The 2nd Annual Jazz Age Picnic

I've always seen these beautiful pictures from events around the country, especially the Gatsby Picnic in California - ladies in white lace and straw cloches, gents in tweed suits and driving outfits, lounging on a lush green lawn or playing croquet while munching on wax paper wrapped sandwiches and listening to a band playing Jazz music. I was always rather bummed that these beautiful events were on the other side of the country.

But not anymore! Last year, the Art Deco Society of Dallas put on our very own 1920s picnic, the Jazz Age Sunday Social. I missed it last year, but I was determined to go this year. The weather threatened to drive everything indoors, and the band did relocate to inside the pavilion just in case, but by noon the weather was clearing, the rain had stopped, and things were starting to dry out.

The Social was held at Dallas Heritage Village, which is made up of old houses and businesses, all pre-1910, that have been moved to one location and arranged in a village setting. It provided the perfect backdrop for the vintage event, and seeing the Model As on the brick streets by the old buildings was like stepping back in time. I was thrilled to see so many people in costume, too! I think costumed attendees outnumbered plain clothed ones by a pretty good margin.

The band, the Singapore Slingers, was completely fantastic. There was a nice large dance floor set up in the pavilion in front of the bandstand, and dozens of people showed off their moves when the music kicked up.

There were lots of people picnic-ing, despite the earlier rain. I opted for the food truck, which was offering some really creative sliders. My favourite was "The Nutty Pig", which had bacon and peanut butter. It sounds weird, but it was fantastic.

There was supposed to be a DFW Costumers Guild meetup at the event, but there were only three of us there. One of the Model As actually belonged to one of our ladies, so we had the chance to snap some pics with "Milly" the Model A.

In all, it was a really lovely event. I even had a ride in Milly! She's such a cute car, she even has the bud vases inside, with, of course, yellow roses! This is Texas, after all.

I didn't have any 1920s clothes in my closet, so in the morning before the event I whipped up a really quick, really dirty 1918 dress. It's a lot shorter than I wanted, but I'm pretty pleased with it. Now that I have more time, I want to remake it to be more like the fashion plate I was inspired by, but that's a post for another time.

They've already announced that they're intending to hold the Social again next year, and I'm excited that they've been successful enough to have been installed as an annual event! I'll definitely be attending next year, hopefully in a dress I didn't whip up in just a few hours!