The Wedding Diaries #4: In my Wedding Fair Era

It’s safe to say I went through a little bit of a Wedding Fair Era. Most weekends throughout Spring, I had one booked in – and why not? The majority of wedding fairs I actually attended were quite local to us, meaning local vendors were attending. That was the main reason for attending these wedding fairs, not for the venue (as we already had it booked). I thought I would do a blogpost all about my experience being a serial Wedding Fair attendee and how to get the most out of them.

My reasoning for visiting these wedding fairs was either just to have a nosy at the venue or because there was a vendor attending which I was interested in. Especially when it comes to our vendors, I particularly don’t want to spend thousands of pounds towards someone I’ve not met or tried anything with. Alongside meeting vendors that I’m interested in, I also get to meet lots of other people along the way. You get to see venues all set up for weddings and get a little inspiration on decoration and what you could do in similar settings.

If you are looking to attend some wedding fairs, I came across most of them on social media. Either on Facebook or Instagram. You may also be able to find wedding fairs through brands such as Loved Up North and The UK Wedding Event. If you follow local wedding venues, they will most likely be promoting on social media when their next event is. Vendors that you are interested in will more than likely be promoting which fairs they are attending.

In Autumn, we ended up attending 10 Wedding Fairs across North Yorkshire. We found most of them so helpful, and it was just a great opportunity to meet different vendors and really get to know them and click with them. Especially as some vendors, you may not meet until your wedding day. Which is quite daunting when you have spent a lot of money.

I thought I would share a few photos from a couple of the wedding fairs that we attended. The first one that we went to at the beginning of summer was at Grand Villa Heights, in Ravenscar. I’ve been to a few weddings when it was previously Raven Hall, but they have undergone a huge renovation, splitting it into two venues. I’ve also since stayed over in their incredible bridal suite, which was an incredible experience. The venues are known as Grand Villa Heights and Solara Shoes, and they are both stunning venues with amazing sea views. I actually attended two wedding fairs here, and they were run by Loved Up North, and we got to meet some lovely vendors.

We also attended a wedding at Egton Manor, which is a venue we hadn’t looked around or considered, and it was absolutely stunning. I wouldn’t lie, it did have us questioning all sorts. This is a venue very local to us, and we actually found it so helpful. They had a lot of vendors attending this wedding fair, including our caterers, whom we got to meet. Alongside a few local businesses which are always worth knowing, we also had to rule out a few other people that we had considered. This is one of our most successful wedding fairs, as we ended up booking two vendors off the back of the event.

I think my main advice is that if Wedding Fairs are going on locally to you or that fit your wedding vibe, you should totally attend. You literally have nothing to lose! They are mostly free, and everyone is always really helpful, and it’s just an excellent way to work out what you would like. You can always feel overwhelmed by searching online and on social media; there is so much going on. It’s always better to see it all in real life.

It’s also worth noting that these wedding fairs are also great for finding out what you don’t want. It’s always good to explore options, and if they are right for you, at least you can rule them out. Annoyingly, sometimes they do get ruled out because of budget, but this is also a good time to suss out budgets and how much people are charging for certain things.

Wedding fairs are also great for building the excitement of being newly engaged. Whilst wedding planning is extremely overwhelming and sometimes stressful. It’s worth making the most out of the experience and creating exciting moments along the way. Although I’m quite far into the planning process and have the majority of our vendors booked, I don’t think I’m ready to avoid Wedding Fairs yet. There might be a few more to attend soon!