[Tips] Attending a Wedding Fayre - for Brides to be.

Well, with my first Wedding Fayre of the Season on Sunday, I thought I would give some tips for brides! The bigger Exhibitions can be daunting for a lot of people, as it is slightly different to the smaller fayres.

So, here are some of my tips, to make the big ones (or little ones) worth your while!

Prepare: Big fayres, have lots of exhibitors and special offers and prize drawers, and after a while you will get sick of writing your details down. So come prepared, get some peel off stickers - like these here on eBay  and have your name, address, wedding date, email and venue on them. Perfect to save you getting hand cramp from all that writing!

Email Address: You may give out your email address to a lot of people, if you do not want exhibitors to have your personal email then why not set up a new Wedding only email? I personally find Gmail is so easy to use, how about using something like MrsCarterToBe@Gmail.com etc, as an example.

Shoes: Wear Flat Shoes! If you are used to wearing skyscraper heels day in day out, and walking in them, then that’s fine, otherwise, wear flats! You will be surprised how much walking around you can do at the big fayres.

Time: With small fayres, you can “just pop in for an hour” where as the big ones generally will take more time. I have seen large fayres open at 10am, and still see the same people walking around at 3pm. They can be long days, especially if you want to visit almost every exhibitor in the early planning stages.

Plan: If you have your Wedding Date, and Venue, or even if you don’t but you know that there are some exhibitors that you know you want to discuss booking, or your Wedding in more details, then plan to visit these first. If you can contact the exhibitors before hand and ask them if they know their stall number or where they will be exhibiting if in different rooms so you can make sure you get to see them first.

People: Take people with you! Whether its your Fiancé, your mum, your bridesmaids - or them all! Sometimes its nice to have peoples opinions when looking for things, but if you are going along to book, make sure that at least your fiancé knows who you are booking!

Write: Whilst the tip for the stickers is a good one, make sure that if any other information is needed that you write it CLEARLY. Try printing your details, that way, you won’t miss out on anything because your handwriting wasn’t clear.

Questions: Ask lots of questions - but be prepared for information overload. Only ask questions which will be relevant for your Wedding. Write down on literature any information that you have given, and your overall impression of the company as to whether or not you liked them. You may love an exhibitor but then cannot remember who it was with all of your leaflets!

Organise: After the Exhibition, or even the day or two after, make sure you go through your leaflets and arrange them into subject, e.g., Florists, Photographers, Dresses, Stationary, Venue Dressing - and then go through those piles discounting the ones that you didn’t like - and the ones that you did!

Rest: And breathe. During the day schedule a drink, or lunch break at the big fayres, and carry a bottle of water with you, as when it gets really busy it can get hot.

And more importantly - ENJOY!