Wedding Fayre Season

   We have come to the time of year when the Wedding Fayres are in full swing, and we have to say, we've been looking forward to it for months now. It's a hectic business - running around finding dresses to put on stands, and shoes for models to wear on the catwalk - but it's a lot of fun. From now until the end of March, nearly every other Sunday is spent travelling and setting up at another wedding fayre.

A reception room at Barton Grange ©

   Last week we went to the Barton Grange Hotel in Lancashire (Click Here to go to their website). We didn't participate in the catwalk this time, but we did have a stand with a few of our dresses, a beautiful little flower girl dress and and lots of tiaras and jewellery. Wedding fayres are such great places to get inspiration and ideas from, for example, at Barton Grange we were between two stands, on our left they were advertising dove releases, and on our right there were two stilt walkers and a fire breathing magician (we made sure he didn't get anywhere near our dresses!).

   When we are doing a catwalk show at a wedding fayre, the preparation is often the hardest part. First we need to find all the models for the show; a lot of them are previous brides who liked trying on dresses so much they carried on after they got married! We then find the dresses for each model, about six and a mix of bridal and bridesmaid dresses. They need to try their dresses on, to make sure each dress fits the models well. After a few times working with the same models, we already know the dresses that fit them, so we know who to ask when we want to bring certain dresses.
   It's then a case of being as organised as possible. We write a list of the models, the thirty-or-so dresses are written next to them. The night before the wedding fayre, we gather all the dresses together, and after checking them over, we number them according to who is wearing them, and at which point in the catwalk (this is so that the brides watching can write down the dress numbers and ask us about them later, as you can see here on the left).

We then find jewellry and tiaras that compliment the dresses each model is wearing. This is often difficult as we can only take one tiara and necklace for each model, and some of their dresses are very different. We need to strike a balance between jewellery looking amazing with one dress and not suiting the others, and looking good for them all. The models can pick their own shoes out of our collection, because they need to be comfortable walking around a lot on the day.
   We bag the dresses up, box the jewellery, tiaras and shoes, collapse some dress rails to use at the fayre and take enough brochures for everyone - who visits our stand after the catwalk - to take. On the morning of the wedding fayre, we attempt to fit it all in the car.
   Upon arrival, we hang all the dresses on the rails in their running order and the models go to get their hair and makeup ready, taking the tiaras with them to the style their hair around them.



   15 minutes before the show is due to start, we get all the models into their first dresses, and go through the running order with them a few more times. once all the watching brides are seated, we start the music and get the show on the road. Some bridal stores like to narrate over their catwalk shows, but we feel it can distract the spectators, and the music gives a better atmosphere. Often, if a bride-to-be likes a dress she sees, she'll come up to our stand later on and ask us all about it.
   During the show, we have only seconds to get a model in and out of her dresses, as three models are usually out on the catwalk at once. Once we reach the end, all the models come out onto the walkway for the 'bride-to-be's to see the dresses one last time. After this, we get all the models backstage and back into their normal clothes (it's all a bit underwhelming after wearing wedding dresses for an hour!) and get back to our stand.


It may sound really stressful, and it can be at sometimes, but we really enjoy going to wedding fayres and meeting future brides for the first time. It's brilliant to think that we have the opportunity to help and guide you on the way to your big day! We hope you have enjoyed this week's Wedding Wednesday; next week we're blogging about summer weddings. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions, or would like us to blog about a particular aspect of wedding planning or the big day.