The Calgary Wedding Fair

Oh where do I start with this!?

My passion for weddings runs deep and has done so since I knew what tulle was. Everyday, white dresses and dreamy venues float around in my head and have come to the conclusion with my fashion forward friend, Danielle of Death by Shoe that the number one leading cause of divorce is not money, nor infidelity, but colour palettes. The wide array of them that make us wedding freaks go crazy, needing to have multiple weddings to get these pretty colour combos out of our systems.

This past weekend, all my favorite vendors were anxiously getting revved up for Calgary's biggest bridal event, The Calgary Wedding Fair. I rounded up a few girlfriends (thank you Din for being my unofficial Wedding Fair photographer and providing this posts lovely snapshots!), armed with four complimentary tickets and four VIP fashion show tickets and hit the road. When we walked in we had no idea where to start, so we chose the fashion show, and what a treat that was! I must say, the variety of dresses was lacking, especially the way bridal fashion is heading, in a couture direction and with sleeves making a comeback, I was a tad disappointed seeing ball gown after ballgown of strapless varieties, all with a bit too much bling for my taste. But can we talk about the "grooms". Holy mother of all things wonderful, the guys did a spectacular job. The Wedding Fair hired these models based not only on looks, but talent and I know that many of these fine specimens were professional dancers. They were entertaining and there was not one lady in the audience that wasn't grinning ear to ear (if there was, I am convinced they may not have a soul...). The stage was also impressive, the best I have seen in Calgary as far as fashion shows go, we are not the most fashion forward city in the world by any stretch of the imagination!. It was backlit, and very chic. I also would have loved if they identified the designers, so that I knew who NOT to look for when wedding dress shopping, ha ha!

After the fashion show we took in a little bit of wine tasting - which we tried to do before the show - in which we got the comment "ladies, it's not even 11:00, that's when we start pouring". Who the heck says there's a time limit on alcohol consumption, we were ready!

We went from there on to the table top decorating competition. This is actually where I think I could be a contender. I love creating a different look to each wedding - and I think the whole room can be transformed with well done table decor. One thing that seems to be on the trend upswing is not so much covering chairs, but changing out chairs all together. The girls moaned with embarrassment that I knew what chiavari and ghost chairs were, they would rather refer to them as "clear" or "gold fancy", ha ha!

Next, onto winding around the hundreds of booths. I have to say, it was a tad bit awkward not being engaged as I got asked multiple times when my wedding date was, had I picked a venue etc. Although - before heading to the show, I gave fair warning to Josh that our "wedding date" on my ballot entry stickers was September 15, 2012, and that I hoped this was alright with him (like he had a choice, right!?).

I was in wedding heaven, this was my mecca and I squealed with delight when seeing my form of "celebrities". When you love weddings as much as I do, and stalk blogs, wedding sites and magazine racks constantly and then get to meet these vendors in person, well, it's pretty exciting. The Social Page had great wedding stationary, Lynn Fletcher's booth was definitely something to write home about and deservedly won best booth, Ed Ross was his usual humble and friendly self and Great Events with their table top waitress decked out with delectable looking desserts was very innovative. I love seeing different things presented, with the amount of research I do it's very refreshing.

The edible treats displayed were super droolworthy! M for Macaron (love that name!) had such a beautiful, fun display - and confirmed what I already had a feeling about, that macaron's are quickly replacing the cupcake trend. Another trend I find coming back is good old wedding cakes. There were beautiful cakes displayed by Cakery Bakery, Buttercream Bakeshoppe, and Cakeworks.

The whole show really exceeded my expectations, thousands of brides had so many options of everything from dresses and venues, to flowers and cakes. I loved the variety and knowing that all these brides-to-be are able to choose the vendors that are perfectly suited to them.

Congratulations to all the vendors, and a huge thank you to Calgary Wedding Fair for putting on a spectacular and very successful show!