Like many of the brides-to-be at Sunday’s Bridal Show, Fulton’s Megan Tolias wasn’t looking for just one thing in planning her upcoming wedding, she was looking for many.
Tolias sought everything from a wedding dress to a catering company.
“Just a bunch of different stuff,” she said. “We are lacking in finding things.”
But the Bridal Show, sponsored by the Central Missouri Bridal Association, gave her friend, Aly Weber, lots of ideas.
The show featured some 70 vendors, offering pretty much anything you could want for a wedding and more.
“There are lots of different choices,” Weber said, adding they had a good selection of venues and other options.
Weber said the pandemic has actually helped with the wedding planning because venues have been extra helpful in trying to make sure they have plenty of options and attention to detail to keep their customers happy.
“I’m just here for moral support,” she added.
None of the future brides at the show said they thought the pandemic would adversely affect their weddings. Many were planning for 2022 weddings, and others said they believed the COVID-19 vaccines being distributed would allow them to plan their wedding as normal.
Some vendors said people either off on getting married in 2020 or held smaller weddings. However, women planning their wedding was full steam ahead in 2021.
“I hope (the pandemic) will all be said and done by then,” said Natalie Eickhoff, who recently became engaged. “My guest list is large, so I’m hoping we don’t get a second wave or anything.”
Wendy Gladbach, the owner of Ana Marie’s Bridal, said one trend in weddings she’s seeing is a lot of changes on dress appliques — the decorative add-ons that usually involve the application of one type of fabric on top of the wedding dress fabric.
“There are more leaf patterns instead of the floral patterns,” she said. “We’re also doing a lot of dresses in off-tones, like champagnes and blushes instead of whites and ivories. We’re still seeing a lot of color.”
Bridesmaids’ dresses are leaning toward more earth tones, she said, but bridesmaids’ dresses often don’t match exactly. They stay within the same color, “but everybody is doing it in a dress that fits their body tone and personality,” she said.
“I just remind the girls that ‘It’s your day.’ It’s what you want in your wedding, not what you see on Pinterest,’” she said.
Organizer Vicki Arcobasso said Sunday’s turnout was good and she hoped to have 400 brides at the event. She said she has organized 58 wedding shows in the past 34 years.