Canada's Bridal Show -by Shari

I'm going to take a break from talking about necklaces and other accessories to talk about the Bridal Show, which I attended by myself last night. First of all, since beginning the planning of my own wedding last year, I've felt like the wedding industry needs a makeover. Going to the bridal show confirmed this for me.

The trend seems to be hiring companies that do it all, from photography/videography, flowers, decorations, cake, music, etc. I'm too new to the industry to know an answer to this question, but companies that have mulitple services, do they do anything one thing particularly well?

The table settings were all beautiful, though I don't know if any of them would work large scale. It was more as though I was looking at options for an intimate, 10-person dinner, rather than a 100+ wedding. The flower colours were fairly bright, and the orchid branches we had at our wedding seem to be popular.

Table cloths were mostly whites, browns, and blacks, and all organza. Chair bows were also organza. My favourite was a set up by Fairytale events that looked sort of like this.

There were also many set-ups that incorporated something I can only think to call a "Wedding Sofa", but I can't find a picture of anything that looks like it. Anyway, another big trend was the use of damask patterns. One of the first set-ups I saw had a damask table cloth and a matching damask backdrop. Way too busy. Some other table settings used the damask idea as a table runner, which was much nicer. Invitations had damask patterns as well, which I obviously like since ours was similar.

iCakes had the most beautiful cakes there, and had samplings of different flavours. My favourite cake was one that had two tiers and a fountain, kind of like this, but more modern looking.

Two other trends I saw and liked were 1) jewels in bouquets, and 2) brooches on men instead of pocket squares or boutonnieres. I'm still searching for a picture of this sort of thing, so more on that another time.

At 7 p.m. the fashion show started, and I of course stuck around for the whole thing.

Now, I have to preface this critique by saying I am generally not a fan of white wedding dresses, and find they all look the same. However, even by my low standards, I couldn't believe how underwhelming the wedding dresses were to me, and to others in the audience too. There was no dress that made anyone gasp, or swoon, or anything. Mostly other women were pointing and

criticising. Some dresses were so wrinkled that it looked like they had just come out of a suitcase. One dress had parts of it falling off as the model walked down the runway. Another was so see-through that we could all see the model's cups and thong. They were all ill-fitting to the models who wore them, and were paired with terrible accessories (most dresses, regardless of their shade, were paired with stark white shoes).

Amongst the comforters-turned-dresses, I saw one dress that I liked. It was by Rodney Philpott, and I've written to the company requesting a picture. I haven't heard back yet, but hopefully I'll receive it before my blog entry dedicated to wedding dresses. I also saw a coat by Ross Mayer that I adored. I'm partial to coats on wedding days as I wore one myself.

This brings me to my first statement: the wedding industry needs a makeover. Decoraters and designers are too concerned with following pre-existing trends. Comforter dresses use to drop jaws and fulfill the wishes of every little-girl turned bride. Now they are too common place to have that effect, so designers must take it upon themselves to create a new standard in princess gowns. Later on in the month I will have an entry dedicated just to wedding gowns and I'll talk more about this then.

One last thought that is not related to anything I've said so far: the wedding industry is far too heterosexual. When I was calling venues to ask about details back in late 2007, I was always offended when they asked me what my groom's name was. I would have preferred something gender neutral, like fiancee, or partner. On every ballot at the bridal show, or every contact sheet, the bride's name and information went at the top, followed by the groom's information way down below. If I was marrying someone of the same sex and went to the bridal show, I would feel very discouraged and out of place. Wedding trends and customs need to catch up to the laws passed in 2005. As I said, the wedding industry needs a makeover.

More on same-sex weddings another time!