This weekend was ridiculously chaotic… we went to the horse races on Saturday, then off to photograph a friend’s wedding in Whistler, and Sunday was our engagement party at my parents’ house. I’ve got a huge photo backlog but hopefully I can get some up over the next couple weeks.

The Horse Races is an annual event that Allan and his friends have been doing for several years. This year was my second (you can see last year’s horse races post here)… and it is always an amazing time.

The best part of the annual Horse Races is getting to go to Hastings Racecourse and dress up! Big hats, pearls, and your Sunday Best is a must! Here I am with my huge hat!

Of course, betting and cheering for your horse is all part of it!

Here’s a great shot of our accessories and the racing sheet, taken by Sheena!

Every year I take profile pictures of everyone who goes, so bear with me… this is gonna be a huge photo post! Here’s Venus…

Allan…

me…

Amy…

Crista…

Kim…

Sheena…

Claudia…

Przemek…

Trev…

Chad…

J…

Max…

The boys and their moustaches…

Crista and Trev…

Sheena and J…

Allan and I…

The group!

And the BEST part of the horse races… the MASCOT RACE! We bet on the mascots

It’s always freakin’ hilarious.

Sunday was absolutely fabulous! Everyone had such a good time at the horse races. So, finally… here are the photos! This is a heavy photo post so please bear with me.

Here I am at the races with my fancy hat from Edie’s Hats!

I got some cheap fake pearls from the mall, but I thought they looked pretty vintage! I also had a dress from Le Chateau, shoes from BCBG, and scarf from Club Monaco.

For bright red lips, I got some Nars lip liner and lip gloss. I’ve never worn makeup that red before, and it took some getting used to!

Allan looked great. His outfit was an Etro dress shirt (Looooove Etro!), shoes by Paul Smith, and hat by Robert Hall. Check out my previous post on both our hats.

Allan and I… mostly I love this photo because you can see the netting pattern so clearly!

The Hasting Race Course was a LOT of fun. Gorgeous scenery and backdrop for the races… we had a sunny day with a slight breeze and great box seats. Couldn’t have asked for a better day at the races!

Here we are all sitting in our box seats!

The races were exciting. We saw about 8 races that day and each one was a race to the finish. Some of us ended up and some of us ended down… I won $15 on one race! But I ended up down $5 overall. One of our friends ended up with winnings of $65!

Alissa’s purse… soooo pretty!

Bonnie, Alissa, and Ranelle…

Chad, J, and Tom…

Max, Sarita and Mike…

Let’s just say there were lots of pitchers ordered.

I also got a chance to take some portraits of everyone. To see all the photos, check out my Flickr as I didn’t have enough room for them all here. Here’s Kim looking very pretty…

Allan looking dapper…

Sarita is glowing…

J looks cool…

Here I am trying to look demure but ultimately looking confused, haha.

The MASCOT race! Haha… so much fun. We bet amongst ourselves, and the most unlikely mascot won. It was pretty hilarious though. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.

The ladies with the Mariachi band! I love this photo of the girls!

I stole this photo from Amy’s Facebook album… I really like the silhouettes and the perspective on this shot.

Group of the guys…

The entire group that went that day (less one girl who had to leave early). What a great group of friends to see the races with!

Would I go to the races again? DEFINITELY. I highly recommend it as a fun summer activity to do with friends. And besides, who can resist the urge to dress up?