So I keep thinking I’ve been to the best blog event ever and then another comes along that is fabulous! Cue Ladbrokes Poker Hold Em For Charity Event. It was a Gatsby/Twenties themed event held at the Double Tree in Leeds, and everyone went all out and dressed to impress! So what did I wear?
I didn’t want to wear a flapper dress as such so I started looking to the Internet for inspiration. I knew I wanted a head band of sorts too and pearls, lots of pearls. They are just so twenties! After looking high and low I found THE dress. Well, tabard actually. I haven’t worn a tabard since I worked for an instore bakery in 1999 and got the mick taken out of me by all my friends- it was bright white and went over a white overall dress and was topped off with a white mesh trilby. Sexual. However I figured I could give it a go for such a lovely beaded creation.
Thanks to Ellie for the above shot! 
I figured I could pop a slip dress underneath it but then when it arrived realised the body suit that is seen underneath in the photo on ASOS actually comes with the tabard. So I popped it on and Mr E just said ‘I am literally just staring at your crotch’ and he was right. So I donned my new black chaffrees , popped the body suit over the top and added a very short tube skirt to stop my crotch grabbing all the attention! The slits still showed lots of leg which I liked and made it really comfy to wear too.also I don’t think they wore leotards in the twenties do you!?
I then ordered loads of headbands to try out with it to find one to match, if you’re on Twitter you may have seen all my options! In the end the ladies at Salon You who did my hair for occasion got to choose from the top 2 Twitter choices and this was the winner. I think the lighter colour looked better against my hair and skin tone and again was comfy, it stayed on all night!
I added my new Viv Westwood for Mel shoes that I got from Felicity Hayward’s Depop shop and a string of pearls and beads. I really wanted to use my River Island Design Forum Scarab bag designed by William Tempest but it didn’t hold my phone so went for a River Island quilted mini cross body bag that has a furry strap as I thought it looked a bit like a boa/fur stole effect! I then used the chain from my scarab bag as a necklace, it’s covered in mini scarab beetles which are very twenties as they were obsessed with Egyptology at that time and was the inspiration for William’s collection with RI.
For the walk across windy Leeds I added my long warehouse duster jacket which I think looks pretty twenties too! It reminded me of the programme The House of Eliot a little bit, I used to love watching that as a kid and think it was the first programme that made me want to design clothes, sadly an A in GCSE textiles was as far as I got(holler if you are old enough to remember it and watched it too!)
I did my make up after searching for some tutorials and not finding any so just winged it. I later learnt they didn’t actually wing their eyeliner back then but hey ho. I did! I went smoky with burgundy and pearly pink tones and went for an ombré red lip. It lasted quite well considering the amount I ate and drank throughout the night!
I met up with Carolanne, Lucinda, Alex and Bryony before hand for a quick bite to eat as we were warned there would be wine at the event so food was certainly needed. When we arrived we were greeted with champagne in the Sky Lounge at the Double Tree I just love it there as it has some fantastic views across the city. The rest of the evening was held in a room at the end of the bar which had fabulous views of Leeds from both sides of it.
Once seated we got straight into playing poker I’ve never played before and it was such fun! I sat with Ellenor who was a lucky charm and I soon started to win a couple of games! Yorkshire Dad was on our table and was such a shark although he claimed I had pocket aces,but Dash was just cleaning up! Unfortunately she had to leave and so left me with her chips saying I had the best chance on our table of winning (no pressure then!) however I don’t need to use them, and although YD played very bravely we both continued to the final 2 tables and then made it to the final final 7 alongside my babes Lucinda and Bryony.
Photo thanks to Rebecca 
Photo thanks to Ellie
Luckily we had a break from all the tension and wine- and a lot of us descended upon the balcony to take some photos. My Lumee case was perfect for extra light in this case but unfortunately wine+no flash equalled a few blurry shots – thanks to Ellie and Rebecca for helping out with taking them and managing to get some fab ones! There was also a magician there who was fab and the losers from the other rounds got to watch him a bit more and play blackjack (for chocolate!) as I was still playing I went back to trying to win! Game face time!
The prize for the winner was £500 towards your chosen charity and this is where I fell down – I knew where I wanted to donate the money to, so when it came to taking risks I couldn’t as I didn’t want to lose (pretty much as if it was my own money I was betting with) I wanted to donate to this crowd rise for SCCC or to cancer research if I couldn’t, as my uni housemate passed away from that type of cancer just a few weeks before the event. That amount of money would have made a difference to that charity, however it wasn’t to be. I got to the last 4, when Yorkshire dad went all in on our head to head and I either went hard or went home. So my chips and Dash’s were surrendered. We turned our cards over with one card to go, I had a pair of kings he had a broken straight and needed an ace to win. You know what came next! Yep, and he said I had all the aces!
Lucinda was next out who was playing for her Bae- her grandad who had been supported by the motor neurone charity when her nan passed away. Again we were emotionally attached! YD and Bryony weren’t playing for any charity in particular which I think kept them more chilled , and after a couple of tense games the final game came out and Bryony won! She’s donated her winnings to her local cat shelter, so it can really make a difference to such a small local chairty, as her cat is her furry best friend (preach.) At that point it was time to go, Lauren was awarded best dressed and we were then all given goody bags to go home with!
Quite a few of us then went onto consume more wine where Mr E (mine and Carolannes chauffeur for the evening) joined us. He looked like such a don with all us girls dressed up around him! He also brought flats with him as my heels had cut my feet- ouchies. At that point figured we should stumble back to the car with Mr E wondering what the hell had gone on! Needless to say I had a blast!
I actually want to do it again and would recommend the company that held the tournament as they were über professional, and it was such a fun evening! It was more fun as we weren’t playing with actual money though which made it all the more better. If you do decide to play poker after this then please gamble responsibly!
Thanks to Ladbrokes and Search Labs for the event and hosting us all, also credit to Search Labs for some of the photos used in the post.