#TheSecretGardenCairo

So this Monday, we ditched boring office computer time and headed over to The Lemon Tree & Co. for #TheSecretGardenCairo, a fashion-fuelled bazaar hosted by Style Treasure and Bazarna Events. The entire place had been transformed into a floral fantasy, courtesy of Floradise, starting with an uber-adorable flower-adorned porch swing at the entrance of the boat, which we were very tempted to sit on, yknow, just to give it a whirl, but then wisely decided not to seeing as it would likely collapse under our weight.

The Lemon Tree's open air venue had birdcages suspended from every arch, wrapped in vivid pink and white flowers, and the entire place, which is so boho-chic it hurts, featured stands from some of the city's top designers. Statement accessory haven Mint had a gorgeous table laden with chunky necklaces, and stone-encrusted bracelets in saturated hues, and Ain Maha displayed some uber-funky pop-inspired clutches. Me by Alia had an overload of neon hues in the form of beach bags, arranged artfully on giant stepladders, and The Outlet by Zag pretty much nailed every fashionista's love of heels with the myriad of cool pairs on display. It was pretty much the wet dream of every fashionable human out there.

And this was proven by the fact that the city's entire stylish set came out to enjoy the day, from the fabulous Fustany girls to she of fashion blogging Instafame Hadia Ghaleb. Naturally everyone pulled out all the sartorial stops, decked out in heels, printed tops, full floral skirts, with pastel hues everywhere. Upon arrival, obviously our objective was to locate the booze as fast as possible. A kind waiter asked us what we'd like to drink, and to our massive dismay, we discovered that this was in fact, a dry event. Our hearts sank, but our spirits were once again buoyed – somewhat – when we found that Beauty Bar Spa and Essie had set up a little stand and were giving all the ladies free manicures. Nails perfected, in a gorgeous summery shade of mint green – which is really more blue than green, but that's what it's called – we proceeded to nibble on the tasty bites going around and sip on orange juice – which for the record, is nowhere near as good without a splash of vodka. (Now listen here, planners of events, when you invite people to an event held at a place which serves alcohol, we expect some goddamn alcohol! Juice is not a legitimate substitute.)

Anyhoo, we were then treated to a fashion show, skinny models strutting their stuff across The Lemon Tree's wooden floors, in flowy fabrics, summer hues, and hats overloaded with funky flowers. Though, for some odd reason, one song – catchy at first – played on repeat for damn near half an hour and if we ever hear the verse "the booty don't lie" again, we might just rip out our own eardrums.

We munched on mozzarella and tomato skewers, and found to our great delight that there were popsicles available! In electric colours, the cooling edibles were perfect to counterbalance the ridiculous heat. While we're on the subject of heat, someone needs to inform event planners across the city that while we love The Lemon Tree, and we – honestly – always enjoy events at their place, it's now summer, aka, officially time to stop holding outdoor morning events. We spent a large portion of the day wiping sweat off our brow, making us look more like farm hands picking cotton than the pulled-together press people we wanted to appear to be.

In keeping with the floral wonderland theme, we kept noticing girls with funky floral headbands, so similar in style that at one point we questioned whether they'd all just gone on a shopping trip together to buy them and wondered why we'd been left out. Turns out they were giveaways, created by Floradise, so we quickly headed over to the giveaway table and nabbed ourselves a couple because, yes, we are currently obsessed with hippie headbands and just want to channel our inner flower child.

All in all, barring the sad absence of alcohol and the freakish Egyptian summer heat, we had an awesome day filled with all things style, and then some food for good measure!