Ehrensvärd museum and Christmas ball in Suomenlinna

 I'm a bit late with this post but last week was so full of things to take care of I didn't get it done until now. So here's my report on Christmas ball and the happenings before the ball. Two of my friends (from the same town I live in) and I arrived to Suomenlinna really late on Friday night so we decided to skip the Saturday's first event which was a parade. In stead, we got slowly ready for the day with Merja at the hostel and once we were all dressed up, headed to Ehrensvärd museum to take photos of the gowns in 18th century surroundings.

 The museum brings me memories from the first time my friend Ida (below) and I attended the Christmas ball in 2008. We visited the museum back then and that's why I suggested that we should have a photoshoot there. The museum seemed a bit emptier than last time so my guess is that some of the furniture wasn't there.

We joined with the others at the 18th century market after the photoshoot at the museum. Not many photos were taken at that point of the day since we were all busy checking out the market tables and catching up with everybody. The market was also open for public and people could ask the reenactors about their uniforms and dresses etc.

Around six o'clock in the evening it was time for the spectators to leave so the ball could begin... And here comes a brief costume report... Maija of Couture Mayah wore her cute pet en l'air jacket. 

Merja looked as fabulous as ever in her silver embroidered dress that I had been looking forward to see in person. She also wrote her own post about the event. 

And Ida wore the floral robe à l'Anglaise that I recently revamped for her.

Roosa was our lovely debutante. She lives in the same town as I do and wants to start making 18th century gowns for herself so I might have a sewing companion in the future after all (wow, an actual human being!). Since this was her first ball, she borrowed a chemise dress from Couture Mayah.

A group of lovely ladies had prepared delicious food for us in the kitchen. I was glad to hear they had been able to start early so they could also enjoy the ball and dance.

Several Swedes had traveled all the way from Stockholm for the ball. 

I was happy to meet Elisa and her husband again since the last time we met almost three years ago. She, too, wrote about the ball on her blog.

There were also several kinds of desserts...

Some time after dinner the dancing began. At first, the members of L'Amusette dance group performed for us.

And after that, everyone could join in. 

Dancing at Sveaborg, 1764, Elias Martin.

And of course, as the evening progresses, your hair-do will start falling a bit, especially after dancing. But I like the atmosphere created by the candles in this photo...

Later in the evening, you could also join in to play parlour games. This is musical chairs... without chairs... 

P.S. In case you had noticed, many of the photos on the blog are still missing and I'm slowly uploading them back. At first I didn't remember getting an email about the switch from Picasa to Google+ so upon seeing my photos on Google+ I simply deleted them and didn't realize they would be gone from the blog as well.