A Simple, Elegant Bridal Shower in Oakland, MD

I am the oldest of six children.
I have 4 younger sisters and 1 younger brother.
To this point, three of my younger sisters have gotten married (and our baby sister is forbidden from ever marrying – ya know), so that means my family has hosted three beautiful bridal showers and three wonderful weddings. (I must say: we’re getting pretty good at the whole wedding-planning-thing – we’ve definitely learned a lot since I got married back in 2010!)

Growing up, I always knew that since we were a family of mostly girls, we would have the privilege of welcoming a lot of brothers into our family.
But then my mind would wander to my one, singular, brother – and how one magical day, we would get to welcome a SISTER into our family.
Not that I don’t love my sisters (I adore them), but bringing another girl into the family was going to be super special. And she had to be, because our brother is pretty stinkin’ amazing (if I do say so myself).

Needless to say, when we met Kennedy for the first time, it was pretty obvious that she was something super special. And as Steve and Kennedy’s relationship developed and grew, we all knew exactly where things were headed.

This was going to be the singular girl we would ever welcome into the Eichelberger family. And as we’ve all gotten to know her, we’ve easily come to realize: we can’t imagine anyone to be a better match for our brother.

This past weekend we celebrated Kennedy in a beautiful bridal shower.
I’ll be honest: it was strange attending an event that we hadn’t planned (after all, our experience in “wedding stuff” up to this point has always been as the “bride’s family”). It was so sweet and wonderful though to see so many people who love Kennedy (and Steve) gather together to celebrate their upcoming marriage.

The shower was simple, yet elegant, thoughtful and personal.
We had such a fantastic time – and it just has made us all that much more excited for Steve and Kennedy’s upcoming wedding this spring!

This is my favorite photo from the entire day –
It might not mean much to anyone else, but this is Kennedy – beginning to open her (mountain of) gifts. The little girl in the white dress, standing next to Kennedy, is her youngest sister. But the rest of the girls are Kennedy’s soon-to-be nieces and second-cousins! As soon as she started opening gifts, the girls all piled around her, anxious to see and be a part of the celebration.
They sat like this for a little while, and then we gently pulled them back to give Kennedy more room – but I love how sweet it is that all of these little girls wanted to be so close to the bride (someone that most of these little ones will call “Aunt Kennedy”!)

And here we are! All five Eichelberger girls with our newest sister!
(Can you believe that we didn’t coordinate our outfits at all? We’re just that good!)

64 days until Mr. & Mrs.!

And yes, in putting this post together, I had to go back and look at past bridal shower blog posts I’ve written!
Ellen’s Bridal Shower
Amy’s Bridal Shower