Two brides-to-be vie for $16,000 wedding prize

Clean socks and a shower never seemed so appealing.

After eight days of living in a storefront in Bellevue's Factoria Mall, Kari Gruendell and Teresa Moreau learned Friday they'll be the final brides-to-be competing today for a wedding package worth more than $16,000 at the Bellevue Wedding Expo.

The pair outlasted a high-school math teacher, a cosmetologist, a bank teller and other competitors from around the Puget Sound region in a "Bridal Survivor" competition, sponsored by radio station KLSY-FM (92.5). The competition is inspired by a television reality show in which contestants vie to be the last one standing using strength and strategy.

Gruendell and Moreau got engaged to their beaus within five days of each other last September, both at favorite parks. Hunched wearily on their cots Friday, both wore their blond hair in French braids and displayed a camaraderie akin to girls away at summer camp.

"Everyone was just super nice. We cried every time we had to vote someone out," Moreau said.

"I feel like I made six friends," Gruendell said.

Beginning Friday the 13th, seven brides slept (when they could manage it) on seven cots in an empty storefront, making friends, forming voting blocs and wondering whether they'd survive a group ejection vote each morning.

They awoke each day to the same unconventional view: a coffee shop, a boutique, a smoothie stand, a calendar store and curious shoppers pushing baby strollers or lounging on benches.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner came from the mall's restaurants. At night they'd sing karaoke to pass the time.

Just wanting to win wasn't enough.

Casey Dunbar, a 25-year-old dental assistant from Kenmore voted out Friday morning, told of having to size up other brides as either physical or emotional threats to "survival."

Dunbar and Moreau, a 27-year-old fitness director from Coupeville, said they formed an alliance nearly as soon as they walked into Factoria Mall.

Unable to plot without being overheard, at night they'd lay out seven rocks they found on the floor in the order of everyone's cots and use them to communicate whom they would vote out the next morning.

But their alliance wasn't enough to save Dunbar. In one of the contest's many challenges, Gruendell, a 30-year-old forensics scientist, managed to hold a 10-pound block of ice aloft for more than half an hour Thursday to win immunity from being voted out.

"It was really fun, but it was really emotional," a fresh and clean Dunbar said Friday afternoon, after watching the remaining pair ace a trivia challenge to win clean underwear, socks and a shower.

"I learned that everyone in their own way deserved this wedding. It was really hard to think that only one person could win."

Bouquets of flowers, balloons and handmade signs from family and friends sat just outside the windows, reminding the women that they are loved and that eight days of little sleep, the same clothes and crazy competitions were worth it.

"The price of a wedding is just so daunting," Gruendell said.

Today, the ninth day, it all comes down to karma, for it's the five other brides who will determine whether Gruendell or Moreau will enjoy a free one-week honeymoon in Mexico, wedding gown, tuxedos, flowers, limousine service, wedding cake, wedding photos and more.

Karen Gaudette: 206-515-5618 or kgaudette@seattletimes.com