Derby Day #DIY

This past weekend, my husband and I decided to have a date day! We rarely get to see each other sans kids during daylight hours, so this was almost indulgent. I decided to plan a day at Arlington Park for their Derby Day Event after I saw Anna Baun of A Lily Love Affair‘s inspired post about Derby attire (make sure to check out her Derby look in this post!)

The last time I went to a big race was with my friend T- Atlanta Steeplechase. Now, in the ATL, they do it up right. T’s friend own Summer Loftin Antiques so we had a chandelier, antique silver, an antique Persian rug and a gorgeous floral arrangement. Talk about throwback…this was 2009!

Here are T and Summer this year in Atlanta, gorgeous as ever!!

I wanted to make a statement with my hat this year, and went shopping in search of a fabulous topper for the trip to the tracks. Shopping for something specific usually involves texts (to my group of girlfriends who understand that I never get to shop with friends, only my pint sized mini tornadoes which usually cause me to exit store left 5 minutes after I enter). Here was one option I considered from Fox’s:

The response I received was “Go bigger!” I was in agreement, but couldn’t find anything at any of the stores I hit up.

Soooo…I headed to the craft store and came home with a roll of hot pink “decorative mesh” for a few bucks to play around with. I scooped up a $5 headband at Ulta and settled in for a fun night with my hot glue gun. I crafted the mesh into a massive bow, tacked it to the side of the headband with hot glue and sewed in a pair of my favorite BaubleBar earrings.

My husband loves to dress to the nines as much as I do! Keep in mind that he is 6’5″, so finding a seersucker suit is no easy task. For my apparel, finding something to match this shocking shade was the toughie. I decided to go with a black and white polka dot shell (from Target on clearance, TYVM!), a perforated vegan leather skirt from Nordstrom, white Rockstud-esque heels from DSW, fuchsia lipstick and nail polish. Here we are at Arlington last weekend:

And the best part? I won $193 in Race 3! I found a jockey that had the same name as my dad, didn’t even look at the odds, and put $10 down. Winner, winner, mint julep for dinner!

Oh, and this little cutie wanted to be included, of course!

What did you do for the Derby? Any fabulous fascinators? Stunning seersucker? Major Mint Julep recipe? Please share!