What are wedding fayres?
So you’ve got to the point where it’s time to start planning your wedding, but don’t really know where to start. You might have heard of wedding fayres, but you don’t know what they’re all about. We’ve created a little guide to explain a little about them and how to go about looking one up that’s going to be useful to you.
Firstly, just what is a wedding fayre? A wedding fayre or bridal show, or as they are also referred, is an exhibition, full of a wide selection of wedding services that a prospective bride or groom might be interested in booking for their special day. They have been described as a sophisticated market for wedding professionals.
You can obtain a vast wealth of good advice at a wedding fayre and in some cases some great money saving tips and ideas. Even if you don’t engage any of the services on offer, you can gain a greater insight into what you might or might not want for your own very special wedding day.
There can be as many as 300 exhibitors or “stall holders” at the larger events, or as little as 20 at the smaller, more localised fayres. They generally offer a great selection and wide variety of wedding services ranging from Wedding Dresses from top bridal houses, right through to Wedding DJ’s! Generally covering every aspect of your wedding day, from start to finish.
Where are wedding fayres usually held?
Wedding fayres are generally held in hotels, stadiums, and large conference centers across the country and usually located around major towns and cities. They can range in size depending on the type of wedding fayre. The smaller local fayres can also be found in church halls and community centres, where as the bigger national fayres take over mass capacity conference or exhibition centres such as Event City in Manchester, the NEC in Birmingham and Earls Court in London.
What’s the main difference between the local and national wedding fayres?
The difference between the two local and national fayres is big and it is also reflected in the quality and professionalism of the exhibitor at the fayre or show…
The larger…
or national fayres, that are held over two, sometimes three days, take over big conference and exhibition centres at great expense and therefore command higher exhibiting fees for the exhibitor. This generally ensures that more, well-established business are seen at ones of this size. The larger fayres like this also tend to attract businesses that are part of a group or chain, with offices, shops or branches found across the length and breadth of the country. The beauty of the national fayres that are You can expect a higher level of service and professionalism from these types of business, but at the same time, you must be willing to pay a premium price for their services. These are also events that will have an admission charge to enter but in return will offer not just a great selection of different types of wedding business, but will also hand out useful goodie-bags!
The smaller…
local wedding fayres, are normally held on a Sunday during the day and are generally populated by local businesses who know the area you are in on both a personal and professional level. They therefore, can sometimes have a greater understanding of what your needs might be and the workability of them. Being a small business they may well offer you very competitive prices on their services as they try to compete against the big faceless nationals. Most of the smaller fayres are free to attend with no admission charges. You tend to receive a far more personal service at smaller fayres and also in many cases deal with the same person right through your wedding experience.
Where can you find out about wedding fayres
Local press, is one of the places where you will find out about the local fayres, but checking social media for posts in wedding based groups is a very good place to start project management tools. If you have a venue or location in mind already for your wedding day / evening, you might want to check the venue’s own website to see if they have any fayres or wedding related shows coming up. These are usually populated by local companies and services some of which are generally used by the hotels themselves and are familiar with the venue.
Bridal magazines are also a good source of information as to where and when wedding fayres are going to be held. In between all the great wedding features in a magazine, you will find some adverts by some of the bigger Wedding Fayre organisers like Local Wedding Fayres and The National Wedding Shows, displaying their lists of show dates in different parts of the country.
The types of exhibitors at wedding fayres
The larger exhibition style wedding fayres tend to cater to every possible taste or and every imaginable wedding service under the sun, where as the small ones tend to stay focused on the more traditional wedding based businesses and services.
At just about any wedding fayre or bridal show you would expect to find businesses that can provide, wedding rings, wedding dresses, menswear, venue dressers, entertainment of some kind, usually in the way of a wedding DJ or wedding singer, wedding stationery, photo booths and photography, floristry, mother or the bride fashion and magnificent wedding cars.
In the larger and national wedding fayres and show, you can expect to find four or five companies each representing any of the services above and some of the more niche services such like owl ring bearers, toastmasters, magicians, look-a-likes, marquee hire, drone videography and candy carts.
Catwalk Fashion Shows
The showpiece of any Wedding Fayre or Bridal Show is always the catwalk show. This can be a purely bridal catwalk show or one that also covers a section for Mother Of The Bride / Groom and also a section for Meanswear. Some of the more lavish and couture wedding fayres have also included a lingerie catwalk show. For obvious reasons, this isn’t a common occurrence, but not unheard of at all.
Your average catwalk show will sometimes display gowns from two or more bridal houses depending on the size of the event as a whole. There are generally two catwalk shows during the course of the afternoon if it just on a Sunday but the bigger two or three day events, usually in event centres like Event City, can have up to five catwalk shows in any one day.