Azalea Festival

In honor of Azalea Festival...

Going on back home right now is one of the biggest events that my hometown puts on. The Azalea Festival. It's usually the first or second week in April because that's when the azalea's start to bloom. They have concerts leading up to the weekend, they have the huge street fair along the water front all weekend, and then they have the belles. Yes, I was(am) a southern belle.

To be an azalea belle you have to have a sponsor from the garden club. And I did :) So months in advance you go to different houses who provide the dresses and we all pick our favorite. You have to wear the under wire hoop to make your dress huge. You have to have fake curls, gloves, and an umbrella. Azalea belles are then placed  in gardens all over town where people pay money to be able to walk through these gardens and then take pictures with us the belles.

We also go to the garden parties and we stand around smiling all day while we get pearl tan lines.

 Any One Tree Hill fans?? You should recognize him.

Yes, we also had to wear these underneath.