The Royal Ascot

Ever wondered what the fuss was about at The Royal Ascot?

Well, if you follow me on the ‘gram, you would know that Mr E and I attended the races on Saturday and I can now give you all the exciting update from one of the most amazing British traditions of all time.

I always wanted to attend The Royal Ascot for 2 main reasons. The Fashion and the Royal Family. Note that I did not even mention the races lol. I’ll be honest, horse racing is not top of my list for sports to watch and I can tell you that I am not alone in this thought; a good number of people attend Ascot for everything else aside from racing.

What exactly is Ascot? Or The Royal Ascot?

Ascot refers to the town where the popular racetrack is situated. It is popular because it attracts the Royal Family and the who-is-who in the British social circles and everyone in between. The Royal Ascot is the horse racing event.

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TICKETS

I bought our tickets online from The Royal Ascot website. I was unsure where we could sit so I did a bit of research and realised there were a few different enclosures.

The Royal Enclosure is the 1st tier which is invite only; basically, you cannot purchase tickets to this enclosure.

The Queen Anne Enclosure is the 2nd tier and you can purchase tickets for this enclosure.

There are the Village enclosure and Windsor enclosure as well. There is also the new Garden Club.

I had seen online that Queen Anne enclosure was as fancy as The Royal enclosure without the tag so obviously,  I went for it. It cost £87 per person and I received the tickets via post a few weeks later in the most gorgeous packaging. It felt like I had just received a package from Buckingham Palace.

What to wear

It is very clearly written in the brochure which comes with the tickets, on the website and everywhere else what the dress code for the event is.

For the Queen Anne enclosure, ladies had to wear a hat, headpiece or fascinator. No strapless dresses or tops (including off the shoulder, Bardot and one shoulder), no shorts, no showing of midriffs. Trouser suits must be full length and jumpsuits should fall below the knee. For men, Jackets and Trousers should match colour and pattern, ties must be worn (no bow ties or cravats), socks must be worn and cover the ankle, no jeans, no chinos, no trainers! Whewww! Very formal and strict.

I did look around to see if everyone adhered and in my enclosure at least, people were smartly dressed and followed the guide very closely.

Getting There

We had the option of taking the train or driving down. The drive from my east London flat to the racecourse (door to door) was 1hr 16mins according to google and since Mr E loves to drive everywhere, I bought a car park slot for £40 from the Royal Ascot website as an add on to our tickets. 40 whole pounds to park your car for a few hours. Anyway, it was a one off so I guess it’s ok.

*cries in waste of money*

My Ascot Diary

11.35am – We headed out.

1.00pm – Traffic.

1.45pm – We arrived; located our Car Park number 8 and parked the car. At this point I was stressing because I knew that the Queen’s procession was at 2pm so I was praying that the walk from Car Park to Racecourse would not be far.

1.55pm – Arrived at the Royal Enclosure entrance and found a little spot to watch the Royal Procession. I figured out that if we had to locate the Queen Anne enclosure (where our tickets were situated), we would miss the procession so it made sense to catch it first.

2.04pm – The Royal Procession began and I managed to catch the Queen’s hat. Imagine that! I come all the way to Ascot and all I catch is 20 seconds of the parade. This actually made me upset a little because tbh my number 1 reason for attending Royal Ascot was to see the Queen :/ I kept thinking we should have left home earlier.

2.10pm – We made our way to the Queen Anne enclosure. Checked in and walked into the area. We walked around the space just to see everything. Managed to spot some of the racehorses as they were making their way to the racecourse. Thankfully, Mr E is big on racing so he was explaining everything to me as we were walking along.

2.35pm – Time for the 1st race and it was adrenaline filled! I was not prepared for the screams and chants but it was all so exciting. At this point, Mr E decided he was feeling lucky and thought to bet on a few of the horses so we made our way out of the race stands.

3.00pm – We walked by food stands and immediately realised that we actually had not eaten all day! Imagine the entire excitement had made us forget food! So we stopped by the chicken katsu stand and bought 2 bowls of rice & chicken katsu curry and 1 chicken katsu burger. The rice & chicken katsu curry was £10 each, the katsu burger was £8.50. I also found an ice cream stand and I bought the Ascot Sundae for £5.

4.55pm – We went back to watching the races and enjoying the atmosphere. 4th race, the horse that Mr E bet on, Blue Point won so we made some money at last! We remained there, chatting with random people, people watching, drinking (well, me drinking Pimms but Mr E had to drive back so minimum alcohol). We stayed on for race no 5, did not win this time so we decided to head back to the food court and just to walk around a little.

Dear Diary, this is where I move into another sub section because what happened next is still a blur.

5.05pm – We found ourselves on the deck; just outside and as we were waking towards the garden food courts, I noticed that there were a few police and security guys standing around. I also noticed that a few people had started to gather by the entrance so I asked a policeman what was happening.

Policeman – “Oh, the Queen will leave once the last race is over so these people are standing around to catch a glimpse”

Me – “sorry, what? You mean the Queen is going to pass through this spot? Where’s the best place to stands so I can see her up close?”

He pointed, so I headed exactly in the direction of his pointed finger and stayed put. Mr E was trying to convince me to go in and watch the last race then we could make our way back out just in time to catch the Queen but I was staying put lol. Look, I was right in front and if the policeman was right, I would be 5 feet from Her Majesty the Queen!

5.25pm – Her cars pulled up…

(I was silently dying inside because I still could not believe what was about to happen)

5.37pm – Last race has just happened. Everyone out on the deck was now standing in position.

THIS WAS ABOUT TO HAPPEN, GUYS!

5.44pm – I noticed the Ascot security men taking off their hats (usually a sign that the Queen is in view).

5.45pm – I spotted her.

Her Majesty the Queen

She walked out slowly, accompanied by her security and assistants and all the extras. She walked towards her car (which was literally 5 feet from me. Yes, I need to keep repeating this so you understand how close we were). I was multi tasking – taking pictures of her, recording videos, and still making sure I was looking at her to soak everything all in. Gosh it was all too much! My hands were shaky from excitement and nervousness tbh so thank God Mr E took a lot of pictures too.

Can you see how close I was to her?! Can you see?!

5.47pm – Her car drove off.

5.48pm – I was standing and staring into space and just trying to make sense of what had happened.

5.49pm – Still standing.

5.50pm – Mr E nudges me back to reality.

We stayed on for about an hour after as there was music playing and people gathering for picnics. Basically, the atmosphere turned into one big party! Then headed home once we had enough.

So… this is what happened at Ascot through my eyes and I can say that it was one of the best days of my life. As a lover of the Royal Family and someone who loves fashion, The Royal Ascot was a perfect day for me and the fact that I got to share it with Mr E was just even more perfect!

Will I go again? 100000% YES! Maybe make it a family tradition going forward, we’ll see! I’ll definitely go much earlier next time so I can watch the full Royal Procession and wave at the Queen.

I saved all the highlights from the day on my instagram if you are interested in seeing it all.

Mr E and I are off on a little adventure for the next 10 days. We will be visiting 2 different countries (3 cities) for our 5th wedding anniversary (FIVE YEARSSSSS!) and we are quite excited about that. Stay tuned to my instagram for all the excitement to come.

Until then…

Bisous, ‘Bugo x