Un Anniversaire à Paris

On Saturday December 14th I celebrated my birthday with a big Lolita birthday party! It was an incredible day and I can’t wait to tell you all about it, but let me tell you about some of my preparations before first. ^^
After deciding with my mom to have a Lolita birthday party, we immediately started brainstorming. I wanted a theme for my party and I immediately thought of ‘Paris’, because I love the city so much and I would love to wear my Promenade de Paris dress for the first time around my birthday. So this would be perfect! During the weeks after, I thought a lot about the party: decorations, food, music, activities… So many ideas formed in my head! I wanted to base the decorations on my dress, so everything would be pink and blue, with hints of mint, white and other colours from the dress. I wanted the food to be French-ish and of course I needed a cake! We went to an amazing cake shop and they wrote all my wishes down. It sounded very promising. :3

A couple of weeks in advance, I invited my Lolita friends. It was quite hard, because I could only invite a limited amount of people. I even had to cross people off my list! But otherwise there would have been too many girls in my house and we wouldn’t have fit!
About three weeks before my birthday, I was talking to Emilie on Facebook about the party and my preparations. I told her I didn’t have to work at all during that weekend and we were joking about her coming over. Suddenly, the atmosphere changed from funny to serious. Emilie looked up flight prices and they weren’t bad at all! Within 30 minutes we planned, I asked my parents for permission and Emilie booked a plane flight! Completely spontaneously my friend from Switzerland was coming over for my birthday party! My already amazing birthday became even more awesome within the blink of an eye!
So the day before the party, I went grocery shopping with my mom, decorated the house a bit and cleaned up before I picked up Emilie from the airport. When we got home, we had dinner, talked and Emilie gave me one of her presents in advance. When I opened it I couldn’t believe my eyes! Emilie had made me a beautiful blue sash with ‘Bonjour Paris!’ in pink letters on it and a matching Eiffeltower brooch! I really loved the sashes she had made for herself and now I had one of my own! She had made it especially to match my birthday outfit, so I could immediately wear it the next day! I was so happy! ;_;
The rest of the evening we spent cutting decorations, decorating the tables (one table with a beautiful center piece, the other’s inside with bows, buttons and Paris-themed coasters), putting up garlands and my mom put papillotes in my hair. By 11 pm we were done and everything looked so amazing! Just as I had imagined!

Pictures of our gorgeous table center piece, some of the candy and decorations.
Everything looked even prettier than I had hoped for!
The next day it was finally party time! My mom, Emilie and I had breakfast and put cups filled with sweets on the dining table. We also put up some extra chairs (plus my special, pretty birthday chair ^^). Then Emilie and I got dressed, while my parents went to pick up the cake. When they got back, my mom took the papilottes out of my hair (cuuurls *_*) and when Emilie and I were done, we had a little photoshoot! ^^ I really liked both of our outfits, what do you think? ♥

My Paris-themed birthday outfit!
I was so happy to wear my Promenade de Paris dress for the first time! It really is such an amazing dress with so many details! I think I did it justice with this outfit. And Emilie’s sash matched my outfit so well, it was just made for this dress! *_* I will make an outfit rundown in a following post. ^^

Emilie’s brown and pink outfit!
Emilie wore her Petit Patisserie dress, to create a sort of ‘Ladurée look’. I really liked her creative spin with the theme and I loved her outfit even more!

And a picture together! ♥
Even though we didn’t match in colour perfectly, I still we think we looked really nice together! I always love to see Lolita friends wear different outfits together, it makes for such cute pictures!
I also posed with my cake, since it matched my dress so perfectly!

I loved my cake so much! *o*
Then it was time to pick up the girls from the station. My mom drove me and Emilie there, we waited for everyone to arrive. Before I knew it, most of them already arrived and I did a quick round of introduction, although most girls know each other already. Finally, it was time to go and we walked all the way back to my house. My mom was already waiting for us with her camera (hihi ^^) and took a group picture of us.

Most of the party guests. ^^
This is when the only negative thing of the day happened. The air was so moist outside, my beautiful curls went totally flat. ;_; I was quite sad about it… But I guess it was like… an offer? Because the rest of the day was so amazing! ^^
We went inside, got rid off our coats and I put on the playlist with French-like songs I created. All the present girls got settled and we waited for the last two to arrive. Finally I could welcome everyone. I thanked all the girls for coming and told them a bit about the schedule of the day. First we would have tea and cake, then do presents, then we could have a little photoshoot, then there would be a quiz, while the answers got checked there would be some time to talk and eat and then the quiz results would be announced. Quite a schedule. ^^’
My mom and I served everyone tea and then it was time for cake! My mom lit the ‘2’ and ‘1’ candles and I carried my beautiful cake to the table. Everyone loved it! *_* Then it was time to blow out the candles!

Even my candles matched my cake! I chose all my items very carefully. ^^
After I blew out the candles, someone asked me if I had made a wish, but I had totally forgotten about it! I was too happy to wish for anything, I guess! ^^
Then I had to kill my beautiful cake (uhhuh ;_;), but at least I could do it with a pink knife! After everyone had received a piece, I could finally try my cake as well. And it was goooood! *_* I really loved it so much! I had chosen Swiss cream and raspberry jam for the filling and it was just perfect!

Me killing my cake (aww) and Cat and Rowie receiving their pieces.
After everyone was done, it was time for presents! My, oh my, did I get spoiled! I swear: I got the best presents ever! ;_; From handmade items to thoughtful bought gifts! Everyone went out of their way to get me pretty things. I still don’t know how to express my gratitude, thank you all so much girls! ♥ I am so very happy with everything I received. Thank you!

Just a few of the wonderful presents I got! ;_; ♥
After the presents, it was photoshoot time! My dad had emptied our dvd closet and Emilie and I had decorated it with flowers and all kinds of cute items as a background for the pictures. We started out with some group pictures. We took quite a lot, some serious, some less serious. XD

This is my favourite out of all the group pictures! ^^
After that, it was time for solo pictures! Every Lolita needs some shots of her outfit of course! We also took pictures in my birthday chair and I wanted a picture with every guest!

Picture time! I love this photo so much! *_*
My mom and I put some more food on the table, like cream puffs, pink and white meringues and the clafoutis Kim had made especially (it was really good, thank you so much Kim)! We took a lot of outfit pictures, ate food and talked. It was so much fun! ^^ Everyone looked amazing, therefor I made a little collage of (almost) everyone! ♥

First up Rowan, looking stunning in her black and white coord!

Naomi, in her fabulous pastries outfit (the back of her beret looked like a cake as well)!

Michelle, in her gorgeous sailor outfit that also happened to
have almost the same colours as the French flag!

Katie, who looked elegant as ever in het stunning outfit!

Eveline, in her amazing handmade French-themed dress!

Rowie, looking like a beautiful stylish French lady!

Kim, looking magnificent in her so very French outfit!

And Emilie again, who deserves another frame for looking so amazing!

And finally, my chair picture because I love it! :3
Unfortunately one of the girls had to leave, but I was really happy she could come anyway! ^^ After we all said goodbye to her, everyone settled on the couches and chairs and I handed everyone an answering form, for the quiz was about to start! I had made up 11 Lolita-related questions and 5 Paris-related questions.

Let the quiz begin! ^^
For the Lolita questions I had read interviews with models and designers and looked up some particular dresses. All questions were really hard and just useless facts, which gave everyone a fair chance for the answers were multiple choice and everyone had to guess. ^^ There were questions like: ‘What is Misako Aoki’s favourite season?’ and ‘What is Rinrin Doll’s real name?’ The Paris questions were facts like: ‘How high is the Eiffeltower?’ and ‘Which of the following macarons is not a real flavour at Ladurée?’ I had had quite a lot of fun thinking of questions and creating a powerpoint! ^^

Some examples of the Lolita questions. Do you know all the answers? ^^
After the quiz had finished, my mom and I checked all the answers, while the rest of the girls chatted. Finally, there were two winners: Naomi and Kim! They both received a little bag with prizes from Swimmer and Claire’s. :3
Some girls had to leave a little early. My schedule was done, but we still had some time left, which resulted into spontaneous karaoke. YouTube is just amazing! We sang the most varying songs: from Disney’s ‘Under the sea’ to ‘Paint it black’ from the Rolling Stones. It was so much fun!
Then the party came to an end. I thanked the remaining girls for coming and waved them goodbye. It had been such a lovely day! ♥
Emilie and I got redressed, my mom got Chinese food and we spent the rest of the evening eating and talking. Finally, we went to bed. It had been an amazing day! Thanks again to all the girls for coming and making my 21st birthday a magical one! ✩ Also a huge thank you to my sweet mom who helped me with everything! ♥

Bonus picture: all hail the Birthday Princess! XD
Pictures are either taken by Emilie or by me.