I’ve attended three Dapper Days in total, so far. The first was in Fall of 2015. It was just a regular, annual parks visit with my family. I specifically took the picture below with the intention of one day working at Disneyland through the Disney College Program. I wasn’t accepted that cycle, or the cycle after that, or the one after that.... (but that’s a story for another time).

Dress is from Mod Cloth and hat is from Nordstrom (I think?).

My next Dapper Day was in Spring 2017, during my first college program. It was the weekend after my 21st birthday, so my parents were already planning to visit and celebrate with me. We just all happened to dress to the nines at the same time. Here are some pics:

I only know one pose.

This year, my parents weren’t able to join me. Fortunately, I was invited to join a few friends who were professionals at Dapper Day and even had their own group Disney bound planned.

I initially felt a little intimidated because my dapper bound didn’t match their group bound, which was characters from the Disney Pixar movie Up. In an effort to save money and utilize the resources that I had, I decided to dress up as Kermit the Frog.

Dress is from Urban Outfitters, shoes from Irregular Choice, white tee courtesy of my roommate Sarah, and bag courtesy of my friend Cassandra. Makeup is my regular makeup look because I don’t know how to do any other looks.

Kermit is a character I absolutely adore. I didn’t really grow up watching Jim Henson’s Muppets (except for Sesame Street!), but they were always characters I found cute and wanted to learn more about. Kermit becoming a meme in recent years only solidified my love for him.

My favorite line of his is, when asked what’s the difference between Muppets and puppets, he said puppets are controlled by a person whereas he is an actual talking frog. Iconic.

Anyways, back to our program: Dapper Day with the Up gang. Our priorities this day we’re simple— take pictures and have fun. And that’s exactly what we did.

Okay so there aren’t any group photos of all of us, but I swear I hung out with this cool crew! I even took their group photo (which is now posted on various Instagram accounts without credit *ahem*— just kidding, love y’all!).

First, we decided the best place to take pictures would be at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail at DCA. It works for the movie Up, which it borrows its namesake from, as well as Kermit, who obviously lives in nature and loves ponds.

This photo spot was perfect! I only wish I had a banjo to accompany me... Here are some of the shots. Thanks Cassandra for the amazing photos!

Then, we decided to head over to Hollywood Land to take pictures with the Up backdrops painted at Stage 17 (I think it’s 17? or 12?). We also got some great shots next to the infamous Blue Wall, as you can see if you scroll up a bit.

Here is where I really started feeling my blisters. Full disclosure, this is the first time I have worn these Kermit the Frog shoes. I’ve had them for a couple of years but never took the time to break them in. As of writing this, my blisters only lasted a couple of days, so I guess they weren’t so bad in the end!

At this point in the day, around 2:30 pm, our friend started live-streaming on his YouTube channel. I show up in the background several times, so check it out! Excuse my awkwardness, I’m not too sure what the right protocol is in a live-stream.

After this live-stream, we headed into Disneyland. We decided to get some much-needed StarbuConsidering I worked the day before until 12 am and got up early to get ready for this day, I decided a cheat day with caffeine was necessary.

My friend Abby and I then decided, since the sun was nearly setting around this time, to change into regular clothes and ride some rides. We were able to ride Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.

I love the flexibility and ease of being able to change outfits at Disneyland. Normally, I could just drive home and change (or stuff an extra outfit in my backpack and carry it around all day), but this time my friends and I decided to rent a locker. We went back to the locker and changed on the spot. I only had to put shorts on under my dress, then take off the dress, and change into more comfortable shoes.

We also ate at Alien Pizza Planet (RIP Redd Rocket’s Pizza Port), but I was so hungry that I ate it all before snapping a pic! Abby got a s’mores parfait, which I sampled. It has a chocolate layer on the top, marshmallow layer in the middle, and chocolate pudding on the bottom. The pudding was delicious, but the layer of chocolate was very overpowering. You had to strategically scoop just the right amounts of each layer into each spoonful.

All in all, Dapper Day was so much fun, and a great experience with new and old friends! I feel so #blessed to have spent it with Dapper Day professionals! Can’t wait to start figuring out what to do on our next soirée!

But really, y’all, what’s the plan for Dapper Day spring 2019? 🤔