The Bridal Expo

The weekend after getting engaged there just happened to be a bridal expo here in Calgary.  Given that our wedding is in Vancouver this wouldn’t be so helpful in finding florists, cake vendors, and the like, but it would be a great bonding experience with my girls!  MOH-T and BM-D and I made our way down to the expo soon after it opened on Sunday morning.  We I wanted to get there early while there would still be plenty of cake samples available (or at least I hoped)!

We entered the massive room with a plan to make our way through the space methodically.  Right away there were all kinds of wedding dresses on racks, available for purchase at a deep discount.  I took a quick peek through them but didn’t pay too much attention.  None of those dresses were anything close to what I was interested in, and as MOH-T said, they looked like they belonged on the discount rack.  I also hadn’t had a chance to try any dresses on yet.  I didn’t want my first experience trying on a gown to be inside some makeshift changing room with a bunch of other brides with crazed looks in their eyes trying to find a bargain dress.  I just didn’t want an inexpensive wedding dress that badly.  So we moved on.

There were some bridesmaid dresses around as well and this gave MOH-T and BM-D a chance to talk about dresses and ideas they like.  Plus they were able to point out jewellery that they thought was pretty too.Moving on from the bridesmaid dresses was a lady in an apron asking me if I was interested in cooking.  From the signs they had up it looked like they offered cooking classes for couples.  Interesting!  She then proceeded to tell me that if we attended a demonstration on some brand of cookware that I hadn’t heard of before that FH and I would each get a free apron.  I didn’t need a free apron that badly so we kept going.  There were also a few key stores pushing you to register that day.  FH and I have already talked about where we would like to register and that store wasn’t there.  Plus, we want to register together….or at least I do!  So…moving away from the home stores and the registration consultants…

There were plenty of wedding planners there and it was interesting to get ideas for elaborate tables.  Pink and gold anyone?  I thought this looked like it might have been from Carrie Underwood’s wedding. They are a little over the top, but it was definitely interesting to see!

Then there was the fashion show!  A few different bridal and tux stores showed off a few gown and bridesmaid dresses.  I couldn’t get any good pictures but there was one dress that looked like the girl had pooped ruffles.  The highlight of the show was really the guys modelling the tuxes.  Boy, get a bunch of women in a room, have some guys show off some good looking tuxes and bust out some dance moves while doing it?  Entertaining…

As for cake….was there cake?  Let me tell you, I found the cake!  And chocolates!That is a stick of emergency gum behind the cupcake that I had just been given.  In case you were wondering.  Some boudoir photography guy had just handed it to me prior to me snatching up a cupcake. I wish I had taken pictures of all of the cake I got to eat, but I think I did my best to sample.  One place had all kinds of different flavours to try – chocolate, red velvet, vanilla…  Yum.

Ultimately the most useful part of the day for me was looking at all of the wedding invitations.  I thought that I wanted to try and DIY invites but I really had no idea on a look.  I took pictures of plenty of invitation inspiration that really helped nail down some ideas.

Ultimately it was a really fun day out with the girls.  I’m glad that MOH-T and BM-D had a chance to spend some time together and there were plenty of laughs along the way in our my quest to eat lots of cake.  What did I learn from the day?

• Bring a camera!  You never know what you are going to want to remember and being able to take a picture makes things so easy.  I was able to show off some of the invites I found and get FH’s take on them once I got home.
• Make up a separate e-mail address specifically for the wedding to give to vendors.  If you want to enter any draws they will ask for an e-mail.  To avoid receiving a whole bunch of spam for years to your long term address just make a new gmail one.
• If you do want to enter draws you may also want to print out some address labels at home with whatever information you might want to give out on it.  You know, like your brand new, temporary e-mail address?  You could have them made up just outside the expo for $7.  I just used a pen at the end of the day.
• Don’t be afraid to say no.  There is a hyped up atmosphere inside an expo.  People will be pushing you to sign up for things.  It is okay to say no and move on!
• Don’t sit so close to the speakers at the fashion show.  Wow, were those things loud!
• Come home, sort through all of the flyers you picked up and immediately determine if they are really useful or not.  I grabbed a ton of stuff and before I had difficulties remembering what things were I sorted out what I didn’t need and tossed it.  Like a coupon for $50 off if I buy some huge amount of flowers from a vendor in Calgary.

Have you been to any bridal expos?  Did you have fun and eat lots of cake?