Hey there! I hope you all had a great Easter weekend! We didn't do much, since both of our families are out of state it was nice to just have a relaxing weekend! We did some shopping for an out of town wedding we have next weekend and then had some friends over for steaks and the Caps game!
Anyway, as promised I wanted to post a more detailed blog about the incredible time we got to go to the Kentucky Derby! One of Mr Tan Lines clients invited us and it was honest to goodness one of the COOLEST and fun things we have ever done!
I'll also throw in some tips/tricks I learned while doing research for our own trip and things we learned along the way.
So maybe what most people don't realize is that the Derby is actually a two day, all day event. There are races all day on Friday and Saturday beginning at 10:30am and the last race being at 7:30pm (this is "the Derby" race), in total I think there were 15-16 races.
We arrived in Louisville on Thursday evening and checked into ones of the best hotels and apparently the designated Derby hotel, The Galt House. There were lots of celebrities staying here, the ones we briefly saw were Rob Gronkowski and some of the kids from Vanderpump Rules!
We turned in early on Thursday as we had an early morning on Friday for the Kentucky Oaks! The Kentucky Oaks is always hosted the Friday before the Derby and is when the fillies, or the girl horses get to race!
The neatest part is that the theme for The Oaks is PINK. All attendees are asked to prominently wear pink in order both raise funds and gain awareness to fight breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The wining filly is also draped in pink lillies, so it turns into "lillies for the fillies."
{THE OAKS 2017}
Here we are in our PINK outfits in the lobby of our hotel...the lobby I should mention, had a live band and bar set up beginning at 9am to get the party going. When we came down to meet our group you could just feel the energy and excitement!
I can't give you any advice as how to get to Churchill Downs, we had a private van to transport us to and from. What I can tell you, is that parking looked like a nightmare. There are several neighborhoods located only a few blocks from the Downs, so some people rent out their driveways for $40+. There is a large parking area, but I'm not sure how much parking was. Because of how crazy it gets I would 100% recommend Ubers, Lyfts, cabs, etc.
So the weather just wasn't going to cooperate all weekend, but there was NO WAY we were going to let that stop us from having the best time.
{Drinking a Lillie drink!}
{It was also cinco de' mayo so ya know, naturally}
Betting does have a trick to it, we did extensive research so we didn't look like idiots when we got there. There is basically just an order in how you place your bets at the booths. We found it easy and fastest to just use the booths with people working in them. I think you say like the number of the race, the horse, the place and then the amount (definitely could be in the wrong order, but it's something like that). You can also split the bet, bet for them to place (spots 1, 2) or to show (spots 1, 2 or 3) so yea, you get it that there is more to it then just picking a horse. But, after we got the hang of it we had a great time!
{Look at all that PINK}
{First official bet!}
Because attendance is much lower for The Oaks it was a great time to explore Churchill Downs and get our feel for the venue. There are drink vendors and stands just like at a football game, prices are MUCH higher. Drinks were $19 at a minimum, and went up from there, I think beers were $14, so yea, we stuck to those a lot :-P We turned in early again and prepared ourselves for the Derby!
Derby Saturday came and man were we excited! The weather was not going to turn, thankfully I planned on this so I packed ponchos and a nice long jacket/cardigan. The venue rules do say that cannot bring a bag in over a certain size, but the ladies in our group being vets of attending brought pretty big bags, some clear, some not with extra pairs of shoes, towels and umbrellas. I wouldn't bank on this, I think maybe the bad weather had the security a little lax. But we were thankful to have all of that with us.
{Galt House lobby}
{HAT HAT HAT HAT}
It was honestly SO MUCH FUN wearing a huge, fancy hat!
{Kentucky Derby 2017}
{Outfit brag}
Hat from Etsy, dress from Ralph Lauren and wedges from Target!
So I had my eye on this hat for weeks leading up to the race, but I had to find the perfect dress to go with it! I ordered some from Amazon, some from other stores but none of them worked, I eventually luckily found this dress at Macy's just in time! I then ordered my hat from Etsy and was all set! The best advice I was given was that it IS all about fashion, but also comfort, and these wedges are seriously the most comfortable things ever and I wore them with both outfits!
{Tourist photo shoot}
{Getting ready to see some horses!!}
<3 <3
{Winners roses!}
{So many cool things to see!}
{We went to stalk the red carpet and saw Katie Couric!}
{When at the Derby!}
{HI DATE}
{Dapper af}
{The BEST time!}
{Breaks in the weather}
{Our group!}
So like with any sporting event there are a ton of different seat options. We were in the lower level of the actual seats, only a few sections back from the track. There were covered seat options, and the best seats were up, like a few stories up!
There are also infield tickets, there are no official seats here, you just bring your own chairs and coolers I think, but that is apparently where the party is!
So maybe like 20 minutes before the Derby race it just POURED, like we saw the clouds coming and just knew it was going to open up. However, we had already used all of our towels to dry the seats so we just decided, the ponchos are huge, let's just sit here and wait it out, and obviously keep our seats dry!
{DORKS}
And wouldn't you know that after that huge downpour passed, the sun came out, the clouds cleared away and we were READY!
It really is the most exciting 2 minutes in sports and I can't even explain the excitement that was in the air!
{RACE TIME}
In closing, like I said in the beginning this was one of the MOST FUN things we have ever done and if you get the chance to attend I would 100% support it and tag along!!
Comment if you have any specific questions!
{Kentucky Derby 2017 in the books!}
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