International Lolita Day Summer 2015 - A Walk in the Garden

June 13, 2015

A Walk in the Garden - drawn by Skullita

This year's International Lolita Day for the summer season was technically on June 6, but I celebrated on June 13. My family decided to take a week-long impromptu trip to Los Angeles. Luckily enough, the LA Lolitas' meetup was one week later which happened to coincide with my vacation plans and I was fortunately able to buy a ticket last minute. This was the first time I visited a different lolita community!

The event's name was A Walk in the Garden and it was held Tea Rose Garden in Old Pasadena. The area was gorgeous, but sadly I didn't have enough time to walk around and take pictures. Nonetheless the entrance to Tea Rose Garden was easy to find since there was a stand with the official art waiting right outside. I arrived on time for once, so I wandered inside to avoid the bright sun. It was a beautiful tea room filled with floral fragrances.

At the entrance was a relaxing lounge with elegant chairs and a wide variety of teas. When the party was officially starting, attendees went outside for the check-in process to begin. As everyone walked back inside, the organizers kindly greeted and checked names of the attendees at the front table. At the same table, there were indie brand business cards including Moss Märchen, Linda Tea, Voodooodolly, Better Off Dead Designs, Taxidermy Her Bones, Cute Can Kill, Sweet Mildred, and a few others (I wasn't able to catch all of them) along with numbered handmade paper flowers. Every attendee was asked to choose and wear their flower during the event since the numbers were to be used for the raffle and coordinate contest. Since I was wearing black and gold, I chose #10 a  goldenrod colored flower.

The raffle prize table

The first course of the afternoon was a mixed greens salad with a few petals. Both iced and hot tea were offered. I went for the Buckingham hot tea. One of the reasons I was excited for this event was unlimited tea sandwiches. Yes, unlimited. Four types of sandwiches were served and there were scones and an assortment of fruit for dessert.

There were two rounds of raffle drawing. I didn't win anything, but that's okay! The best dressed contest was determined by voting. I had an extremely hard time deciding who to choose since everyone looked spectacular! According to the vote tally, everybody had received a vote!

I had time to walk around and take a few coordinate snaps. Sadly a lot of them turned out blurry, so I can't post as many as I wanted, but it was amazing to meet so many people I admired online for a long time! I even saw a few familiar faces from Nightfall!

 This Usakumya was done.

Everybody received a postcard and button by Skullita and a lolita coordinate checklist by Miss Angela! They are extremely cute and I'll definitely be using the notepad!

The weather in California was so much cooler than Texas, but wearing a large coat was still a bad idea, haha. When I got back to my rental car, I immediately threw the layers off.

Coordinate rundown
Jacket: Atelier Boz Gilford Swallowtail Jacket
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates Moonlight Temptation from the Monochrome Guide of the Dark Blouse
Pants: Alice and the Pirates Destinee de la Rose Pants
Buttcape: Atelier Boz Gefion Overskirt
Shoes: Bodyline shoes278
Accessories: Automatic Honey Sacred Heart necklace and ring, Linda Tea JoJo gogogo clip, Aetherlund bat wing cuffs

Shout outs to my sister for helping me with my hair and Sarah for putting together 90% of the coord since I couldn't decide what to wear.

Thank you to the L.A. community for holding this event and making me feel very welcomed! I'm glad I was able to attend and hope to meet again!