Tea at the Palace

Last year I was lucky enough to be invited to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. There is quite a strict dress code involved with ladies requested to wear tea dresses and hats. As I am usually superglued to my jeans, I was thrown into a bit of a quandry. I didn't actually own a dress!

As the dress was the main requirement, that is the first item I bought. I purchased a pretty silk tea dress in shades of pink on a white background. It was perfect. Unfortunately, I hadn't actually considered accessorising a pink dress. Easier said than done, believe me. I spent a long time deliberating on colour and whether or not your shoes, hat and handbag need to match each other or not. In the end the lack of pink accessories for sale solved that dilemma!

By some complete miracle I managed to find a pair of dark pink suede shoes which matched the dark pink in my dress perfectly. That just left the hat and handbag. The hat came next as I managed to find a large white gauze hat which was ideal. With a white hat, I opted for white handbag as I decided trying to find the right shade of pink handbag was going to be impossible.

Having already spent a small fortune on the dress, shoes and hat, I really didn't feel like spending very much on a white handbag. To be honest, I didn't think I would use a white handbag again in a hurry either. I headed to the bridal section of a local department store and found the perfect bag there. Even better, it was in the sale and cost just £3.99!

On the day, the outfit looked perfect and I felt like a million dollars rubbing shoulders with Royalty at the Palace. Not sure what they would have thought of my bargain basement handbag, but it just goes to show you don't have to spend a fortune on designer labels. You just need a bit of luck when shopping.