawada-san were not happy with the hotel staff at all, because this was not what they had arranged. Oh well.
After our food, Emilie and I just walked around and took loads of pictures of each other with other people (we also checked the hotel bathroom. Fancy hotels have fancy bathrooms). We were really each other’s photographers! ^^ I met a lot of amazing new people, like Marie Tuonetar and Ludwig von Szwaja, who both looked stunning as usual. *_* I had seen them on pictures before on Facebook, so I was really happy to meet them in real life.

Maybe I’m a bit silly, but I am so happy with this picture~! ♥ I was blushing here, ahem.
I also met Camille and Yoki, two girls who read my blog! I was so happy and honoured when I met them! ♥ They both looked amazing as well!

With Camille and Yoki. Both looked so cute! I loved Camille’s hat and Yoki’s bunny ears!
Finally, Emilie and I could take some pictures with Mila. She and her scepter were quite popular, hihi. ^^

Emilie, Mila and me~! I love how extra pink Mila looks next to us. We look like princesses!
I apologize for the picture spam (but then again, what would a Tea Party post be without pictures?), but we took quite a lot at this moment. I also took a picture with Claire!

Excuse me while I go breath into a paper bag from the awesomeness that is Claire’s outfit…
Then it was time for the lottery! When your number was drawn, you got a prize. I wasn’t lucky again this time unfortunately, but Emilie won a prize! She got a lovely Alice and the Pirates set: a blouse, a bustier and a necklace. Unfortunately, the items were not really her style, so she will probably sell them. Except for the necklace, which she traded with another prize winner for another necklace that is more her style. ^^
After the lottery, Emilie and I left the room to take some pictures in the hall (there was a lot of loud music. Lovely pop-like classical music, which I like a lot, but very loud). We got joined by Vera and took tome lovely pictures!

With Vera, who looked gorgeous in her black x pink outfit! ♥
We also talked a bit with Hoa, aka Harlyharlekin, who we had met at last year’s Tea Parties already. I always love to talk to her. She is an amazing Lolita and a very kind person. ♥

Emilie and Hoa~!
I also talked with Angélique, a lovely girl who I had met at the Party last year. She is so nice and funny! ♥ She wore the Millefeuille jumperskirt I have too, but in navy. She looked awesome!
We went back into the room, where I quickly handed in my voting form (I am always so indecisive). We took some pictures with Pom Pommandarine, a French Lolita who was dressed in a beautiful French-themed coord. She had even made a croissant bag!

With Pom! Her outfit was amazing! Every detail was perfect!
Then, it was time to announce the winners. After a drumroll, the girl for the AatP prize was announced: it was Lucie, who wore an amazing black outfit with peacock feathers (later I was joking with her about how she had to kill the bird herself, haha). Then, after another drumroll, the Baby winner got announced: it was Mila! I knew it! :3 It’s funny, both the girls I predicted won!
After the contest, Claire announced we could have our pictures taken by the photographer, so Emilie and I jumped at the chance!

A lovely little group picture of different styles!
We took more pictures with other people, while staying close to the air vents. It was so hot in the room! Where is the airconditioning when you need it? XD

Compliment to myself: I really love this picture! ♥
Adorable Mila~!
I kept looking around me. Everyone looked so amazing. It’s incredible how creative people are in Lolita! There were girls in Sweet, Gothic, Classic, some more simple, some more elaborate, but all equally beautiful!

Marie Tuonetar and Mila. ♥
When everyone had had their picture taken, we took a big group picture (although we were with too many people, so you can’t see everyone unfortunately).

Unfortunately, Emilie is not visible, but can you find me?
Then, the Tea Party came to an end. We asked Sawada-san for a picture (which is like a tradition, haha) and thanked him and Claire for the wonderful Party.

Obligatory picture with Sawada-san~!
We left the hotel and talked for a minute to some girls still standing outside (we were the last to leave of course. XD). Finally we left and walked back to the metro. While we were walking, I looked left and saw the Sacré Coeur in the distance, beautifully illuminated by the sun.
We took the metro back to our hotel and were happy to finally throw all our clothes off: we were so hot! Nevertheless it had been a superfun day filled with lovely encounters.
After we regained a normal temperature again, we went to get pizza from the Italian restaurant across the street (pizza with ham, cheese, egg and crème fraîche, so good!) and two pastries from the bakery. We were quite hungry after the Tea Party, haha! XD We had a lovely dinner and then went to sleep. It had been a wonderful day!

Pictures are either taken by Emilie or by me.