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Here come the brides.
That’s what diners of the True Food restaurant in Houston, Texas, saw on May 18 after a family of seven women donned wedding gowns during their last girls’ night.
Alexis Houston, 25, a lifestyle content creator, uploaded a snippet of the outing to Instagram on May 19 which featured her mother, Terri Bonin, 54, her sisters Madeleine Frost, 28, Sydnie Bonin, 26, Annalise Hiley, 23, and Kate Bonin, 18 and her sister-in-law Hannah Joy Bonin, 30.
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"My mom, 5 sisters & I wore our wedding dresses for our monthly dinner & dessert," Houston captioned her Instagram Reel, which has been viewed over 7.7 million times.
On a phone call with Fox News Digital, Madeleine, Sydnie and Hannah Joy revealed the unique family outing came after one of the Bonin sisters found a similar video of a group of women rewearing their wedding dresses.
After a brief back and forth, the tight-knit group of seven decided they should don their own wedding gowns or their most-expensive evening gowns for a one-of-kind ladies’ night.
"We decided, OK, let's do it," said Hannah Joy. "We always go to dinner once a month anyway and we already had a 'sister date' planned for that following week."
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Madeleine, Sydnie, Analise and Hannah Joy wore their wedding gowns while Terri, who couldn’t find her wedding gown from the 1980s, wore Sydnie’s white prom dress, and Kate, who’s unmarried, wore a white dress she found day-of.
Nursing babies were the only other family members to join the ladies-only event.
Terri Bonin, 54, Hannah Joy Bonin, 30, Madeleine Frost, 28, Sydnie Bonin, 26, Alexis Houston, 25, Annalise Hiley, 23 and Kate Bonin, 18, went to dinner on May 18, 2023, while wearing white gowns for a wedding-themed girls' night. (Madeleine Frost)
Aside from last-minute arrangements and purchases, Hannah Joy had to remove her wedding gown from its preservation case, but she said she’s happy she had to do that because her four-year-old daughter was able to try on her veil.
"That was really something I wasn't ever going to be able to do if I kept my gown preserved," Hannah Joy remarked.
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The sisters said they’re hoping to find Terri’s wedding gown, as they’re hoping to make their wedding-themed dinner an annual tradition.
"We usually go out just in normal attire, but we had so much fun dressing up," said Madeleine. "Now we're talking about doing themed girls’ nights rather than just regular girls’ nights."
Terri Bonin (second from right) wore one of her daughter's prom dresses for the wedding-themed ladies' night. (Madeleine Frost)
The sisters recalled that strangers they passed by on the street and people at the restaurant questioned if they were all getting married and offered well wishes and compliments.
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Hannah Joy said the wedding-theme girls’ night unlocked "a new core memory" that might have made the "Bonin Girls" closer.
"We're already close, and now we have this really strange experience to reflect on," she explained.
While the group of seven expected to catch the eyes of locals and their social media followers, none of them thought they’d go viral with millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes.
The ‘Bonin Girls’ also call their monthly dinner outings "sister dates." (Madeleine Frost)
"Going viral wasn't our intention that night," said Hannah Joy. "We just wanted to pull out our dresses, relive memories and make ones."
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To stay up to date on the Bonin Girls’ future themed girls’ nights, you can follow them on Instagram at @alexisnhouston, @terri.bonin, @annalisehiley, @mrsjoybonin, @sydniebonin, @katebonin.co.
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