I’ve been a Britney fan since her chunky heel-tapping, pigtail- and thigh-high-wearing, basketball-hugging days, when the “…Baby One More Time” video was on near-constant repeat on “The Box” — a music video channel we got in the dorms. The summer after I graduated from college, my fellow interns and I would play the “Britney” album on our way to work every morning — and my friend Kathleen embarassed me by telling our boss that I knew the “I’m a Slave 4 U” dance (which wasn’t entirely true). Back when having songs as ring tones was a new thing, my ring tone was “Outrageous.”

Obviously I was pretty excited when I heard that Brit-Brit was going to have a show in Las Vegas, and I was bummed I didn’t get to go last year. So when one of my best friends (and fellow Britney fans) Melissa suggested a girls weekend to Vegas to see the show, I was all about it.

Britney + Las Vegas = sparkles, clearly, so I had to find something really fun to wear. And we all also had to try to re-create the “Oops I Did it Again” album cover at The Chandelier bar.

While I generally hate jumpsuits on anyone who isn’t a fighter pilot, this black sparkly one looked fantastic on Aaren, by the way.

We didn’t want to stand, so we got tickets in the front orchestra section of the theater. When we got there, we were pretty excited to see that the theater wasn’t as big as we had anticipated, so our seats were great!

The only problem was that at the last minute, two really, really annoying people sat in front of us… except they weren’t really sitting. They were standing and dancing erratically the whole time (they were either really drunk or on drugs), and I couldn’t see over the guy in front of me. Plus, the whole purpose of us getting the seats was so we wouldn’t have to stand. Luckily, we were able to move down a few seats and leave the seats behind weirdo couple empty.

The show was SO MUCH FUN. I apologize for the terrible photos — apparently you aren’t allowed to bring cameras with detachable lenses into the show, so they confiscated mine and I had to use my phone. But I think you can still see that the sets and costumes and overall production value were fabulous. Britney looked amazing, did almost all of my favorite songs, and also did a lot of dancing, which we were pretty excited about. After she hurt her knee several years ago, she hadn’t really been dancing at all, even in her videos. In the show, some of the dancing did seem a bit stiff, by old-school Britney standards, but when she was in sneaker-type shoes, she was killing it. Her backup dancers were also crazy good.

We posed with Britney’s “Toxic” costume, and tried to be twinsies with Britney’s elevator pictures…

But we didn’t even come close to these girls, who really committed to their Britney-themed outfits:

The strapless denim dress, the sparkly nude bodysuit and the circus costume all made the cut. There’s also a girl in a green outfit with a plush snake, which was a nice touch. Of course, no one pulls off an over-the-top costume like Britney.

We wanted to go to the “official afterparty,” but some members of our party passed out in the hotel room afterward, so the rest of us went down to the Heart Bar, drank Britney-themed cocktails and made friends with the girl dancing on the table next to us. Definitely an epic night.

Outfit details:  Dress: Whitney Eve, “Lucky” necklace: The official Britney store at Planet Hollywood, Earrings: Bauble Bar (similar), Tights: Target (similar), Boots: Nordstrom (similar), Bag: French Connection (no longer available)