Hi.

There are a whole flurry of Bridal Shows coming up in the Bay Area.  This Sunday, there is the Modern Luxury Fair at the Ritz-Carlton and at the same time, there is the San Francisco Wedding Fair at the Four Seasons.  Both are pretty pricey -- at $20-$25 a ticket but I think I want to go because I'd like to wrap up my vendor search.

Does anyone have any idea which one is better?  My wedding will be in Marin and I know there's another one coming up on January 23 in San Rafael and January 24 in Sonoma, so I'm wondering whether I should just wait until then.

Thanks,

A

Oh, I just saw that there si a Modern Bridal Fair at the Claremont that's only $12 in a couple of weeks. So if I'm still looking for vendors by then, perhaps I'll go to that one.

i went to all of those last year.  if i had to rank them, it would look like this:

1) Four seasons- a lot of upscale vendors, very well organized.  i found my photographer and videographer through this one

2) Ritz Carlton- this one was pretty good- a large number of vendors.

3) Claremont- this one wasn't very helpful for me.  i didn't like any of the photographers or videographer they had- they seemed like they were less experienced and just starting out.

Thanks that's really helpful.  Who did you go with for videography? I'm trying to choose someone now.

i'm thinking of going to the ritz carlton one -- pricey at $20 and the exhibitors are not posted on the website. it is posted for the one at the four seasons though. 

For some reason I got on the Modern Luxury bridal show (@ Ritz Carleton) e-mailing list and got a free ticket!  So my MoH, one of my BMs and I are going to that one.  It sounds pretty good, especially the bridal swag bag!

My MoH and I went to the Great Bridal Show Expo (held at Marriott SF Burlingame) a few months ago and I wasn't impressed at all.  No tastings, not even a booth for cake.  On the plus side, my MoH won an entire prize package from T-Fal (pots & pans, kegarator, blender, toaster, etc etc) worth over $1,500!  She asked what I wanted and I'm now a proud owner of a T-Fal iron & waffle maker :-)

I used StuidoMSV (Andrew Hsu) for my videographer.  I don't have my video yet since my wedding was just in October, but Andrew was great to work with.  Check out his blog www.studiomsv.net and you can see samples of his work.

I'm going to the Modern one in SF!  If anyone else is going ... let's meet up!

So I went to the SF Wedding Fair at the Four Seasons.

I could see how this kind of event would be particularly helpful if you're just starting your wedding planning because there are so many ideas for vendors and venues and food.  There were also some beautiful bridal gowns -- I loved this Jin Wang I saw.  But I've already picked my dress.  Plus, they were giving away free copies of the latest Here Comes The Guide for Northern California.

For the vendors that I was looking for, I found most were out of my budget.  For example, I got a complimentary hair consultation, and the stylist was great -- but I think that $500+ for hair on site is too expensive! I guess I shouldn't be surprised I guess considering the venue!

I did run into a couple of florists that I will consider: La Fleuriste in Tiburon and Natalini Flowers in San Francisco.

It was useful for me though because of

a) the amazing food -- I stuffed myself with chocolate souffle, tuna tartare, cupcakes ... and it was a little early in the day for me to drink but the Moet Chandon was free flowing

b) ran into the photobooth vendor I'm considering who was offering $100 off their services for all those in attendanc

HOW WAS THE MODERN SF FAIR?

my fiance and i, along with a friend, went to the ritz for the modern luxury bridal fair. it was the first ever bridal fair i've attended - so i can't really compare it to others but i think they had a pretty good selection of vendors there. the food was amazing -- i tried this dungeness crab sliders which were sooo yummy. the red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting was also good. i think these 2 things were done by the ritz catering.

that takes the cake was also there -- with free cocktail cupcakes! so good... i think my fiance got to try almost all the food at the event... lol.

the beauty bar was fun - i was able to get a free makeover from shu uemura and matt, the make-up artist was really good. they were also giving away a $25 coupon to be applied for a minimum purchase of $100 at their freestanding boutiques. sephora and l'occitane were also there. i saw a few people getting their manicures done. massage envy was there giving complimentary back massages. the fiance got one. lol.

the swag bag had the here comes the guide norcal edition which was nice. it had a few samples of lotions and soap. i thought the show was pretty good but it was a bit disorganized.

other than that, we all had fun!