Hey everyone, Anna here. Now before we start, I apologize if I ramble on but I am SERIOUSLY excited about this post!
I have mentioned it briefly on here before, but a lot of you may not know that Catherine from the very successful Lux Life Blog is my best friend. We have known each other and have been very close since we were born as our parents have been best friends since they were teenagers. Catherine is also Rosie's Godmother.
Due to the huge success of Catherine's blog, she is regularly invited to try out different places including Michelin starred restaurants and hotels and gets send lots of freebies (lucky lady!). Now, you can imagine our excitement when Disney contacted her asking if Rosie would like to go along to Harrods to have the Cinderella Experience in their Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique! Rosie loves everything Disney so of course, we didn't even have to think twice before giving them a big fat YES!
We drove down to Catherine's house in Guildford on the Friday and we drive into London on the Saturday morning. We didn't tell Rosie what we were doing, just that we were going to London for the day. This excited her enough before she even knew what she had ahead of her!
When we arrived in London we headed straight to Harrods to the fourth floor where everything Disney is! We had a browse around the amazing Disney Store then took Rosie to the Disney Café for lunch.
We were very pleasantly surprised with the Disney Café. When we walked in the very smiley waiter came over and showed us to our table. There were Disney characters painted all over the walls and TV'S on the wall playing Disney films. Rosie's face lit up and she was even happier when the waitress came over and gave her a set of Minnie Mouse ears to wear and keep! Allan, Catherine and I ordered a Coca Cola each and Rosie ordered a childrens apple juice. The drinks came very quickly and we were happy to see that our Coca Cola was ice cold in glass bottles (the best way to drink coke!). To eat, Catherine and I ordered a grilled chicken and avocado sandwich each with a portion of chunky chips to share, Allan ordered mini cheeseburgers and a portion of chips and Rosie ordered a childrens pizza. We weren't expecting a lot from the food, we thought it would just be your typical café type food, but it was lovely! Our sandwiches and burgers were delicious, the chips were just right and Rosie was very happy to see that her pizza was in the shape of Mickey Mouse! We had a bit of a shock when the bill came as it was over £80!! We looked at the bill and were very shocked to see that they had charged FIVE POUNDS FIFTY for Rosie's childrens fruit juice!! It was overpriced for what it was, but as it was a one off and Rosie thoroughly enjoyed it we didn't mind too much.
After lunch we had a walk around the toy department (cue more excitement from Rosie!) then headed to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Rosie still knowing nothing! EEEEEEKKKK!
We arrived at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and Rosie's jaw dropped as a "Fairy Godmother In Training" knelt down and introduced herself asking if she was Princess Rosie. Rosie replied with a nod, and she was given a name-tag with her name on and a buzzer that would buzz and light up when her very own Fairy Godmother In Training was ready for her! We went for another little walk in the Disney Store and before we knew it her special buzzer lit up to let us know it was time for her to me transformed into a beautiful Princess!
We went back to the Boutique and Rosie's Fairy Godmother Helen was waiting for her. Helen was fantastic, we explained to her that Rosie has speech difficulties so may not say much but she made Rosie feel completely at ease and managed to get lots of conversation out of her! Helen took us through the big doors and walked us down the "castle" hallway until we got to a big magic mirror. Helen and Rosie said the magic words, "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo", and the ACTUAL Fairy Godmother appeared on the screen! Rosie watched wide eyes while the Fairly Godmother spoke to her then we made our way to the huge doors of the makeover room. The doors opened and Helen walked with Rosie into the beautiful room where there were a group of more Fairy Godmothers In Training waiting. There was already another little girl sat in one of the chairs having her makeover and Rosie's face lit up as she looked around the beautiful room.
Allan, Catherine and I were shown to our lovely velvet couch whilst Rosie was taken to her makeover chair. She got to choose what hair an make up she wanted (I helped her with this as she was struggling to decide!) in the end, we decided on the bun and the butterfly make up. Once she had chosen her hair and make up Rosie and I were shown to the changing room where her princess dress was waiting for her. I took her into the changing room, put her dress onto her and we walked out of the changing room back into the makeover room where she was told to go and look at herself in the mirror. This ladies and gentlemen, was her reaction just to the dress, before her hair and make up had even been touched!
She had the biggest grin on her face, giggled and twirled around admiring herself in the mirror whilst saying "it's so lovely!" Allan, Catherine and I all looked at each other with the same grins on our faces, all holding back tears of happiness. Our hearts melted. Totally Melted.
Once she had stopped dancing in front of the mirror, Rosie was sat back down in her special chair for her hair and make up to be done. Helen made a start on her bun whilst another Fairy Godmother painted her nails. She couldn't decide on pink or purple, so she had both!
The Fairy Godmothers were great with Rosie and the other little girl, asking them lots of Disney questions and singing Disney songs to keep them entertained whilst they were having their makeovers. Once Rosie's hair was finished, Helen asked her to close her eyes and say the magic words. Rosie said "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" and a beautiful tiara matching her dress appeared into her tiny little hands.
Helen put the tiara onto Rosie's head, along with a matching veil then made a start on her face paint. Helen spent a lot of time gently painting the beautiful butterfly pattern onto each side of Rosie's face.
Helen finished Rosie's face with a sprinkle of glittery pixie dust then asked her to close her eyes whilst she transformed her into a princess. It was time for Rosie's chair to be turned around and for her to see herself as a Beautiful Disney Princess for the first time!
Yet again, she ran over to the mirror and twirled around in delight whilst she looked at herself in the big mirror. She couldn't believe her eyes!
There was just one thing missing though, you cant be Cinderella without your glass slippers! Helen took her over to a big chair and placed the stunning glass slippers onto Rosie's little feet. Again, she couldn't believe her luck.
There was just one more thing left to do, Rosie was taken to her throne for her coronation where she had more pictures taken.
After her coronation Rosie was taken into another room to see all the pictures that had been taken of her during her experience and was given a huge bag full of gifts including a Cinderella t shirt, 2 limited edition Cinderella dolls and a filled Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo make up bag (to name a few!).
We walked out of the boutique and back into Harrods as Helen and another Fairy Godmother introduced her to everyone as Princess Rosie. She thought it was fantastic, curtsying to everyone and telling them "I'm a princess, I'm beautiful!" You could tell that she felt so so special.
We walked through Harrods and back to the car with everybody looking and smiling at her, she must have felt fantastic! I think the whole thing tired her out though as on the way back to Catherine's in the car, this happened!
When we got back to Catherine's house she didn't stop talking about her experience for the rest of the evening. You could see by the look on Catherine's face that she was so happy she had given Rosie this experience, we can't thank her enough. She deserves all the success she had had from her blog as she puts in so much time and effort to it and it really shows.
The next day Rosie refused to wear anything but her Princess outfit. We went for a walk in the local village and everybody loved seeing her walking through the village all dressed up.
She even wore her outfit in the car the whole way back to Wrexham, insisting that we stopped at the Gran and Grandad's house on the way home to show them her dress!
It really was such an incredibly magical weekend and it will be something we will all remember forever. Thank you so much to Disney for inviting Rosie to this experience, to Harrods for making her feel so welcome and of course to Catherine for making it all possible, We Love You SO Much Trolleybus (private joke lol).
*Most pictures on this blog were taken by Catherine. You can find her blog post about the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique here .
