National Wedding Show: Belated Roundup

So I've been meaning to blog for like, weeks about our little trip to the National Wedding Show at Earl's Court.

I'm not even sure what possessed me to say we'll go. But we booked the Friday off working (believing it to be the least Bridezilla-fied day of the three possible!) and arranged for my mum to pick Scarlett up from nursery in the evening in case we were late back.

We arrived at Earl's Court station and walked up to Earl's Court 2 (I must point out, although this was like 1st October, it was a massively hot day, and I hate walking, so to get there and realise we could've got off at West Brompton was totally pants in my opinion!)  I digest.  It was already really busy when we got there, 35 minutes prior to the doors opening, and the queues were a bit of a crazy ass mess with no clear signage or idea of which queue we were meant to be in.  Needless to say, it was the wrong queue!

So eventually we got in and decided to more or less head straight to the catwalk to get a good seat for the first show at 12:30.  We went via the Moss Bros stand as the main reason we wanted to go was to look at suits for Andy.  I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to try any dresses on (A: I was with Andy, kinda defeats the object and B: I knew there weren't going to be any samples in my size so I didn't even bother!)

Anyway, catwalk time! I did scribble a few notes and generally pretended to look like I cared but really, I was a bit bored by it all (No offence wedding dress designers!!)  There were some gorgeous dresses, but nothing I could see myself ever wearing.  Except for one, a gorgeous 50s style dress with a cerise pink petticoat and bow and it was gorgeous.  But I got so excited I think Andy may have guessed the type of dress I was looking for!!  So, not a lot there then.

After that we sort of tried to walk round in a uniform fashion to make sure we didn't miss anything out.  We chatted to a few people about wedding rings, one guy was lovely, totally laidback and just said, we're in Hatton Garden, come and see us anytime you want to try on and chat about rings.  The other lady, was really so pushy, it kind of really irritated me, I tried not to do what I normally would and be rude or just walk away but I could see Andy had totally drifted off and so I just had to listen to her patiently.  Anyway....!

What else?  We chatted to a few people about suits, and generally got a good idea of what we wanted, shit sorry, see what I said there, WE wanted.  I'll explain.  Andy wants tails.  And really, we're getting married in a barn, I think tails might be a bit much...!  So I think I managed to convince him that he should just get a lovely grey suit.

We took lots of honeymoon brochures, which I prompted put into a bag for Andy, telling him that was his department!  Well, it is isn't it?!  I badgered him into talking to the guy at the Staggered.com stand about how to pick his Best Man because 10 months later, he still hasn't picked someone...!  Well, he has, he just needs to ask him!

In the end, we were only there roughly 2 1/2 hours.  We were going to finish off with a trip to the Champagne bar, but at £10 a glass we promptly walked away!

The one thing I did learn, don't give your details to people!!  Let me be clearer.  I filled in lots of forms that day.  We signed up for our John Lewis Gift List (more on that another time) and I also filled in a form with the lovely people at the Wedding Ideas Magazine stand.  However, the one form I did fill in, which I severely regret, was the one at the County Wedding Magazine stand.  I think they're just very clever in the way they design and word their forms!  And I'm just too loose with my information!  But I have had so much spam/junk email and postal mail in the last 2 weeks as a result.

It's a shame more than anything.  At first I was a bit cross, but as time has gone on, and I've had more of it and stuff, I've just started to feel really bad for all the people sending me stuff, because ultimately, I'm ignoring them or their brochures are going straight in the recycling!  The only people whose email I did reply to was Tino & Pip because I've followed them on Twitter and well, it would be rude to ignore someone I kinda 'know'!!

I think I will probably go again, maybe, but with my mum and bridesmaids.  We're arranging to go to the Vintage Wedding Fair in Chiswick in November which I am really looking forward to and actually, I think that might be a bit more up my street.  So maybe, I won't go to the big one again....!