Bridal Expo Season is Here!

After a great Christmas and New Year's vacation, Bryan and I started off the "year of love" at the Georgia Bridal Expo today. I had attended Bridal Expos many years ago when I worked at JC Penney, but it was a totally different experience attending as a bride-to-be. To start, I knew exactly who I wanted to talk to and who I didn't. We are set up with Payne-Corley House-associated vendors for our wedding cake, DJ, and flowers - so that eliminated about 1/4 of the exhibitors at the Expo. Another 1/4 were limousine services, caterers, printing services (for invitations and such), and a variety of other things. The remaining 1/2 included photographers (our main priority at this point), formalwear places, honeymoon/travel agents, and bridal registries.

We'll just start from the top:
1.) The number of photographers at this Expo was overwhelming. The nice part was getting to chat each of them up and work the "Friday evening" angle - some were willing to give a discount right off the bat! Every photographer we talked to includes an engagement photo session. This was originally something we hadn't really planned on (we felt like if it was included great, but if not, we weren't going to sweat it). So it looks like we will have engagement pictures. From there, the biggest thing is getting a great value for the money because it is definitely possible. One thing that's very important is getting the digital photos on a DVD. This is advice I've gotten repeatedly from married friends and it makes perfect sense - most of the photographers included this in every package available as well. Another thing is I'd like is a photographer that is either a.) familiar with the Payne-Corley House or b.) is willing to scout it out. Some of the photographers mentioned today that if they have not previously worked at the venue, they go out to the venue (possibly with us for a consultation) to determine the types of pictures we'd like and to familiarize him/herself with the location. I came away from the Expo feeling extremely confident that we will make a decision on the photographer within the next 2 weeks or so.

2.) Formalwear - my gosh, are these people aggressive!?!? As soon as I walked in the door (wearing the sticker they gave me that said Bride - Bryan got one that said Groom, it was cute), a David's Bridal representative asked me "Have you purchased your gown yet?" I had told her no and was immediately ushered to a table to fill out a form to get a $50 gift card for my wedding gown. AWESOME!!!!

The Men's Formalwear situation was a little different. First Bryan was accosted by Men's Wearhouse. Initially I was put off by their aggression, but they had some amazing deals going on and some beautiful samples with them. I never would have even considered them had we not chatted with them today. The catch? To get the deals, you have to pay them $10. Conceptually, it didn't really make sense to me. I have to pay in order to save money? What I liked was that they told you that the $10 is refundable. So if we decide to go elsewhere, we can go into Men's Wearhouse and tell them we are not having them outfit the men in our wedding - then demand our $10 back? Reluctantly, we gave them the $10 but came away thinking, "Men's Wearhouse could make our lives extremely easy and they have our wedding colors!".

After a pleasant interaction with Men's Wearhouse, we ended up talking to Savvi Formalwear. This one was an ordeal. After Bryan talked to the Savvi representative and filled out the appropriate paperwork, we were ushered over to a Money Booth - yes, one of those things you see on TV where the money blows around and people grab at it. I was informed I could go in the Money Booth and however much I came away with would be put towards our savings at Savvi. I was so put off by this Money Booth, the people going in looked so ridiculous. Bryan finally forced me to go in and I complied, deciding to be a good sport. I was extremely nervous and stressed out - easily the longest and most embarassing 20 seconds of my life took place in this booth. As they ushered us away from the Money Booth, we were brought over to a table where we would consult with another Savvi rep. They sort of keep you talking for a bit, then someone comes over and said, "She got $189 in the booth". So they continued to tell us how much Bryan and the groomsmen would save, but to get this you must give them $20. I had had it. Don't forget, we had spent $10 per ticket to attend the Expo in the first place. "It's refundable!" he said. I told the Savvi guy we were gonna end up spending $189 before we left the damn Expo. Ok, well I was nicer about it than that. Needless to say, we left Savvi with the $20 we sat down with.

3.) Honeymoons - we came up with nothing but we did enter for chances to win free ones!!! Keep your fingers crossed for a great phone call from Delta!!

4.) The Bridal Registries were exactly what I had expected. Macy's told us about all the fantastic benefits of registering with them to which I say, "Yes Ma'am!!!!" I was selecting our china in my head as I filled out those forms. And, of course, we pre-registered with Bed, Bath, and Beyond. So the registries will start to take shape in the next 2 weeks or so as well.

All in all, there were more forms to fill out during this Bridal Expo than applying for a government job. The actual little stage show they did was super cheesy (much cheesier than I remember) but both of us, however, agreed that the day was time well spent. I'm off to sort the insane amount of papers I gathered and read my free copy of The Knot! :-)