My first Bridal Show, or how to feel like a fifth-wheel to 400+ people
I went to my first Bridal Show at the Walden Galleria today. It was much more enjoyable than I had thought going into it. My initial impressions, when presented with this registration form, was "if the website sucks, the show will suck."
So, I get to the Galleria Mall, enter the proper door and stop at the registration desk. They take my "registration confirmation" (which is just a printout of aforementioned spawn-of-beezelbub registration form), I get my raffle ticket, and a "Here Comes The Groom" sticker. I'm asked where the Bride is. (the first of many "Where's the lucky lady?" inquiries.)
I start perusing the first 10 tables, drop our names on some stuff and hit what appears to be the end of the show. Realizing that half the stuff mentioned wasn't there (on top of the fact that this is supposed to be the show in Buffalo to be at), I call littledee5. Since we need to be present at 3pm to win any raffles (and it being no later than 1pm), I set off to wander the mall. In my wandering, I find the rest of the show. The address stickers littledee5 had me make were a HANDSAVER! I cleared 2/3 of a sticker sheet, and barely had to write anything.
Talked to a few more places. Every table that I didn't walk up to alone, I was confused as the Groom of the closest woman bearing a "Here comes the Bride!" sticker. (I'm such a man-whore :)) Many times I mentioned that the bride was out-of-state. Two of the presenters look at the address sticker, and still ask me where the bride is. *harrumph* *rolls eyes*. So I found everything I could ever have wanted to know was available for a wedding. Videographers, Photographers, Limosine-ographers, Musician-ographers, Choreographers, Calligraphers, Spa-ographers, and all kinds of other -ographers (I want to be a Website-ographer!). Got some good contacts for Niagara Falls.
After I finished the table rounds (practically signing up for everything and anything), I headed upstairs to Things Remembered to get an anniversary gift. While I was waiting for the cashier to cash me out, I hear a band playing in the level below, and they're good. That is, until the singer begins. To the layperson, he sounded just fine, but to the ear of a musician (albeit amateur one), he was off by a little bit. Enough to annoy me. "I'd better find out who's making that awful racket, so I don't hire them for my wedding!" I tell the cashier. Sure enough, I find out that the noise is coming from the band I had been talking to not an hour before at length about the local music scene. So, scratch them off the list - I must admit, though, that having a live band was probably a bit out of our budget anyway - I don't need a live band that badly, a DJ will suffice.
So, 3pm comes around, and I end up sitting through a "fashion show" put on by the two major sponsors in between raffle giveaways. Never have 12 prizes been stretched across AN HOUR so poorly. On average, each "drawing" took 5 or 6 tickets to find a winner. The fashion show was nice and all, but standing in the very back, my head started to hurt because the music was too damn loud (I'm getting so old, am I?). Ended up we didn't win anything, and one of the gift baskets went to the people who were registering at the table while I handed in my stuff (they had a number 1 digit after mine). Oh well, c'est la vie.
But all in all, aside from being on my feet all day, it was an enjoyable experience. Definitely taking someone with me for the next one.