wedding expo this weekend!

hulagirly

we just got engaged almost 2 weeks ago and havne't really started the whole planning proccess yet.  i'm super excited about going to a wedding expo this weekend, because i'm hoping it will give me some ideas.  I made a seperate email account for wedding stuff and printed out labels with our names, date and address on it.  do y'all have any tips or suggestions for me to keep an eye out or do at the expo?

OliveOilsMom

Don't sign up for any of the "Free honeymoon" booths.  Usually they are a scam because they want you to purchase some crazy expensive pots before you get your free honeymoon.

Honestly, you can plan your wedding without the bridal expos.  I planned my whole wedding without attending one.  The best way to start planning, is to come up with your budget.  Then make your guest list.  Figure out what price you can host your guests per person (leaving enough money for your dress, invites, photographer, officiant, etc.) Then start searching venues in your price range.

The budgetor tool on TK is good at allocating your budget appropriately to all the different things you will need.  Stick around with us and we can help you with any wedding planning questions!

Congrats on your engagement!

AddieCake

Enjoy the free cake samples. Other than that, those things kind of suck. You were smart to set up a special email.

buddysmom80

I've never been to one of these wedding expos. I must be missing out because free cake, um yeah!!!

littlemushroom

If you really have nothing done, the expo might be more beneficial to you, especially if it is in the town you are getting married in.  I had all the big things booked already when I went, so they were really only helpful for free food.  

Things that may be useful:

1) Getting some photographer ideas- I knew nothing about photographers, prices or anything.  Having a bunch of them all in one place where you can talk to them and get an idea of their style and what they can do to work with you should be pretty helpful.  If nothing else, seeing what different photographers include will give you some negotiation points when you do pick a photographer.

2) Some vendors, like tux rental places, ran specials that you could only get at the bridal show.  These will only be helpful if you are ready to book.  However, we researched the rental places in town, had it narrowed down to the one we wanted, and then went to a bridal show in town that weekend and they were offering a better deal at the show than in the store.  We went with the place we were going to anyway, but got a better deal than we were offered in store.

3) Caterers/Cake places- there were always a bunch of these at the shows I went to.  If you are going to need an outside caterer, the expos are a great way to sample from a bunch of places at once to get some ideas and narrow down your choices.  We also found caterers at the expos that I did not find any info on when I googled and otherwise went looking.

In the end, the bridal shows were mostly a bonding experience for my mom and me.  We used the deal we found at one for the tuxes, but otherwise it was just enjoying free samples and bonding with my mom. 

hulagirly

are wedding expos that bad?  i was pretty excited about going to it because i thought it would help us find venues and vendors and hopefully get some discounts.  i live in hawaii and unless you are having a huge wedding or a destination wedding, (we are having a small one) i wasn't able to really find anything online that we liked or was in our price range.  should i just skip it?

thanks for the tip about not signing up for the free honeymoon, though.  i would have probably fallen for that.

is there anyway to change the numbers on the budget calculator on TK?  when i put in a budget off $5k, they gave me $100 for my dress and $200 for the photographer. When I inreased it to $10k, they didn't really increse everythig else - they just put increased the budget for dinner from $60 pp to $190 pp.  so i just gave up on that.  i'd like to use it, though.

hulagirly

thank you, nikkijay ... sorry, i didn't see your post until after i posted.  the stuff that you posted was what i was hoping to get out of the expo.  but i can see how if most of your wedding is already planned, that an expo won't be much help to you at that point.