National Wedding Show

On Saturday me, Mom and bridesmaid Natalie went to the National Wedding Show at the NEC in Birmingham.

We went before back on October 2008 and had a really good day out. It was actually where we found our venue Nailcote Hall.

This time we started out early and arrived at the show just after 10am. Collected our goody bag and watched the catwalk show which featured dresses from designers such as Benjamin Roberts, Jonathan James, Charlotte Balbier, Pronovias and Blue by Enzoani and menswear from Slaters, Moss Bros and Peter Posh. I really enjoyed the catwalk show and have to admit I think it was better than the show we watched the last time we were there.

The show quickly became very crowded and within an hour and a half of being there felt we had seen the majority of the stands. Our main objective of the day was to look for bridesmaid dress but we failed to find a single one. We left a little disappointed.

The day wasn’t a total wash out, we each scored a gorgeous silver heart charm from Individjewel, saw a few potential ideas for the front of our invitations and found some really gorgeous shoes from Rachel Simpson and Victoria Allinson.

The show had left us all with headaches so we stopped off at Tesco on the way home and treated ourselves to cupcakes and enjoyed them with a cup of tea!

I feel shows like this are really aimed at people who have recently become engaged, a lot of the stands are similar and do not really offer anything different. I really enjoyed the show the last time I went because it was like joining a club, it felt good to say “I’m the Bride” It’s a great place to gather inspiration as well. I had no idea how I was going to plan this wedding and what options were open to me. Going last October opened my eyes to a lot of new and exciting ideas and I had a fab day out.

This time round I went with a purpose. I wanted to seek out bridesmaid dresses. I know at previous shows exhibitors have offered hefty discounts to show attendees so I wanted to see if we could get ourselves a bargain. They only had two stands that came under the category “Bridal Party Wear” One was Coast (I love clothes from Coast but they don’t really sell the types of dresses I am after.) and the other was “Totally Magical” (I only know this after looking at the exhibitors list… We didn’t find them on the day)

I really don’t want this to come across as negative because the first time I went I had a blast. I just think I’ve come too fair in the planning to really benefit from the National Wedding Show.