Been There, Done That, Got the Goody Bag

(Not from bridal show)

And by "goody bag" I mean a bag stuffed to the brim with fliers for vendors I will not call. Oh, and a bridal magazine that I already own. Oh and did I mention that the nice lady at the registration desk looked pretty insulted when I told her that I didn't need the magazine? Yes, ma'am, I am trying to be part of the solution. There are trees being cut down to make these bridal magazines, and while they are often helpful to brides like myself, they are in fact made of TREES. And I already have one, OK?!

Ah, the bridal expo. No, not any bridal expo. The local bridal expo...hmm. The bridal gauntlet, if you will. Survive and you get a slice of cake. Mmm cake. The cake was delicious. The rest? I guess the polite thing to say is that it wasn't for me. But there was so much more than that.

My first mistake was that I went alone. The second mistake was that I greatly overestimated the variety of vendors that would make an appearance. Apparently there was only room for one of each vendor. One florist, one limo company (complete with stretch hummer equipped with flashing lights. shudder), one photographer--you get the point. There was absolutely no variety, and from what I saw, the wedding we want, is nothing like the wedding they like to produce. Third mistake: I told them when I was getting married. The minute they heard July 2011 the conversation was over. Over! There was this one lovely woman who actually frowned at me. What's that? Do I have something on my face? Do I smell bad? What it is woman?!

I understand that they are in the wedding business and I am not. But does getting a head start and meeting vendors early make me a waste of time? Oh it does? Well, thanks but I'm gonna take this piece of cake (and the bakery's business card) and head home, thanks. Mmbye.

So I survived the only bridal expo I ever plan on attending, ever. Lesson learned.

Oh and another valuable lesson learned--don't give your real email address. I thought I used my junk mail address (sendspamhere@Idon'tcheckthisaccount.com) on everything, but I must have missed something. I'm still getting emails from vendors I never even saw at the show! Emails like "sorry we didn't have a chance to finish our conversation and talk about pricing, but call us." Rrg.