My whole Elsa ice ensemble was ready to wear Saturday morning, and we were hoping to leave by 11:30 for transit time and parking for the 1pm show up in San Francisco. Gail had traffic getting to my house, it took time to lace me tightly and attach the snowflake cape, then we were on the road later than we hoped. There is always traffic in San Francisco, but thankfully Jason & Troy were plenty early and saved us seats. Gail was nice enough to drop me off at the theatre and search for parking on her own, so at the end of the still-long line while already asked for photos before I could switch into my ice shoes, I got inside while a million little kids were still waiting patiently in line to go up on stage for the costume parade. Most were princesses but there was the cutest Olaf & Sven! I could barely get my lights turned on for the cape before I was mobbed for photos from kids & parents…I loved it!
As the costume parade line was finally dwindling, I stood at the back, since I saw no other adults, but at least I wanted to be in the parade even if there was no actual contest. When it was finally my turn, the hostess said “We don’t usually allow adults up here, but here is Queen Elsa!” She gave me a couple free passes to the Castro Theatre for future events, and I struck my best ice-spell-casting pose as the audience cheered. Yay! π
It was time for the movie to start but Gail was still searching for a parking spot, poor thing! I had left her ticket at the box office, and it was a really good thing we got advance tickets since it was totally sold out and has been so popular they are adding two more weekends! I kept checking my phone all the way through the Mickey short and between singing Frozen Heart and Do You Wanna Build a Snowman, but then I finally saw a text “Love is an open door!” from Gail, so I knew she finally made it into the theatre during that song…whew! She made it to her seat just in time to hear me belt my best Let It Go along with the entire theatre…and was witness to the young dad in front of me who turned around afterwards giving me thumbs up with “That was EXCELLENT!” Yes, I was having a great time! π
Hearing an entirely packed theatre all singing along with grand emotion is really something to experience. I loved the bouncing snowflake and the colors changing on the lyrics. When there were multiple singers they even offset the lyrics and Anna was pinky-purple while Elsa was blue-green. All four of us kept cracking up & grinning at all the kids chiming out “he’s the bad man!” and all the boos & hisses at the villains. They had passed out goodie bags when they took your ticket, but I wasn’t paying attention to the instructions since I was turning my lights on. There were glowsticks to turn on every time you saw ice magic, and bubbles you were supposed to blow whenever you saw snow falling. That was very cute since you saw the bubbles in front of the screen!
As soon as the credits started to roll, I was mobbed by kids again for photos, so I turned my lights back on for the cape and went down to the stage edge so there was more room for photos and we wouldn’t block traffic. I had already asked Jason & Troy if they could stay around to help take photos with me, and they & Gail graciously waited while the long line of kids & parents finally dwindled, offering to take photos for any selfie issues, when I said they should have taken photos of how long the line was! I felt like I was a “real” Disney princess at Disneyland…haha! Some little tiny girls asked “Are you the real Elsa?” which I didn’t have an answer for…oops I should have planned ahead! But every Elsa dress I saw I said “Hi Elsa!” and the couple Anna dresses I said “Hi Anna!” like a long-long sister on purpose. Funnily enough none of the kids asked “How does the cape glow?” but I was asked “Why does the cape glow?” so I replied “Because it’s magic!” π All the kids loved it and so did I!
At the end there was a large group of teen girls who went to the show as part of a joint birthday party, so I was asked more about the costume. I told them I made it all myself, about a thousand ice shingles, 65 snowflakes on the cape, made the shoes, etc, and they were amazed and started looking more closely at details. Gail piped up to plug my website & said I’ve done so much more amazing creative stuff too, thanks Gail! I spelled it several times as many others still milling around asked if they heard it correctly, so maybe I’ll get some more followers. Gail said afterwards any more events like this I need to have business cards to pass out…great idea!
After everyone else had left, we used the nice dark solid backgrounds for some poses, and even tried using the edge of the stage to help me balance the action pose I wanted to try. It was too hard to balance exactly, and we needed Troy to hold my cape afloat, but I think we got it as close as possible without a wind machine and without catching me mid-spin. Since by then they had turned the lights on the screen which wasn’t a good background anymore, we moved to the lobby stairs, then the corner by the men’s room. Glamorous I know, but I was planning on editing them into other backgrounds anyway! You can see all the behind-the-scenes chaos in the full photo gallery below.
I was exhausted from all my awkward posing as my yoga workout I guess, but Gail had an entire city hike workout from where she parked! Thankfully Jason & Troy were also nice enough to offer to drive us to our car! They had parked a couple blocks from the theatre, so I changed into my other shoes and got many more comments including a gasped “Wow!” as we walked along. Heehee! At least where Gail parked it was an easy path back to the freeway and we had smooth sailing all the way home.
Huge thanks to Gail, Jason & Troy who were so willing & helpful to play photographers! Gail even stuck around at my house afterwards for a few more photos before I finally took off the outfit 7 hours later. Jerry, who did such an excellent job at the coronation dress photoshoot is willing to find more fun scenery for a dedicated photoshoot, so hopefully that will be in a few weeks! I will also be wearing this ice ensemble for my own Frozen sing-along movie night for Cinema Brittahytta in June, so we should get some better lighted cape photos at dusk then.
If you haven’t seen all the making of posts for the magical ice ensemble, I have consolidated all the posts here as Elsa the Snow Queen. I had a lot of fun editing myself into the official posters and screenshots, but I literally cracked myself up out loud and scared my kitties when I added magic to my living room…heehee!
You can see the full photo gallery after the link, which includes the behind-the-scenes originals of all the fun photo editing I did! π