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Sunday 13 April 2014

The Great Gatsby Ball

Ben and I at the start of the evening
First of all, apologies for the extremely long photo, and congratulations for making it this far! 

Approximately three weeks ago (woah, where does time go?!), on the 21st of March, was the Physics Department's annual ball. This year it was Great Gatsby themed, which immediately made me very excited with the thought of dancing around a giant pool, with champagne on tap and a firework finale. Okay, maybe my imagination got a bit carried away. But, even with a more realistic mindset, I spent the two weeks prior to the Ball becoming increasingly more excited. I love 20s fashion, and I found the perfect dress in the ASOS sale. And who doesn't love dressing up fancy?


The Ball was held in a function room of the Paragon Hotel in Birmingham, and the ticket cost included a three course meal, a welcome drink and table wine. As my boyfriend, Ben, was travelling up from Bristol with limited time left to get ready, we decided it'd make most sense to book a room at the hotel. That way he could head straight there and start getting ready, as opposed to taking a detour to my house.

The hotel, like most hotels, looked really posh in the foyer and function rooms (good first impression and all...), but the rooms weren't anything special. However, upon arrival, there was about an hour until the Ball kicked off, so nothing could dampen my excitement! I did my makeup and then did my hair in the style I had spent a few weeks practicing (typically I think it was the worst it'd ever gone, but at least it looked fancier than doing nothing at all), and pulled on my dress. After spending ages trying to help Ben with his bow tie (he figured it out in the end), we headed downstairs to meet everyone else. Turns out we were too late for the welcome drink (Ooops. I like to think, we were fashionably late), but apparently we didn't miss much.

Mid-party selfie! This was after a few drinks... trying (and failing, I think) to look sober!
After about ten minutes outside we were invited to take our seats in the function room. The first difficulty was finding our table (there were about 250 guests), but after some searching we were happy to find that our table was centrally placed. After introducing ourselves to "the other half of the table" (who were lovely), we cracked open the wine and waited for our starters. My sister, Jess, and I were pleased to discover that the pre-made playlist contained such classics as 'She Will Be Loved' by Maroon 5, and 'How to Save a Life' by The Fray. Early 2000s hits anyone?

The food arrived relatively quickly, and was okay but not great. Guess it was to be expected when there was so many people to cater for! There was, however, an amazing Gatsby themed cake that looked too good to eat. I'm glad I wasn't the one who had to cut it, because there was obviously a lot of time and effort invested in it!

The amazing cake. I hadn't realised that my uni's physics society was founded 130 years ago!
The best part of the night was the music. There were two 45 minute sets from a great live band, and another three hours or so of songs I love and songs I forgot I loved. I love hearing music that I've not listened to for ages, and I danced all night. I felt a little bit sorry for Ben as I knew about 98% of the songs and so was reluctant to leave the dance floor. Think I tired him out! The night finished at 1 am with a beautiful drunken rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody by all the attendees.

I was so excited for the Ball, and I'm really glad that it lived up to my expectations. It was one of the last parties I'll attend as an undergraduate, and I'm glad that I made some memories I'll keep forever. I've been drunkenly invited to next year's party, and I'll be accepting that offer gladly!

Have you ever been to a Gatsby party?
P.S. What do you think of super detailed lifestyle posts like this one? It took me a while to write this post as I couldn't decide how much detail to include, as I didn't want the post to be boring. In the end I decided to document the night how I would like to remember it as I think it'll be a great thing to look back on. Let me know what you think!

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9 comments:

  1. This party looks so fun! I have always wanted to attend a gatby ball, your dress is gorgeous.

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    1. It was so much fun! Thank you so much - I really hope you get to go to a Gatsby party one day :) x

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  2. You look amazing!!! I love your dress and that cake :O

    Now following your adorable blog xx

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    Replies
    1. Aaaw shucks. Thank you ^_^ And I'm so glad that you like it here! :) xx

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  3. omg that dress is gorgeous! and you looked so stunning!!! xxxx

    Laura | Tease Flutter Pout

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