Annual Victorian Party

My good friend madamemodiste's Annual Victorian Party was this past weekend! She graciously invites friends and costumers to her place every year for a day of food, laughter & fun under a tent in her backyard, in lovely summer fashion! Costumes from 1800-1900 or thereabouts are welcomed. I try to make this one every year if I can, because she is always such a gracious hostess and the fun, oh the fun, despite the heat & humidity, we ALWAYS have a fantastic time!

Victorian Party group photo by quincy134

This year she had a special event of archery, which was really, really fun: I haven't done archery since my childhood summer camp days long ago, so this was amusing to see how little I remembered!

I had planned to make a white Victorian summer bustle, but alas, life happened, so instead I wore my early 19th century 'Strawberry Picking' Regency dress (made a few years ago for Regency Pumpkin Tea), loosely based on the S&S Regency gown pattern, paired with a chemisette my mother made, a straw bonnet I purchased from my friend Maggie, and my American Duchess 'Hartfield' boots!

Lots of delicious summer picnic food including fruit, tea sandwiches, cheese, salami, pasta salads, fried chicken, and much more, plus lots of drinks - our hostess even made a pretty pink cake that ended up crashing on itself, that was ABSOLUTELY delicious! Much fun was had by all, especially when it came to archery.

My HB had to remind me how to hold and shoot the bow & arrows, lol:

TheLadyDetalle shoots archery photo by quincy134

I forgot my good camera, and only took two pictures and one video with my iPhone, so I've included a few photos taken by my good friend, quincy134 of inthelongrun: she got some beautiful shots of the day!

This pretty much sums up how much fun we had: my friend from learningtocostume is taking a turn at archery here, and you can see us all laughing and laughing! There were a lot of archery shenanigans that day.

Learning to Costume shoots archery - photo by quincy134

Here is my HB and I enjoying the day - it was SO hot & humid, but we still had a GREAT day!

TheLadyDetalle at the Victorian Party - photo by quincy134

I even took a little video of the archery shenanigans...

Thank you, Kat, for hostessing such a lovely & fun party, it was FABULOUS!