Iron Man 3 Premiere at El Capitan Theatre – The Red Carpet Experience! #IronMan3Event

Some days are good, some days are great and some days are awesome!!  A few days ago I had one of those awesome days.  As many of you know, I had the great fortune to travel to LA courtesy of Disney and MARVEL to attend the red carpet premiere of Iron Man 3 at the El Capitan Theatre.   24 other bloggers were with me for this extraordinary experience and now I want to let you in on a little bit of what the event was like.

We started our evening by driving to the heart of Hollywood.  Our entrance was being perfectly timed so that we could approach the red carpet at the same time as Robert Downey, Jr.  That meant a little bit of waiting for the perfect moment.

After waiting for a few minutes next to a not-so-glamorous parking lot, we saw an exciting site making its way down the street…..LAPD on bicycles surrounding a red Audi convertible driven by Robert Downey, Jr. himself!  I was so flustered that I didn't get my camera ready in time to get a good picture (just a distant one of the back of the car) but the pros took this nice shot.

Since RDJ had arrived, it was time for us to move on to the carpet! The area was packed on both sides of the street with screaming fans trying to catch a glimpse of the stars. I felt really lucky to actually be right on the carpet with them up close.  That's Robert signing autographs in the lower right corner of the picture below.  (Pardon the blur on this photo, but like with the car shots, when I get excited all my photography skills go right out the window.)

Walking the carpet was beyond fun!  We caught glimpses of celebrities including RDJ, Gwyneth Paltrow (she looked amazing!), Don Cheadle, Emily VanCamp, Chelsea Kane, Melissa Peterman, and others.  If you want to watch a video of the whole red carpet, you can see it here. Keep a look out around the 30 minute mark and you'll catch a glimpse of me walking and shooting a few photos.  Walking the carpet is a bit of a blur because there was so much hubub with many sights and sounds all around us – screaming fans, camera flashes, a gorgeous parade of red carpet attire….  It was fun scanning the crowd and trying to figure out who all the celebrities were.

(That's Marybeth from BabySavers.com with me in the last photo.)

Inside the beautiful El Capitan Theatre, we had seats in the balcony to watch the Iron Man 3 Premiere.  I'll be back later this week with my review of the film, but I will just say IT WAS AWESOME!!  After the movie we headed back down to the lobby where I first passed right next to Tom Hiddleston (Loki from the MARVEL movies) and then I had the highlight of my evening.  There was Chris Hemsworth (aka Thor) – not more than 10 feet away.  Yes, he is my big celebrity crush and he was even more gorgeous in person than on film or in photos.  I could have sat there staring all evening (but limited it to only a few minutes!)

We didn't have phones or cameras on us during the movie itself, but my friend Laura from Wheel ‘n Deal Mama was able to catch this photo after we got our phones back!

The whole evening was amazing and one I will never forget.  Now I can't wait until Iron Man 3 comes to theaters on May 3 so I can see it again and relive the excitement!

Visit the website: http://marvel.com/ironman3
“Like” IRON MAN 3 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ironman
“Follow” IRON MAN 3 on Twitter:@Iron_Man

Disclosure: Disney sponsored my travel, accommodations and activities during the #IronMan3Event. Any opinions expressed are my own.