Bridal Shows

Has anyone ever been to a bridal show? Well, I was super excited to attend one this past weekend.  I had never been to one but figured this was a great place to jump start my planning, see great local vendors, and win some free stuff! After all one of my bridesmaids won a free photo booth for her wedding by attending one, so I was sold.  So I called my friend Tiffany, who is fabulous and just as in love with weddings as I am, and off we went.  If I grading this bridal show like I grade graduate students papers all week long, this show would get a C-.
Here is what I did like: You got to see local vendors (we will talk about this in a moment), I was there with great company ( tiffany made me laugh really hard) and there was WINE!! Oh and I got some cute pink stuff, thanks to Tiff's catching skills!

Dislikes:  First of all we walk in and there are no signs to direct us to where the bridal show actually is. Yes, I knew I was in the correct hotel but which ball room is this thing in?  Lucky for us, Tiff and I are pretty smart and we were able to figure it out.  We walk in, speed past everyone ( I pre-registred because thats how we roll) and I enter for all the free drawings.  Of course they didn't tell you then that to win anything you had to say until 4:00pm so a ton of brides left.  We walk into a rather small ballroom ( this is Dallas, I thought we went BIG on everything?) and start walking around to the vendors.  Right away I looked at Tiff and said "WTF."  I kinda felt like I was back in the 90's looking at some of the vendor displays.  Everything looked cheap, basically it was a room full of all my dislikes posted in a previous blog..  Okay people, disclaimer... I am all about saving money for your wedding.  It is a little crazy to spend 50K on your grand affair, I get that however just because you are saving money doesn't mean your wedding has to look cheap. Trust me you can have a very nice wedding on a small budget.  One of my favorite parts of the entire day was when I would walk up and ask these vendors questions, here is a recap for ya.  Vendor: " Hi, how are you."  me " great how are you."  Vendor: " we have this beautiful old farm venue ( points at picture of something that sort of looks like a barn, maybe)"  me: " Oh, ok."  Vendor " do you have a location booked yet?"  Me: " Yes we have booked at the Adolphus Hotel, downtown in the French Room. Vendor: " oh, wow okay have a nice day." Me " you too."
The first time this happened, I looked at my friend, who was laughing really hard.  I asked her "what the heck was that"  I think you had to be there to see their faces.. this trend continued a dozen times.  When I asked other vendors like DJs " Have you ever done a wedding at the Adolphus before, I am concerned about the acoustics in the room" few of them had.  I think I realized a few things about Bridal shows, or at least this bridal show.  1) It all depends on your perspective, we were there to have fun so we had fun.. laughing at really aggressive, odd, bad driving brides because we didn't take this all too seriously. While other people were clearly there to  "book their entire wedding in one afternoon."  2) you can win some free stuff. At this show they didn't give away a photobooth ( the thing I wanted) but they did give a way a free honeymoon!!!  Which I would have taken with open arms, although we still would be going to Italy on our real honeymoon and using that one for something else ( so I am glad someone who needed it more than I do got it).  3) I think Bridal shows target a specific type of bride.  I just don't think I am her, that's all I think I need to say!!
So after we walked around Tiffany and I got our glasses of wine and sat front row for their Bridal Fashion Show.  Now before you start picturing New York Fashion week, just wait... these girls weren't real models ( although they thought they were) and the dresses were....well...how do I say this? Not my style at all.

Overall, it was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon which would otherwise be used to study or write reports.  I had such a wonderful time with Tiffany and I am so thankful she agreed to go with me.  I know few people in the world who think like I do about weddings and she is one of them, so we made a perfect match!!