Bridgerton Masquerade Ball

Bridgerton Masquerade Ball

End of the ball group shot with all the attendees who were left; Photo taken by Heath Herel

The very last event we did in October 2025 was to attend the Bridgerton Masquerade Ball on Saturday Oct 25, 2025, run by social dance historian Susan De Guardiola and her friend Heath Herel. I was admittedly a little disappointed that I was not allowed to wear anything that would be spooky or remotely Halloween coded for this event, (so I made up for that big time in the next blog post).

Queen Charlotte and Bridgerton are a couple of Netflix series that are classy, romantic, and Regency inspired with both fashion as well as the social/political changes happening in the world at the time. There is a much more diverse cast than history would admit to us, but all of the actors are extremely talented. To even have the opportunity to dress up and learn the dances and be part of their world for just a little bit is an incredible experience. 

Susan De Guardiola is a woman of many talents. She teaches historical dance classes, lectures on dance history, writes papers about dance and delivers them at academic conferences mainly in Europe and America. She also leads balls and social dancing at events in historical costume, the most famous being the President's Remembrance Day Ball in Gettsyburg, PA, every mid-November. With all that in mind, she still went ahead and studied Bridgerton, which by all accounts is a fantastical depiction of what the Regency period fashion and social dances could have been like.

Susan's "Dances of Bridgerton" classes and ball is the real deal. She carefully noted Jack Murphy's original choreography of specific dances in each season of Bridgerton, as well as pre-quel Queen Charlotte and took time before and during the ball to teach attendees the steps as the live string trio performed the songs in real-time.  It was very classy and posh. Beautifully curated snacks like deviled eggs dyed slightly purple, special British cucumber mini-sandwiches, and small themed cookies or pound cake loaves were procured for the occasion. We drank punch and lemonade out of glass cups that had little ribbons of different colors attached to them and every attendee was given a dance card with small silver dangling pencils attached to them to write the name of the person who danced with them for each dance.  There were only about 10 dances on the card, but between dance instruction and then doing the actual dances with your partner, it easily took up the 3 hours allotted for the event. 

Danielle & Pahl dancing Daphne & Simon's dance with masks on; Candid Photo taken by M.G.Norris Photography

Nina and the snacks; Photo taken by M.G.Norris Photography

Danielle & Pahl; Photo credit to M.G.Norris Photography

Now you might be wondering what we wore to this event. We are actually wearing nearly the exact same outfits that we wore to the Jane Austen Regency Festival in September 2023. This is the historically accurate Regency gown that Pahl had bought for me from a French Atelier on Etsy for the festival. It seemed over the top at the time, especially in Bath, UK because some people at the ball were wearing much simpler cotton gowns. However, after season 3 of Bridgerton came out, and all the female characters were ooh-ing and aah-ing about gowns from the boutiques in France, it all made sense. The only new additions to our outfits are that Pahl had his tail coat dyed a dark wine color (it was originally "burgundy" but it looked more red than anything), and we were required to bring and wear masquerade masks for at least half of the event.

My mask is a red embroidered over black lace mask that I was able to comfortably wear directly over my glasses. I think the "lace" would have been too scratchy of a material for me to tolerate directly on my skin anyway. The mask was $7.99 on Amazon, when I purchased it 3 years ago for the first edition of the Nevermore Masquerade Ball. Pahl on the other hand actually made his own paper mache mask in the style of Louis XIV, the Sun King, who created the Palace of Versailles during his reign. He had made this mask a few years before this event. He really likes masks and has quite a collection of them from characters representing the Commedia della Arte. 

Group masked shot with Deb, Pahl, Angel, Danielle, and Nina by M.G.Norris Photography.

We took this fun masked group shot with Deb and Angelica, two other students who studied in the Dances of Bridgerton class that we learned the dances with. The very cool thing about this photo is that Nina made 3 out of the 4 dresses pictured. Deb and Angelica commissioned Nina to make their gowns adjustable sizing, and of course Nina made her own dress as well. I love how colorful everyone else is compared to me and Pahl's deep burgundy and black. 

Pahl and I dancing the "Hearts and Flowers" dance; View from the Back by M.G.Norris Photography

If you really want to get a feel for what it was like on the dance floor, check out this video that Heath took during the final "Harmony" mixer. (We did it twice---once with masks and once without). I honestly love the chaos moments where you sprint across the circle to find a new partner. Generally a man is always a lead, but some women are also leads. It can be important to pay attention to who is available. At no point does anyone get suddenly left out of of the dance when switching partners. We're all in the chaos mixer together!

I really enjoyed the event and I am so happy that there will be another one soon. The event is slated for Saturday March, 28, 2026, with an hour of dance instruction in the afternoon before the ball. There are also other prep classes for the ball and completely unrelated but equally fun courses available to learn from Susan. You can see her calendar of events here. 

I honestly was so impressed with how everyone dressed up for the occasion. At class, we are all wearing casual clothes, but when everyone was dressed up, they all looked very different! (I myself tend to dress as a pastel fever dream for class, so I'm sure others were surprised in the exact same manner). Everything about the event screamed classy from the food, serving ware, professional photographer, decor and the live string trio. If you want an elevated (but completely non-intoxicated) fancy dress up ball with instruction to specific choreography to re-live moments from Bridgerton---this is the ball for you!