Pharon Square at the Fair

Well, people told me not to do it. They said "Pharon, it's a nightmare. It's a scam. It'll steal your soul if you let it." But did I listen? NO. I like to make my OWN mistakes, thankyouverymuch. So I did it, and I dragged my pal Kim along with me.

We went to the Twin Cities Bridal Fair.

For those of you who don't know what the Bridal Fair is, it's a trade show for brides. That's right. The wedding industry is chomping at the bit just to get in with brides to cash in on the biggest day of their lives. If that's not romance, I don't know what is. I digress. Anyways, so all these DJs and restaurants and caterers and photographers (and liposuction doctors, rudely enough) all set up their little booths in convention center and hang their little pictures and set out their little brochures and ooze desperation as overwhelmed brides pass them by.

The weirdest part? I loved it!

So, okay. We prepared for the day with mimosas. An essential for getting through any trade show, as far as I'm concerned. We walked into the convention center and were immediately bombarded by an elaborate lighting display and pink tulle and wedding dresses in this very overly dramatic entrance hall. It was a little "Hall of Horrors" for my liking, though. No windows, creepy soft music, headless mannequins with $2,000 dresses hanging on them in glass cases.

Then we got into the ROOM. It was ballistic. Booths, music, bowls of bribes in the form of Jolly Ranchers all over the place.  But most importantly, there were BRIDES...EVERYWHERE. OMG, you guys! The brides! There were gaggles of gals wearing matching t-shirts, swooning over free luggage tags and $20 off a $1 billion photography package. They were, like, aggressively "blissful." It was so bizarre.

Kim and I were among the less-frenzied visitors. While I loved the sparkles and the activity and feeling very wanted (as a client), Kim and I were much less fanatical. We hit up a fashion show, then the bar with fun girlie drinks, then another fashion show. In between these very important bridal fair essential events, we buzzed around eating free cake and entering drawings. See, you have to enter drawings to the vendors can steal your most personal info and then spam the bejeezus of you as a consolation prize of not winning the big prize. SCORE.

The weirdest thing, by the way, was the amount of BAGS these people give away. You get one at the door, then another one when you stop and look at a vendor's wedding dress display, and another one when you sign up to win up to 10 free tuxedo rentals. Just, like, LOADS of empty bags. So at the end of the event, you walk out with one bag full of OTHER bags and 205,304 brochures and business cards. So much paper wasted.

But, I'm planning on winning some tuxes, at least one honeymoon package, photo booth service, and like 2 or 3 wedding dresses, probably. So, it's cool.