My best friend is getting married so I went with her to a bridal show to get some ideas. I didn’t have the opportunity to go to a bridal show when I was planning my wedding, I just scoured the internet and used theknot.com. After going to this one, I don’t think I missed out on any experiences, BUT it was a blast just spending time with my bestie (and I was shocked at how packed it was!). Free stuff is always fun and we enjoyed finding a private corner of the convention hall to eat our cake samples. What I learned though was not much has changed since I got married; I’m guessing the core wedding trends take a long time to change. There were a couple fun new things that caught my eye that I wanted to share (and just some wedding planning advice in general).
I knew when I had my wedding, I didn’t want a huge wedding cake. The weddings I had previously attended, the cake was usually left untouched because everyone was too busy dancing and having fun. We were having a small wedding so we got individual cupcakes of several different flavors. At the bridal show, Nothing Bundt Cakes had a great display of their bundt cake wedding cake. For one, the cake sample was amazing, but it is also a fun take on the wedding cake. Of course, all the flowers make it beautiful. I’ve also never tried their cakes, they. are. so. good!
For our wedding photos, we received digital copies of all the shots and guests could go on a website and order copies, but I LOVE that the new trend is to include a book in your wedding photography package. I had the full intent to print out photos and create a wedding album, but the most I got to was a couple prints that we framed for us and parents. To give you an idea of how long ago our wedding was, we received all of the digital copies on a CD, which now that I think about it, I really need to transfer to a memory key. Yikes! But seriously, every photographer included a wedding book in their package. Way easier than doing it yourself later on.
My friend “won” a consultation from Mary Kay, which I realize that everyone “won” this consultation most likely. It was a zoom call and the consultant sent us samples to try before hand. We had fun even though we weren’t able to be together to try the products. There were 4 of us on the call, we didn’t know the other 2 people, but it was surprisingly relaxing and my skin felt great afterwards! My point is, if there are makeup consultants, sign up for their consultations/sales pitch.
We also signed up for several individual wedding dress shopping events to go have a private shopping experience. [Side note: I would recommend having a separate email address if you are planning on signing up for things because in my experience, my email address was definitely sold from a certain bridal dress company. It made me so mad, I refused to buy a dress from this national company and it took me forever to unsubscribe to all the spam]. Private try-ons were definitely a thing when I was shopping, but I didn’t take advantage of it. Nothing makes you feel more special than a private shopping experience.
Oh my goodness, I love colored glassware! This Estelle Glassware is just one example, I’m sure you can find a ton with a quick google search. I’m honestly thinking of ordering some for my house. These are PRI-CEY, so I would have only bought one for my husband and me for the wedding reception. Or, if I had a large wedding party, it’d be fun if they all had special colored glasses to distinguish them as the wedding party. I was all about being able to use what I bought for my wedding reception afterwards, and this would be one of those items. In fact, I went to Dollar General and bought my glassware for $1 each and I still have a large majority of it that I use several years later. I’m a sucker for glassware.
Last, but not least, unity glass (I told you I love glassware). Typically, I really dislike any kind of unity aspect of a ceremony (unity knots, candles, sand, etc.). I said what I said. However, our local glassblower offers beautiful unity glass. This is a great alternative if you want some kind of unity item incorporated into your wedding that you will actually want to display afterwards. I’ve done glass blowing at this studio before and had a blast! It is so cool to me that we have a local glass studio. I think their designs for the unity glass are really beautiful. How nice would it be to get the unity vase and then each anniversary put a beautiful bouquet in it to celebrate your unity each year?
When I was planning my wedding, my other best friend gave me some great advice “the only thing people remember about your wedding is how they felt.” That is a great reminder to not get dragged down into all the excess stuff the wedding industry pushes on you, you don’t really need that photo booth, crazy lighting, and definitely don’t need that garter toss (unless you want people to remember they felt uncomfortable). Pick what you like and don’t try to make it magazine worthy, you want to enjoy the celebration of two people who love each other coming together, not how much money you can spend in one night.
Engineering My Style 