Tea at Le Chalet

Ah, finally! The first meetup of 2020. I’ve been looking forward to this one for what feels like such a long time. Here was no way that I would’ve missed this.

I'm getting better and better at doing this go-to basic makeup quickly. I was done with everything so quickly that I genuinely had good 40 minutes of time to just take photos at home.

This brooch took two attempts to pin, because it's large and heavy. And look at that rose lace. Innocent World picked such a pretty kind of lace for their bolero, can't not love it!

Since I didn’t get to wear this dress last year, I was determined to wear it asap in 2020. And as soon as I put it on, I got even more like ‘Girl, you need to wear it more, it’s your ultimate dream dress’. This coordinate is the same one I put together for this dress’ 1 Dress 4 Looks post, with a few minor changes. As it turned out, the headdress I had in that post really wouldn’t work without some truly mahoosive hair and I needed something a bit more chill, since I wanted to preserve energy. But I’m very happy with how it looks worn and now that I’ve rediscovered my love for wearing this dress, as well as how great it is for actually more casual wear, I am determined to give it two outings this year.

The first Leeds comm meetup of 2020 was a simple outing for afternoon tea. Our host rightly observed that it’s actually been a long time since we’ve gone out just for tea. We’ve had plenty of unusual meetups, as well as ended up having afternoon tea during other occasions, but I genuinely can’t remember the last time a Leeds meetup would only specify going for afternoon tea. And whether it’s that or the early New Year promises of making it to more meets, it’s been really well attended, I believe we’ve had a party of about 17? That’s amazing and even more so as it was a mix of old and new members.

We went to a French-style café called Le Chalet and now that I’ve tried it, I’m sure we’ll be back. Although the meet was for afternoon tea, plenty of us (myself included) opted for things from the main menu. Since I had scones earlier that week (God bless the person in our office who made and brought them) and I was up early to get ready, I wanted a more savoury lunch, so I got some meatballs with bread and ordered dessert separately: white chocolate and blueberry crème brulee. However, seeing people’s afternoon teas got me quite jealous and I think if I come back, I’ll probably have that. Not only did everything look delicious (so much so that I snapped a picture of other people’s food), but you got to choose your sandwiches. There were only two per person, which made it much more realistic to finish the whole tea set. And given that my portion of meatballs was actually pretty big (I couldn’t finish it) and then the crème brulee also turned out to be proper massive (I thought I’d get a small ramekin, not a whole plate), maybe I would’ve been better off with an afternoon tea after all? No regrets though, everything was absolutely delicious and I definitely could not complain of being hungry afterwards. The food and service were a solid 10 for me and I will definitely go back.

How scrumptuous does this afternoon tea set look? Next time I'll definitely have that!

I ordered myself some flowering green tea, which was really lovely, especially with some honey.

Not all foods are aesthetically pleasing, but they were delicious and filling nonetheless.

Big boi creme brulee. The fruit at the bottom was gorgeous, though the white chocoate custard got very rich very quickly, which did not help with finishing this off. Though at least it means that a few others were able to try it too.

Whilst it was great that we had such a large group, the space was a bit small for us and the petticoats. This meant that I couldn’t speak to everyone I wanted to or as much as I wanted to. And the people I did chat to, both familiar and new faces, were lovely. I had such a great time that completely didn’t notice how two hours went by and the time for us to clear the space creeped up upon us. Though in those two hours we managed to find someone their dream dress, shock people that my half wig was in fact a wig and not my real hair, and decide that Love from the North Take 2 will happen in March 2021. This is why meetups are great, you never know what might come out just because the right two people got talking.

Afterwards we went to a park nearby (one I haven’t been to since a picnic meet waaaay back when now) to take outfit pictures. Whilst I personally opted out, since I got some good ones at home, I was happy to take some for others. I did, however, whip out one of my Christmas presents: a Fujifilm Instax camera and got one of the lolitas to snap a quick portrait for me. As we looked a little confused why the film wasn’t developing as fast as I’ve seen it before, a stranger who was practising tai chi just behind us suddenly jumped in. Turns out that he was a photographer and explained a few technical bits with instant-print cameras like Instax (namely that the camera and film need to be at a certain temperature to work best) and that with a £500-600 investment I could get one that not only printsi instantly, but focuses the image to, which Instax doesn’t. It was genuinely really fascinating, he seemed to have some very extensive knowledge, but he was very polite, both about interjecting and about not overstaying, so left as quickly and suddenly as he appeared. I’m definitely going to look into this whole temperature thing more, as I would like to have a few more cool Instax snaps to either display at my place or to send to family.

I'm debating whether to leave it as is or to get a cute cover for it.

The very first photo taken with my Instax camera.

After this we tried to take a group photo. It started off a little shaky: we first tried the timer and then attempted to connect the camera to a mobile phone to act as a shutter. I mean, both of those worked, just not quite as smoothly as one would like, particularly as the wind was quite cold (hello, it is January). However, we’ve encountered another kind stranger, a young woman passing by who offered to take some for us. You know when a stranger is going to take a good photo when you see them bend their knees and get that good angle, instead of just straight up pointing the camera at you. And indeed, the photo ended up really great, so thank you, kind stranger.

Look how amazing everyone looked! I love my comm so much and am very grateful to have them in my life.

As it was cold and it started to get late, our group slowly withered away with people returning home. With a few of those whose train was later, like mine, we wandered briefly towards Trinity Shopping Centre, but Primark didn’t have what we wanted, the bubble tea had a big queue, and Lindt ended up being a very quick trip. So we decided to slowly head back towards the train station and by the time we got there, I was able to basically go straight for my train.

It was lovely seeing so many people at the meetup. Whilst I wish that I could catch up with some of them more, it’s not always easy with such big groups and I am very happy that I got to chat to the people I did. There is a meetup happening this Saturday coming, although I’m not sure yet whether I’ll attend, I’m going to check my energy levels towards the end of the week. If I don’t make it, I already have some things lined up for early February though, so all is good.

Have you had your first lolita meetup of 2020 yet? Or a chance to frill up, if you’re a lone lolita?