What do you do when you have grown up in the family bridal show business and you are dying to go to a bridal show for the first time as a bride? Our show, Bridal Spectacular, was a couple of months away, but there was a bridal show in Phoenix, The Bridal Fashion Debut. So we hopped in the car and drove to Phoenix. Now obviously we knew we were not going to find the vendors we would need for our Las Vegas wedding there, but we still got lots of ideas, and Laura got to try on some beautiful close out gowns at the gown sale.
We also got a better understanding of what it’s like to walk down aisles and aisles of wedding vendors with each one of them trying to draw us into their booths to find out what they had to offer us. We started out by telling the photographers that wanted us to talk to them that “our wedding is in Vegas” to which they would say “we’ll be happy to travel there.” We had to move on to saying ” we already have a photographer”. Of course, the reality is we want to wait until our show to make that final decision but when we told them we already had one, they politely left us alone to continue our trip down the aisle.
We did find that the photographers and disc jockeys were the most likely people to attempt to talk to us and that is a good thing! If the vendors don’t talk to the brides, the brides don’t really know what makes you or your products unique. Many other booths let us just walk by without even attempting to tell us about their products or they were busy and we did not want to bother them. We enjoyed seeing and smelling all the beautiful flower bouquets and firmed up some ideas on what Laura wants for her flowers. Of course, tasting the wedding cake was one of our favorite things to do! If we had been having a Phoenix wedding, we would have found everything we needed in one day. The show was from 9am to 3pm (quite different hours than ours) and by 1pm we were quite tired. Four hours is the recommended time to plan at a show including seeing a fashion show. If this had been a two day show, (like ours) we would have been back the next day to absorb more when we were not so exhausted.
Of course, we could also not leave Phoenix with out at least trying on dresses at a couple of shops, Priscilla of Boston and Brides by Demetrios. Both shops were wonderful and very accommodating. At Demetrios they were willing to change several features of the dress to make it exactly like the dress Laura loves the most. At Priscilla of Boston, she got to meet Kelly Faetanini, the actual designer of the Jewel Collection, one of Priscilla of Boston’s stunning lines. Laura fell in love with a dress there from the Vineyard collection. Now if you have been following our blogs, Laura is now in love with about 4 dresses, a decision will have to be made soon!
So all in all, our trip to Phoenix was a huge success, and from one family planning a wedding to all of you out there, you have to go to a bridal show, and, of course, in Las Vegas that means The Bridal Spectacular Why settle for less than the best?
Enjoy these photos from the show and from trying on dresses at the shops! PS, None of the dresses appearing here are “the” dress, just incase the groom is snooping:)
Note: Priscilla of Boston is no longer in business as of 2015.
