A Day in the Windy City

A Day in the Windy City

February 23rd, 2012 @ 3:10 pm by Miss Unicycle
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Like I mentioned before, my MOH and former college roommate visited me last weekend to get a bunch of wedding stuff done and just hang out. Part of the reason we picked that weekend was because I had scored some free tix to the Windy City Wedding Show (I’m pretty sure everyone in attendance had scored free tix by the way. I wouldn’t recommend ever paying to go to a bridal show because they were begging me to get my free tickets even after I’d already gotten some).

Image via the Windy City Wedding Show

I went to a bridal expo last May and wasn’t that impressed with it, but I heard after the fact that it isn’t that great of an expo in general, so I had high hopes for this one.

The only problem—I’m about four months from my wedding day with almost everything booked and planned. So I had virtually no reason to be there other than wanting to do these things while I still can—I’ll only be “the bride” for another four months. Woe is me.

This particular show was held at Carnivale, an extremely cool restaurant in Chicago that I had been wanting to check out. And now that I’ve seen it, I want to check it out for realsies, because it was amazing inside:

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My bridesmaids said it looked like a restaurant I would design. I want my future home to look like this!

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Here they are when we first got there. We sadly didn’t get a pic of all 3 of us.

Oh wait, yes we did!

Image via the photo booth sponsored by Party Photo Booths

The guy MADE ME pose like that. I swear to gawd.

There were a lot of cool things to see at the show, like wedding dresses on headless mannequins…

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…sweets table setups (complete with free samples. Holy cakeballz were there free samples!)…

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…fake Styrofoam cakes with cool designs on them…

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…Some centerpiece and flower ideas…

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…and I just really liked this tablecloth:

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And here’s a bunch of strangers milling around:

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We all enjoyed the show a lot, but since we had no vendors to book, we didn’t end up spending a lot of time there. We took some pics, posed in the photo booth, tried some cakeballz, and entered a few raffles. I also got a coupon for a free makeover from Mario Tricoci, which I’m super excited about, and everyone got a free copy of The Knot Chicago, which basically made the whole trip worth it.

No wait, this made the whole trip worth it:

A Day in the Windy City : wedding bridal shows chicago Trucks1 trucks ’

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We saw this on the way home from the bridal show, and for some reason it filled us with such joy that we were moved to tears. I think we were just delirious from partying too hard the whole weekend. But seriously, what are the logistics of this? How does it work?? And why?

Have you ever been to a bridal show? Was it helpful to you? And was anyone at the one at Carnivale on Sunday?

Tags: bridal-shows, chicago |

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10 Responses to “A Day in the Windy City”

Bee

Miss Doily (message) 811 posts, Busy bee

You crack me up Miss Uni. We too booked a lot of our vendors pretty quickly, so I never got the whole bridal show experience. You are making me realize that I really didn’t miss too much. Though, cake balls are the shiz

2/23/12 @ 3:37 pm (reply)

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Miss_Manda (message) 301 posts, Helper bee

That tablecloth is gorgeous! I dare not fall in love with it though… I’m sure I can’t afford it — plus it’s not exactly the backyard bbq vibe we’re going for!

2/23/12 @ 4:46 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Pony (message) 5,386 posts, Bee Keeper

I was convinced the whole purpose of wedding shows is to make me feel inferior about my wedding decisions by showcasing the most gorgeous yet expensive options (seriously, those linens are gorgeous). So I mostly just went for the free food samples

2/23/12 @ 5:03 pm (reply)

Member

Alleycat (message) 450 posts, Helper bee

Lmao @ the quadruple semi! I also got like a bajillion invites to claim free ticketes to this show. I thought about going because, like you, I thought it would be cool to check out Carnivale. But in the end I didn’t go because I really don’t have many vendors left to book, and also I’m lazy and didn’t feel like driving out to the city lol.

2/23/12 @ 5:16 pm (reply)

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SubmarinersBride (message) 847 posts, Busy bee

I’ve been to a few shows. I’ve always walked away saying “eh”. The last one I was told at the door open bar. I got to the bar, ordered drinks for me and FI, and was told $15. Oops - no cash. Sorry, can’t pay. And thanks so much for the dirty look.

RE: The logistics of the tractor trailer cabs: They hook up onto each other at the same place that the trailer normally hooks. Transporting like this saves fuel, since each truck doesn’t have to be driven alone. Anyways, they are too tall for a flatbed, LOL. But it is cool to see!

2/23/12 @ 8:08 pm (reply)

Member

Miss Ke Aloha (message) 797 posts, Busy bee

Oh - We had to pay for the Bridal show. It was early on in our planning, I got a lot of ideas but nothing more. My fiance wanted to go with me, he thought he would be sweet by suffering through it and then rubbing it in all the wedding stuff he’s done. Really, I only realized my fiance has ugly wedding taste. It was all, lets do something like this, my mom would like that. Umm… Haha.. but it was walking distance to a beach we don’t frequent often so, the day was saved with beach towels and shave ice.
I love the semi,semi, semi,semi trucks.

2/24/12 @ 6:43 am (reply)