A Blizzard of Brides

The ladies in our Bible Study (past and present) have always wanted to get together and do something in our wedding dresses! But what? After about a year of talking about it, and trying to figure out what to do, Marilee came up with the event of the year:

THE RETRO BRIDAL SHOWER!

It wasn't "retro" in that it was a bridal shower in retro style. No. It was a Bridal Shower for all who have been a bride in the past! Although some things were definately retro, like my mom's photo album!

The idea snowballed from a small get together of about 4 brides who wanted to eat appys, look at photo albums and chat all things wedding, to 27 beautiful blushing brides and a ton of activities!

There were brides who had been married less than 6 months, and some who have been married 30 years!

What shower would be complete without some sort of gift exchange? And not just ANY gift exchange, a lingerie exchange! New lingerie, of course! With each gift that was opened there were "oohs", "ahhs", and some laughs and gasps too!

We all enjoyed looking at each others photo albums, from the orange velvet one, to the modern one on the laptop!

And what would a shower be without games? We had a "guess who's engagement ring this is" game, a bride bingo game and a bride trivia game. Winners were sent to "The Panty Wall", where we were instructed to cut a pair of panties off a sting in the kitchen as a prize!

To top off the "Bridal Experience", my friend Julie, who is a wedding photographer, set up a studio in the living room and took photos of us brides! It was the icing on the cake!

Speaking of icing, I made a mini replica of 7 bride's wedding cakes for dessert! Not only was it fun, but I wanted to do this because some of these brides I didn't even know when I got married, and now they are close friends. Like Rhonda and Karen:

















Jenn had a funny cake story! Her 3-tiered black forest cake fell over and crushed in the freezer, so I made her a crushed cake! Actually, Colin gets the credit for smushing the cake! I think he enjoyed being allowed to do it! Hope you enjoyed the leftover "Smash Forest Cake", Ryan!












Kate was married in Austrailia, so I couldn't attend her wedding (Oh sorry...I meant Kate AND Andrew's wedding!) . Try as I might, $5000 did not drop out of the sky so we could afford the plane ticket. So it was great to finally see her in her dress (...and lingerie?) after almost 5 years!
















I also missed Marilee's wedding... I had a good excuse though, I was on my honeymoon! She was married 7 days after me. It's been awesome to have a friend who's been married the same length of time to swap advice and stories!













I made Carissa's because her actual wedding cake was the first one I ever made! She let me practice on her, a brave bride!
















And I made my cake, well, because it was fun!


















WHAT AN AMAZING DAY! Who said that you only wear your wedding dress once?