I am so excited to start recapping my big bridal weekend on the blog today! Today's post will be all about my second bridal shower (and the larger of the two showers that I've had), and in the next week or two I'll recap my bachelorette party. Both of these festivities were held in my favorite little southern town: Edenton, NC.
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I did something a bit untraditional, and opted to have my (second) bridal shower and bachelorette party in the same weekend. While it was a whirlwind 24 hours, I have no regrets about doing it this way! I was so glad to pick a more bachelorette party that didn't require a lot of people's time off and money, and it was truly such a fun day to go right from the bridal shower and into bachelorette festivities. I'll have to write more in another Wedding Wednesday post about why I decided to do things this way instead of having a separate bridal shower and bachelorette trip. But for now, let's get into the recap!
The location for everything was one of my very favorite places: Edenton, NC. I have absolutely fallen in love with this sweet little southern town over the past few years. (My aunt and uncle moved here in 2020, so I've spent a good amount of time here visiting them!) Back in 2022, I had the honor of partnering with a charming inn called Captain's Quarters in Edenton on my blog. Captain's Quarters and its sister property next-door, Granville Queen, are owned and managed by a North Carolina based boutique hospitality group called The Carolina Experience. It was so wonderful to partner with The Carolina Experience in 2022 for this travel blogging project, and even more of an honor to collaborate with them a second time in 2024 for hosting my bridal festivities weekend! My matron-of-honor Caroline is actually the one who suggested I reach out to The Carolina Experience about hosting bridal events in Edenton. I was so delighted that it all worked out!
The Granville Queen Inn has the larger common spaces between the two inn buildings, so that's where the bridal shower was held. My guests entered through the main lobby, and were greeted by a lovely sign that Caroline made. (It perfectly matched the invitations she had done for the shower!) Guests then headed to find to the covered porch to find their seats for enjoying tea and treats and shower games, but everyone did return to the Granville Queen lobby once again after that for me to open my gifts!
Below is a shot of the covered porch at The Granville Queen Inn! This is where breakfast is served to the inn guests each day, and it was a great space for enjoying tea and doing bridal shower games. The space is so lovely on its own that it honestly didn't need much decor, but Caroline was so creative and planned some fun decor additions. I absolutely loved the floral arrangements she did! They were all blue hydrangeas and white roses. (She ordered the flowers from Costco and I thought the quality was absolutely phenomenal!!) Caroline is also the queen of making balloon arches! She did this fun blue and gold one to coordinate with the shower, and it was such a fun photo background.
Since the bridal shower was tea party themed, Caroline did various flavors of hot tea for the guests to enjoy! There were also pitchers for fruit water, too. And there was such a nice assortment of tea party themed food! Caroline's sweet mom made a lot of the food, including the beautifully decorated blue and white teapot cookies which were the bridal shower favors (and they were delicious!).
Guests had a few activities to complete that became gifts to me! The first was that Caroline had them all fill out these cute Date Night Idea cards at each of their place settings. I had so much fun reading through all the ideas after the shower, and I look forward to sharing them with Ryan! She also had guests sign this photo mat for me, and I'm so excited to soon print the big group photo from the shower (pictured at the bottom of this post), so that I can always have memories of this day.
The final activity was one that was a continuation from my first bridal shower in Maine. At that shower, my bridesmaid Julia had started a recipe book for me, where guests wrote down their favorite recipes. She bought me an extra pack of recipe cards to bring to this shower, and it was fun to add more to my new "cookbook" from Virginia and North Carolina friends!
My matron of honor Caroline and her mom Joyce both did so much to put this bridal shower together for me. I am truly so, so grateful! (Her cute blue dress is under $30 and can be found HERE!)
Two of my bridesmaids were also able to attend the bridal shower! Emily is pictured below next to me, and Perrin on the other side of her. I dearly missed the three bridesmaids who were not able to attend, but was so thankful to have half of the bridal party with me. 💙
And here is the whole big group of ladies who attended my bridal shower! I truly felt so loved and celebrated by so many incredible women that I've met from my time living in both North Carolina and Virginia over the past 12 years. Caroline's mom was also at the shower to help her with running it, and Ryan's sweet mom was able to come as well! 😊
A huge thank you as well to Sophie, Vanesa, and the rest of the team at The Carolina Experience for partnering with me to host my bridal shower and bachelorette party in Edenton! I can't recommend these two wonderful inns enough as the perfect lodging for a trip to Edenton.
My first bridal shower in Maine was also tea party themed. It was a much more intimate shower (less than 15 guests, and mostly family!), but it was held at a local historic hotel, so it definitely had similar vibes on the venue to this one. Honestly, I loved the fact that both of my bridal showers had a similar theme! Despite the fact they were in two different states and with mostly different people (Shout-out to my friend Kelly-Anne who attended both of them thanks to her trip to Maine this summer! 😉), I loved that they both felt so cohesive and similar.
My dress that I wore can be found HERE! I feel like it fit the theme and color scheme of the shower so well. I also feel I'll have way more chances to rewear it in the future since it's not solid white.
I received so many wonderful wedding registry gifts at this shower! (And some incredible gifts that weren't on the registry, too!) Linking some of them here below if you'd like to browse:
Past Wedding Wednesday Posts:
Our Proposal Story // My Ring Shopping Experience // Local vs. Destination Wedding // My Wedding Dress Shopping Story // 9 Months Out Checklist + Early Wedding Planning Q&A // How Ryan and I Met // Our Engagement Photos // Virginia Beach Wedding Guest Lodging with Transcendent Stays // Our Engagement Party // 6 Months Out Checklist + Q&A // How I Asked My Bridesmaids // My First Bridal Shower // 3 Months Out Checklist + Q&A
God Bless,
xoxo Annaliese
thank you for sharing
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