Oh We're All Mad Here....!

16th October 2013

Mad Hatters Tea Party

What a fabulous night! 

Emma and Lia opened the meeting with the news that sadly our President, Claire Spake, has decided to step down from her position due to family and work commitments, we will be sorry to see her go and wish her all the best for the future.  Lia will be stepping up as Acting President.

Onto brighter news - we were delighted to announce that our Burlesque Evening raised an incredible £1,200.00 for the St Albans and Hertsmere Womens Refuge!  We would like to extend a huge thank you to everybody involved in helping to make the evening such a roaring success and all local businesses who kindly donated their time and products for our raffle.  We will be welcoming Liz Perry from the SAHWR next month to present her with a cheque for the money raised.  So a huge round of applause to all involved - hurrah!

Rebecca took a few moments to speak about our Trade Table which is present at every meeting, contributions raised from the sales on this table go towards our W.I. so we are encouraging everyone as much as possible to bring along your wares (or even a friends to sell on their behalf) on the evening to sell.  Rebecca also encouraged members to give us suggestions on what they would like to see on the Trade Table - the more ideas the merrier!  If you would like to sell or have any suggestions for future meetings then please contact Rebecca on hertsbellesstalbanswi@gmail.com 

 Our Trade Table suitably themed for our Tea Party

It was announced that current Memberships are due for renewal in January 2014 and the price has now gone up to £34.70 for the year.  Please note that if you are a new member joining prior to January 2014, your membership will run through to the end of next year.

Lia announced that as there was no meeting in December, we would use the date to hold a Christmas Party - restaurant stylie - locally.  We are currently researching two venues so we will keep you updated...  

Our Mad Hatters Tea Party began with some deliciously scrummy food brought in by our Belles.  And Hats off (ahem, pardon the pun) to the Belle who brought the delicious chocolate creation - Mary Berry would be proud! Delicious!!



Delicious Tea Party Delights brought by our Belles

We were absolutely thrilled to welcome our Mad Hatter for the Evening; the amazing, Philip Ian Wright, to join us to give us a talk on the history of his family's business, Walter Wright Ltd which has been established since 1889 and just what goes into putting these amazing pieces of art together. 

 

 

The wonderful Philip Ian Wright sporting some of his creations

 

Philip is an incredibly gifted man and a real character, the hats that he brought along to exhibit to us sure had us gals in a tizzy, I know I had my eye on the 1940s hat as soon as it emerged from the box, my thoughts were soon echoed by the rest of the Belles who all rushed over at the end to try it on, along with his other creations - and they all looked absolutely fabulous!!

Some of Philip's beautiful hats (soon to be labelled 'Dawn's new collection' - oh well a gal can dream can't she!)

One of our lovely Belles modelling another fabulous piece

 

We were delighted to welcome Irene from Bricket Wood W.I to come and join us for the evening, and she was plucked out of the crowd to model some of Philip's creations for us and didn't she look just marvellous...

 

Well sadly it was all over far too quickly and we had to bid adieu to Philip and his beautiful creations, before packing away our tea cups and making our merry way home with dreams of our perfect hat in our heads and not a 'chickens bum on a comb' in sight ;)

Until next time ladies...

xx

Roll Up Roll Up for the Best Burlesque Circus in Town!

Well, well, well - didn't we do WELL!!

Our fabulous gals put together one helluva fabulous night!!

Raising money and awareness for the St Albans & Hertsmere Womens Refuge we hosted a Burlesque Evening at the Cue Club in St Albans on Saturday 21st September 2013. 

With the venue decorated beautifully by our very talented girls we were ready for action! 

The evening began with a few words from Liz Perry of St Albans & Hertsmere Womens Refuge, who gave a moving and though provoking speech to raise awareness for the Refuge.  

The show then kicked off with the debut performance from the incredible new band The Inmates playing some fabulous old school rhythm and blues accompanied on the dance floor by the amazing dancers from St Albans Jive Swing who got the crowd in the mood.

The amazing dancers from St Albans Jive Swing in full flow

   Our fabulous band: The Inmates

Now the show was in full swing and it was time for our beautiful performers to appear, October Rush, Tigerlily Wolf, Lady May-den Voyage and Scarlet Cuffs.   Each of the ladies put on a stunning and unique performance and the crowd were truly delighted!  The ladies were followed by Magician Dee Riley who did a fabulous job in keeping everyone amazed and entertained.

October Rush                                                                 Tigerlily Wolf

 

 Scarlet Cuffs                                                            Lady May-den Voyage

 Dee Riley

The evening was compered by Big Top Tim who did a marvellous job being our Ringmaster and making sure everyone was kept captivated at all times! 

Throughout the evening we had a jewellery stall run by Troublecat Jewellery, our guests could then move along to our Pop Up Parlour run by Bombshell Boutique who spent the evening creating beautiful make up and hair styles, before moving along to get snapped in our Photo Booth run by yours truly; Dawn Elliott Photography.  

Our fab Head of Events, Lia, with Ringmaster for the evening, Big Top Tim,

taking advantage of our Photo Booth 

 

 

We were honoured to welcome Mayor of St Albans, Annie Brewster, who showed her support and gave a speech and presented our Head of Events, Lia Nellissen, with a much deserved bunch of flowers for all her hard work.
 

Mayor of St Albans, Annie Brewster and husband, Paul,

with our Treasurer Dawn Golding

The Inmates then began their final set and everyone danced into the early hours and I think I can safely say a good time was had by all!!!

Roll on the next one....!