Twelfth Bite Brunch - Bridal Party Reveal

When Daniel and I got engaged about a month ago it was officially decided that our wedding would be centered around everything that we loved about Louisiana. However, I couldn't just stop there - I took it upon myself to decide that everything related to our wedding would be Louisiana influenced.  Little did I know how difficult I was making things for myself, but it's a challenge I'm happy to embrace.

So naturally, I've been trying to come up with the most Louisiana way possible to invite our bridal party to be our bridal party - which we did, very successfully, today.

Today is Twelfth Night, known to most Catholics as Epiphany, or to us as the day that the wise men finally got done following the star and found Jesus. Now how does this relate to Louisiana? Twelfth Night marks the close of the Christmas season and the start of the Mardi Gras season. I grew up with this being a huge day - first slice of king cake day and the opening of Mardi Gras ball season. It was a great inspiration.

So, I invited all of our bridal party to a "Twelfth Bite Brunch" in celebrate of Twelfth Night (kudos to Calder for the fantastic name) at Parrains, one of our favorite Louisiana inspired restaurants.

Here was the invitation I sent out (via paperless post):

And here were the invitations that we gave to the bridal party. I designed these on InDesign and printed them on to some blank stationary cards. The girl's necklaces are fleur de lis wax seal's with little pearls.

For gifts for the guys we opted for something they would find useful: beer. However, we took special care to select a six pack that reflected the personality and personal favorites of each one. I added some ribbons for a festive effect. To personalize, I printed everyones name onto their envelopes. 

And of course we brought bavarian cream king cake, to kick off the carnival season:

All in all it was a very successful, and very delicious, Twelfth Night brunch. A special thank you to all of our friends for making it such a great occasion - we can't wait to continue to celebrate with all of you. This is the closest thing we got to a group photo. 

Here is to a great carnival season in 2014 and a fantastic year of wedding events up ahead (and to those crab cakes with poached eggs on them this morning - the best!) 

Chelsea Bennett is the Executive Assistant to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary. Spending most of her days in Downtown Baton Rouge, she is a proud lifelong resident of the city and an LSU grad. A lover of all things southern, she is completely infatuated with the sweet Louisiana life and everything quintessentially “Baton Rouge.” Follow Chelsea on Twitter @GeauxChels