Magdalene May Ball 2015

Last week the hubby and I attended the Magdalene College White Tie May Ball in Cambridge. If you have been reading my blog for a while you will see these posts pop up every two years. I love sharing these experiences with you all, especially when there is an opportunity to dress up! It’s funny to think that this year will be 10 years since we matriculated and here we are back again still feeling (and behaving) like teenagers.

Rather than going for a traditional ball gown (I wore a pretty big MaxMara number to the last one) I decided to switch it up with something a little more sleek and form fitting.

The India dress from Forever Unique was on sale in two different colours (purple version from ASOS here). However, as I wore a purple one shouldered gown (from Coast) four years ago I decided to try the emerald green. I absolutely loved the heavy embellishment on the sleeve of this dress and its overall shape.

Of course the material of these types of dresses is always quite thin so you can see every contour, making a tactical choice of underwear a must!

For makeup I did a very simple smokey eye using the Naked 3 palette from Urban Decay. I made sure that the look lasted all night by using a really long lasting foundation (Mac Studio Fix) and setting it all carefully with powder (I used a combination of MAC MSF natural and ELF Mineral Glow powder). I finished the look off with false lashes from Eyelure (Cheryl Girls Night style).

 

For hair I used the Babyliss wide barrel tong (Glamour Waves) to create large curls. I then clipped the bottom sections while getting ready to ensure they had more texture and gently curled the top section at the end so it looked smooth and sleek.

It was a wonderful night of champagne, street food, music and dancing with the Fratellis performing.

We bumped into so many alumni from our university days and it was really fun catching up with them all!

I made it from sunset to sunrise! Hopefully we will be back in 2017!!

Magdalene May Ball

I mentioned in my last video that I was going to a ball in Cambridge on Wednesday. As you can imagine I was excited and wanted to look my best. However, getting ready in my boyfriend's tiny little room with a hand held mirror and poor lighting was a struggle and my hair and makeup didn't quite turn out as I wanted :(. Oh well, I am generally very picky, especially when it comes to my own looks, and was determined not to stress out about it!
We started queuing at about 6.30pm, and it was a long wait, but I had fun checking out everyone's dresses.. hehe. We finally left at 7.30am so it was a very long night in my heals and I was truly frazzled when the survivours photo had been taken.

Here is a little selection of photos from the night :).

In the queue:
The program had a very snazzy wax seal with the college crest and a purple ribbon (this is the college colour), which I thought was a lovely touch!After many many glasses of champagne we were getting quite rosey at dinner ;).We even made a rose tower out of all our champagne glasses... and no it didn't fall ;O.
After dinner we went to see the comedy tent and after being thoroughly insulted ;) my boyfriend begged me to watch the burlesque dancer, what a surprise! The performance was actually pretty tame, so I was relieved. We then stopped off for a dance at the silent disco and filled up on some thai green curry, hog roast, jelly beans, ice-cream and cocktails.. yummmm! We listened to some of the acts performing, which included the likes of scratch perverts and then hung out at the floating casino with some martinis. The sun started to come up and I managed to capture this beautiful image:

As the sun was rising we braved the massive queue for breakfast and I was happy to rest my very tired feet before we had our last dance. With far too many blisters, muddy dress and frizzy hair we lined up for the surivours photo along the riverbank.

It was a fantastic night, but in the morning all I really wanted was to crawl into bed and sleep till the late afternoon, or indeed forever! I shall leave you now with a not so glamorous photo of me looking a hot, hungover mess in my bf's shoes and white tie.. shmexy!! :)