Hi friends! <3
I'm super excited to be going to Ruffle Con again! Last year I went with my boyfriend and a bunch of fellow comm members. It was so much fun I had to go again this year. There was some prep work that had to be done first though...
Tickets
Went on sale in March I believe. There was a variety of different ones. You could choose from basic one day admission all the way up to premium weekend admission. Certain ones included a meal plan or bonus stuff like a swag bag or dinner with the brand designers/guests. Everything sold out fairly quickly at the higher levels. I went with the deluxe weekend ticket which included a tea party ticket and a swag bag.
Booking the room
My boyfriend was very helpful with this part as he's used to making the reservations when we travel. As soon as room reservations opened up, he booked a club level room which included breakfast and dinner. Later on, he got an additional basic room for our friends. Since we were sharing the rooms among a group of us, the cost per night wasn't too bad.
Planning the Coords
Since the con was running for 3 days, I decided to plan out and bring 4 coords. I wanted to have an extra one just in case. After picking out my dresses and blouses, I tried them on and chose matching accessories. I'm glad I did this beforehand since I ended up making a few adjustments/changes. I was also was feeling crafty, so I made a couple accessories to go with my coords. A cute honey bear brooch and a pair of bat wings for my shoes.
Consignment
I also decided to bring stuff for the consignment room. I went through the sales items in my closet, submitted them online, and packed them up to bring along.
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Thursday morning, we packed up the car and headed over to pick up a local lolita friend who was joining us. After loading up their stuff, we headed out for Ruffle Con. The trip took about 7 hours plus stops for food/gas/rest stops. My boyfriend and I took turns driving every few hours. It worked out pretty well. There was a bit of traffic once we got into the city, so going was slow for a while. Eventually we arrived at the hotel, checked in, picked up our badges, and made it upstairs just in time for dinner. Later on, we unloaded the car and admired the room. It was nice with plenty of space for us to share. I unpacked a bit so I could find things in the morning, and looked at the event schedule trying to plan out the next day. I had some hot tea to help me relax before calling it a night.
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Day 1
I started the day off early with breakfast and getting dressed in my first coord. Consignment intake began at 9am and I didn't want to get caught up in a crowd. When I got there it was already looking fairly busy. You picked up your pre-made info/price tags at the front desk, attached them to your items, and then got in line for everything to be scanned in. Then a staff member would sort the items onto display racks to be sent to the consignment room upstairs. Aside from the scanning machine being a bit slow, there weren't any issues.
Once that was done, I ran upstairs to get in line for the consignment room to start shopping! While I had waited in line downstairs, I had been checking out the stuff that others had brought in. The door opened up and I went in. First thing I checked out were the socks and small accessories. I didn't plan to buy any clothes or large items so I figured socks and accessories would be a good place to start. I found a couple items and went downstairs to where the vendors were. I headed for the Triple Fortune Booth first. Made a couple purchases there and made my way around the rest of the vendors browsing the goods for sale. A few purchases later, I was done with buying and headed back to the room to drop off my bags and chill.
I returned to the vendors and went around again in case I had missed anything. Nope, all set. I went to the Triple Fortune fashion show which was also a concert. The designers were also singers! How cool is that? :-)
When it finished, I had dinner, and relaxed in the room with my friends having some drinks. I then transformed from a lolita into a panda. It felt to nice to be out of all those layers. I was indeed one happy panda. Off to a panel I went; Dramatic Readings from Behind the Bows. People read old posts from this gossip type blog on stage in silly voices. I enjoyed it a lot. It was late when I tucked in for the night.
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Wore a classic/gothic coord in green x ivory x black.
Jsk~ Metamorphose "Secret Laboratory Ribbon Shirred"
Necklace~ Metamorphose "Crystal Lantern"
Otks~ Alice and the Pirates "Merry Making in the Ghost Town"
Purse~ Innocent World "Rose Lace Book"
Ring~ Automatic Honey "Dearly Departed"
Blouse, jabot, earrings~ vintage/thrifted
Shoes~ offbrand (with handmade bat wings)
Hat, other ring~ offbrand
Makeup and details closeup pic...
