Dragoncon 2004 parade – we decided to walk with the LOTR group! This worked out since I had Arwen I wanted to wear, the mums had their hobbit costumes, and Ash got talked into wearing a cape and accompanying me to handle my train.
My Arwen costume was very long and very white, so to keep it from getting destroyed by walking on the pavement, I made a drop skirt out of some cheap white fabric and a piece of hooping. One thing about my Arwen costume, though – the shoes for it were white platforms, in order to give me an “elvish” height. Not a problem when just walking around the con or whatever, and I honestly didn’t think it would be a problem in the parade, either.
So we set out for the parade muster. No problem walking down there. Take lots of pics waiting on step off. Get lined up and off we go.
Ok, what I didn’t expect was the hurricane-force winds coming through the buildings at me. And yes, even though the wind is always bad ripping between the buildings, I mean hurricane winds literally – I think it may have been Hurricane Francis making its way up the coastline and pushing strong winds through Atlanta. I mean, look at my dress in the photo above – that’s a HEAVY costume to be pushing around. Heavy, heavy satin and velvet.
But, besides that, it’s going fine. My drop skirt is working great keeping my skirts off the ground, though I’m having to hold up the front of my skirts.
But then. The laces of my boots start getting caught in the winds, since they’re exposed because I’m having to hold up my skirts. And what do they do? They managed to tangle up into the hooks of the OTHER boot. Yes, my boots became locked together, basically.
Even then, I’m keeping a pretty good pace, as best I can. But, as we walk, I can see the contingent of elves in front of us slowly getting further and further away. My pack of elves kept pace with me, thankfully.
Finally as we round the last corner by the front of the Hyatt, I can see that they are so far ahead of us that there’s half a block between us. I’m just huffing and trying to keep moving now. But, as we rounded that corner, there was a family standing there. It wasn’t the crowds like it is now, but still a decent crowd. The mother of this group, an older woman, starts yelling and pointing at me. “OOH! LOOK! THIS MUST BE THE QUEEN! YALL! HERE COMES THE QUEEN!”
Talk about an ego boost. With a renewed spring in my step I managed to finish the parade, with my boots still hung together and out of breath – but we made it.
I’ve made better shoe choices in parades since – but not necessarily better costume choices (I’m looking at you, velvet Time Lord robes)