Bridal Fairs : A great way to find vendors!

....or, alternate title:

Bridal Fairs : A great way to have your phone go off at all hours of the day/night

I wanted to take full advantage of the 'engaged' stage of getting married. I feel that it's a right of passage to get to go to bridal fairs while you're engaged. You get to wear a 'bride' sticker and everyone wants to talk to you (about your money). I've even heard of people winning amazing prizes! AH! How cool would that be?

I ended up going to three bridal fairs (in the same month), two in Sacramento (on the same day) and one in Monterey. I'll do a quick recap of each.

Sacramento Bridal Expo

My favorite part of this event was having the opportunity to attend with my amazing (and also engaged) friend. I love her! She's so sweet and encouraging! Getting to walk around with her and talk about our individual visions was so much fun! We tried every cake baker in the building, and even practiced feeding each other cake. We took pictures in multiple photo booths (these photos now grace the cover of my wedding planning binder).

But honestly, the day was overwhelming and unproductive. Mostly unproductive for me since I will be getting married 3 hours south of Sacramento. Overwhelming because there were approximately 1 million vendors there and I'm guessing 15 million people. The show was put into 5 different rooms and each room had everything you could need for a wedding. Why not a food room, a photography/videography/photo booth room, a gown/tuxedo room? I mean, why muddy the waters? I had specific things I wanted to get out of this visit and couldn't remember who I saw and in what room. Fail. We gave up and went to the other show in Sacramento.

(Other) Sacramento Bridal Fair

I don't even remember what this one was called or exactly where it was at. I remember a golf course and I remember it being far more manageable than the zoo at Cal Expo. The second show was very up scale and the vendors were very sweet and wanted to know your 'vision' all the time. Cool! We even ran into some fraternity brothers of ours and got to talk to them for a while, icing on my cake!

Again, I couldn't accomplish much with my distance, but we weren't just there for me, we were there to get ideas for my friend as well.

Monterey Bridal Show

I had really high hopes for this show. Really high. I was sure I was going to win a honeymoon...or my floral...or a pencil. I was sure I was going to win something. I was lucky enough to attend this show with both my mom and my dude. A winning combo for decision making.

We tasted every cake, talked to every DJ, tried our caterers food (at the show and at the open house), ran into 15 people I went to high school with, and even talked to some florists.

In the end, we fell in love with our caterer, found a highly recommended DJ, and tasted amazing cakes...and even picked what would become 'our cake'. All in one day.

Someone said this wedding planning was going to be difficult.

My warning to you in regard to wedding expos:

-Know what you're looking for

-Review pricing before the show ("show pricing" isn't all it's cracked up to be)

-Be prepared for a TON of emails. I brought these stickers with my name, address, email, and phone on them. OMG....my phone won't stop!!! Not worth it. BE SELECTIVE!!!

-Don't go for the prizes. Sure, someone has to win...but that's usually one person out of 5 million (most of whom, let's be honest, aren't actually brides)...and all the emails afterward? GAHHHHHHH

-Don't eat before you go

-Write down what you thought about each photographer/baker/caterer...because you'll forget.

Next time we talk about picking cake from a distance.