Congratulations to all of those couples who got engaged over the holidays! Now it's time to start planning your wedding. One of the most memorable experiences about planning a wedding is attending a wedding bridal show. Kathy Piech-Lukas, wedding planner and host of Your Dream Day Wedding Planning Podcast, talks with Mardi Hull, producer of Wendy's Wedding Show, in part one of this two part series about wedding shows. Formerly known as Wendy's Bridal Show, Wendy's Wedding Show has been a Cincinnati staple for 44 years and is the Tri-State's longest running wedding show. Taking place at the Duke Energy Convention Center in downtown Cincinnati on Saturday, January 6, 2024, and Sunday, January 7, 2024, brides, grooms, mother of the bride and wedding party can purchase tickets at www.wendysweddingexpo.com for $10 presale, or $12 at the door.
Attending a wedding show is a great way to plan your entire wedding in one day, in theory. Hull says that you can meet with wedding professionals of all types, including DJs, Photographers, Caterers, Venues, and Florists at wedding shows. In addition, Wendy's Wedding Show is one of the few wedding shows in Cincinnati that has a fashion show, featuring designs from Wendy's Bridal. Bring your smartphone and take photos of your favorite dresses, decor, flowers and more. Bringing an entourage with you to a wedding show makes it more fun, and some brides, grooms, mother of the brides, and bridesmaids even dress up for the occasion in special shirts, sashes and tieras. Food samples and cake samples are always available at wedding shows, and are a great way to sample multiple food vendors in under an hour. The other huge benefit of a wedding show is that you actually get to talk with the vendors in person, and get to know them, their style and personality -- something you can't always get from just looking at a wedding directory or on their website.
Enjoy the upcoming wedding show and happy planning!
To listen to more episodes visit www.yourdreamday.com
Speaker 1:
We are making our own story as we go, as we go, as we go, hopin' we are hopin' that we'll go. So either after, either after. Hi, welcome to your Dream Day podcast. I'm your host, Kathy Peach Lucas, and today we are here to talk about Wendy's Wedding Expo, which is going to be happening the first weekend in January, january 6th and 7th, at the Duke Energy Convention Center in downtown Cincinnati. Tickets if you purchase them in advance online at Wendy's Wedding Expocom, they'll be $10. If you purchase them at the door, they'll be $12 each. But it's going to be on Saturday from 10am to 5pm and then on Sunday from 11am to 5pm. And today I'm joined by Marty Hull, who's the producer of the show. We're going to talk a little bit about what you can expect at Wendy's Wedding Expo. Hey, marty, hello Kathy, thanks for having me. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. So what's so great about this show? This show has been around for decades.
Speaker 2:
This is our 44th year and we've been consistent, except of course for the COVID year, which everybody had to miss. But yes, we have the longest running show, we have the biggest show. I think we have the best vendors. We do a full production runway fashion show that has the dresses from our store, wendy's Bridal.
Speaker 1:
Well, and that's the one thing that, if you're tuning into this and you just got engaged over the holidays, this is the show you want to definitely attend, because you're one of the few wedding shows that actually has a fashion show style Right.
Speaker 2:
Right we have the, and it's a runway fashion show. It's high energy, it's music, it's professional models. It's a lot of fun to be at the show, so with people who are going to.
Speaker 1:
Maybe this is their first wedding show and they've never been to one before. What can they expect at Wendy's Wedding Expo?
Speaker 2:
Well, they can expect to just get a jump start on the wedding planning. Especially if you just got engaged at Christmas, your head is swimming. You don't really know where to start. This is the place to start. You can see photographers, venues, just get hundreds of ideas of what your options might be, and you probably already have a picture in your head of what you want that to be. And you can find the vendors that will help you put all that together.
Speaker 1:
Well, and planning a wedding is a part-time job, it is. It's like I always say kiddily, you know, when you got that gift from your fiance, what else did you get? And people will say stuff like, oh, I got the love of my life, oh, I got, you know, commitment from my best friend, and I'm like, no, you got a part-time job.
Speaker 2:
Right, and there are ways to make that enjoyable. Exactly, and it should be enjoyable. Yes, there's certainly a amount of stress involved. You want it to be just right, but if you find the right vendors to help you achieve your dream, that's going to make everything fall together better. If you can do a lot of that shopping and get a hard start on it and gathering those ideas in one stop face-to-face with those vendors, you're going to have a much better relationship than finding things on a website that's just so much more time consuming.
Speaker 1:
It is, and I think what a lot of people don't realize is, you know, it goes back to the whole part-time job thing. When you go to a wedding show, you might be there for maybe two hours, maybe three at the most, depending on how long you stay, or if you have a good conversation. Well, stay for the fashion show, right, exactly, and then there'll be plenty of times because you want to see every vendor.
Speaker 2:
You want to go up a dem isle. You may already know, oh, I want this particular place or this style. But if you go up and down every aisle, you'll find things you didn't know you need and you'll get ideas. And the vendors are so creative and it's so much fun to see what they've done with their space.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, definitely, If you go to Wendy's Wedding Expo, bring your camera and take photos of things that you like and start your Pinterest board. Because Pinterest boards I have a love hate relationship with them, but Pinterest boards are the best way for your wedding vendor team to read what's going on up here and what your ideas are and translate it into something tangible for your actual wedding.
Speaker 2:
Another important tip is get an email that is just for wedding planning.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely that will also save you a lot of time. So when you're putting your wedding planning hat on, you can go to that email. You can check the offers that you've gotten. There should be discounts from coming to the show that you'll find out at the show. And then, when you're at work or relaxing, you don't have to have those popping into your other emails and then, when the wedding is over, you can not check it anymore or wait to check it until you have another event that you want to go back and find a florist or a bakery for.
Speaker 1:
Well, and that's the thing. When you go to these wedding shows any wedding expo they're going to ask for your personal information, such as your name, your fiance's name, your wedding date, venue, if you have it, and your email address and your phone number. You will get contacted by these vendors after the show. They're there to help you plan. Some people get a little bit flustered because they see it as just getting spam, but really these vendors are here to help you. And one of the great things about a wedding show is and going back to what you were saying, marty you go up and down the aisle and you talk to every vendor. Talk is the key word here, because when you're researching online on a website, you might get to see their portfolio of work. You would get to learn a little bit about who they are, but you might schedule an appointment with this vendor. Drive half an hour there, have an hour long consultation, realize about 10 minutes into it that this person is not a good fit for you, drive home and three hours later you're right back where you started, whereas at a wedding show, you have the opportunity to do that over and over and over again. And talk to these wedding professionals, find out what is their personality, what is their style, as well as their pricing and portfolio. One thing that I find this as a planner I get price shocked so much where they just don't know what questions to ask, and the one question they've been programmed to ask is what is your cost? What is your cost?
Speaker 1:
And the thing is is every vendor is a little bit different. So if you're just saying I want a photo booth, well, company A may offer something different than company B and you're not comparing apples to apples. It may be a completely different experience. They may have different props, they may have different types of photo booths available. Like it should be a Volkswagen bug, like I've seen a Volkswagen van. I've seen something as simple as a lighted tripod. I mean, you have to get an idea of exactly what their service is, and you'll also find that some of the more seasoned vendors will probably charge a little bit more than the people who are just starting out, and in that case, you're paying for their experience. You're paying for their expertise, you're paying for their resources, and all the wedding vendors are there to help you.
Speaker 2:
And you know, and that's to me, that's the best part of the wedding show going to any wedding expo, but, but ours in particular is the seeing all the vendors and their creativity and also figuring out how it fits in your budget, because every, every wedding couple has a budget.
Speaker 1:
Yes, set a budget and stick to it.
Speaker 2:
There is a wedding vendor for every single budget, yes, and then decide what your priorities are. You know, if the dress of your dreams is your most important priority, then you need to set the budget for that and maybe there's some other places that you can adjust. Or if it's your dream venue or or flowers, overwhelming flowers that there's a place for that in every budget, but there's ways to make it happen and the professional wedding vendors can help you find the ways to make that happen Absolutely, and you actually said a very, very important word there Professional, professional wedding vendors.
Speaker 1:
That is who is going to be at Wendy's wedding expo. Yes, our professionals. It's not people that just sell their services on Facebook. They're, they're the real deal.
Speaker 2:
Right. They've had an experience. We sort of vet our vendors because our name is behind the show. So we want to make sure that we have quality vendors, that they're worth the price of admission and also that we want everyone to have a good time. I mean, bring your friends, bring your family, bring all the people that are going to help you make this day special and help you plan it and come planning to have a good time. You're going to have samples.
Speaker 1:
There are beverages there if you choose to do that, but it's a party, the entourage is my favorite part of watching, because sometimes I'm one of those people that takes a step back and I just want to observe. And these, especially the brides, they do this where they'll wear a tiara, they'll have a sash or they'll have like their whole entourage, will have a special t-shirt, like I'm the maid of honor, I'm the mother of the bride, or you know, and they make a day out of it. It's like a group activity when they go to these wedding shows. Sure, yeah, so it's a great way to bond with your wedding party and, you know, it's also keeps like, if you bring your mom along, it keeps her involved in the planning process, yes, and the show also allows.
Speaker 2:
The focus, of course, is planning your big day, but there's all sorts of things that lead up to that, certainly choosing your dress and the showers and all the other events, the bachelor parties that the vendors can help you plan that too, and there's options for all of those things. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely, and the other thing that I think is great about wedding shows is just the food.
Speaker 2:
Samples are great. The food the grooms really enjoy the food part of it Well, and we see more and more grooms that are part of the wedding planning. Either they've been assigned a task or they're working together. They're very much more interested in this being their day also, that's very true.
Speaker 1:
I've been seeing that a lot where the grooms are, either they're picking a piece of the wedding planning and that's their baby, or they're right up there with you know, if it's a bride and a groom, they're up there together just asking all the questions, going to every appointment, and they're doing it together and really, if you think about it, a wedding is the first major life event that you plan together. Right, I mean, for some of these couples, maybe they purchased a house already, but when you step into marriage, that's a whole another.
Speaker 2:
Right so it does make sense for both parties to be working together to make this, the launching of their family, a new family unit, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
So how can people get?
Speaker 2:
Wendy's WeddingExpocom Find out everything about the show, the time, the dates January 6th and 7th, when the fashion shows are two on Saturday, one on Sunday you get discount tickets $10 on our website, wendysweddingexpocom or $12 at the door. Perfect, Perfect, Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1:
Marty, thank you for tuning in. This is part one of two, so be sure to tune in next week to learn about wedding dress trends and what to expect on the runway at Wendy's Wedding Expo on January 6th and 7th. This is Kathy Peach Lucas with your Dream Day. Happy planning.