The first booth we ran across was of course the gym one. Get yourself into shape so you don’t look like a fat ass at your wedding! Yeah, I gotta agree with that. After packing on the pounds it was definitely something of interest to me, but not something I wanted to dive right into and investigate. I mean I was there for the wedding stuff after all! So we by pass the fitness guru’s and dive headfirst into the frenzy. What are we greeted with first? Why cake of course! There were little slices of every cake to choose from, but we held out. There was still so much to see and the runway show had already started.

We crowded around to the edge of the stage and watched in hopeful fascination of the dresses. But alas, neither of us were too impressed. There were flamboyant dresses which resembled albino peacocks to short Sunday dresses for the more casual or boring. Nothing even remotely had a splash of color beyond a different shade of white. Bleh! So the wedding dresses were a bust but there were a couple of bridesmaid dresses that weren’t too bad. Either way we stopped watching about half way through and started to check out the booths around us.

We had a couple of photo booths, David’s Bridal, Avon, and a sound system booth right by us. We headed out of that aisle after signing up for a chance to win some free stuff and looped around to the middle aisle. Here there was another photo/video booth, make up booth, and an insurance booth. We stopped here as a we were now directly in front of the runway, and decided to watch the last of the show. Still nothing of worthwhile mentioning presented itself and Carly and I both were disappointed in the lack of styles for our personal tastes.

Then the announcer introduced the girls from the Women’s Fitness Company. They were going to demonstrate Zumba to us. The music cranked up to a hip hop latin beat and the girls wasted no time jumping into the thick of it. I was enthralled. It was a cross between a hip hop dance video and a street dance. I liked it. Carly frowned at the popping ladies clearly unimpressed and stated that only people that liked Dancing with the Stars or those dance movies would like this. I of course grinned at her and let her know I liked those things and I did enjoy this Zumba routine I was baring witness too. After the demonstration ended we wandered around the last aisle of booths. Still nothing spectacular. We did see a few unique cake toppers though, but everything else was far too girly for our tastes.

So with our bag full of flyers and business cards we slipped out of the ballroom and I made a bee line for the WFC booth. Zumba had definitely caught my attention and I wanted to get as much information on it as I possibly could. While there we also signed up for a drawing for a free year membership with spa/massage benefits. Hey you never know right? While I didn’t sign up right then and there I do have a date with a Zumba class this Friday with them. I’m looking forward to it.

Having been disappointed with the not so impressive wedding expo Carly and I decided to head over to a shop in Phoenix that has Alfred Angelo dresses. Both of us have our sights set on that particular makers style. But before we entered, Carly had a tale of caution for me. The online reviews for this place stated that the owner was a complete bitch. A very bossy, her way, rude type of lady. So armed with that knowledge we braved the ice waters of the bridal store.

This shop was overflowing with bridal gowns. From every style to designer, this lady had it stacked! I was impressed with the sheer amount of wedding gowns that overflowed from the racks. You couldn’t move around without pushing aside a gown of some sort. We had hope of finding our dresses here and so we dove in to begin our search. About half way through out pops this elderly lady in a bright red jacket. She looked harmless enough, that was until she opened her mouth. She asked us if she could show us anything and we explained that we were just looking and that our wedding dates were still a bit out there. This lady’s response? Well I’ll tell you right now, your just wasting your time. Whoa! Seriously? Did I just hear this old codger right? Yes I did. Clearly she didn’t want us in her shop unless we were ready to buy, as getting an idea for your dress is not the way to go. We were probably wasting her time, oh the nerve of us brides.

Obviously, I was put off but Carly decided to hear her out and we did end up getting a nice tour of the store and where to find gowns of certain material. So the old bitty did do something nice there. We looked around and then low and behold stumbled across Carly’s dream dress. It was the one she’d seen online and the instant she saw it in person she knew it was the one for her. I tried to convince her to try it on, but to no avail and I can’t blame her in that store. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find the dress I’d picked out online but that didn’t matter. We’d at least found one of them. The old lady came up and commented on what a beautiful dress it was and here I had began to hold out some hope that maybe she wasn’t so bad after all.

She then asked me when my wedding date was and I explained that I was going to wait a couple years so that our 5 month old daughter could participate. “Oh you don’t want to wait that long.” She replied. I protested that I was going to be with the man for the rest of my life so a few years wasn’t anything to worry about. It was then that the old lady disappeared and the wicked witch of the west returned. Out from her mouth spewed forth words that I could only guess were fueled from past failed marriages.”That’s only if the marriage vows hold up.” Ok, you work in a bridal shop, where hopeful women come to you for the ultimate dress. And this is the attitude you have? Clearly you don’t want our business. We left shortly after.

Now, I don’t care that she’s the most stocked bridal shop in Southern Oregon, with treatment like that I’m not going to be buying jack shit from her. Plus with all the negative comments on her site I’m wondering how in the world she stays in business. If anyone opens up a shop in competition and is welcoming and more relaxed they’d make a killing and run that old bag of pretentious crap right out of the valley. I wonder if it’s the fact that she’s the biggest store around Medford that made her that way or if that’s just how she is? Hmmm. Either way, if your to the point of getting fed up with brides then get the hell out of the business and hand it over to those cheerful bubbly sort. Don’t piss off the customers that actually have the cash to buy the expensive dresses from you just because you think you know what’s best.

That’s my piece for tonight. Ranting is done and I’m looking forward to some ZUMBA!