Renaissance Festival Bridal Bash

Speaking of Renaissance...

Over Labor Day weekend I traveled home to Iowa for a bridal shower, fabric shopping, and a day trip to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival!  Three of my bridesmaids (two of which are my sisters) and my parents joined me.  Us girls all got dressed up in pretty costumes, and my dad took pictures of us. 

Sadly, this is the only shot I have of my costume in progress.

My sister Gretchen helped me mark the hem.  

As is tradition for Renaissance Faires, we finished dressing in the parking lot.  

My sister Elise made her own dress:

With embroidery done by my mom on her new super-whamodyne* sewing computer**:

*Technical term
**Not just a sewing machine, a sewing computer

Mom wore my old blue Renaissance gown:

I borrowed a costume from one of my friends at work for my friend Laura:

Gretchen wore her green Renaissance gown that I'd made previously, with borrowed sleeves:  

And I made myself a brand-new gown inspired by the "Breathe" gown from Ever After:

Not sure what face I'm making here, but it's a decent shot of the gown.

Aren't we pretty?

Off to the faire!  

Looks like we're on our way to Fairyland.  

This was kind of my pre-bachelorette party, so I had to do something vaguely naughty.  :p

Got my turkey leg, got my hard cider; I'm happy.  :)

Elise bought a pretty new hair wreath. 

Laura bought a yummy dessert!  

This paper mill was cool, and I bought a lovely blank book there:  

They also had this book set up for visitors to write in, so we all signed:

We always have to watch the joust, of course.

Our knight came over to speak to his fans:

His horse was named Christine.

After the joust, he agreed to take some pictures with us:

We also found a lovely photo-op spot in a fairy garden:

Me & Mom

Me & Dad

After all the festivities were over, we stuck around for the closing ceremony.  People started to gather in a big clearing...

Then drummers arrived and started to play.

And people danced!  It was very primal and exhilarating.

I joined in the dancing for a time, but sadly (or perhaps fortunately) there are no pictures to prove it.  Just this one of us girls resting on the benches after a long, fun day.

More pictures can be seen on Facebook!