Attention brides: Time to shop at Sunday’s expo

Mistletoe and holly are being replaced by orange blossoms and lace.

The WNOK Bridal Expo is being held from 1-5 p.m. Sunday at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center at 1101 Lincoln St. downtown.

Brides, along with their friends and family, can buy tickets at the door for $12. There will be 135 exhibitors there to court the bride, including florists, caterers, DJs, bands, photographers, wedding planners and businesses to help with tuxedos, bridal gowns, invitations, reception venues, wedding cakes, honeymoon planning and more.

“Attending a bridal expo is a great opportunity for engaged couples and their families to get a lot of shopping done in a short amount of time,” said Angela Koska, of Koska Productions, the expo’s organizer. “If you went all over town shopping with 130-plus wedding professionals, it would take you weeks to get it done. Attend a bridal expo and you can shop all the services and products you will need for your wedding in one afternoon. Then, make appointments with the five to 10 favorites that you want more information from.”

Some brides breeze in and get the information they want in an hour or two. Others make it an event and spend the entire afternoon.

Koska offers these tips for making it a productive afternoon:

▪ Bring paper and pen to take notes, a re-useable shopping bag to collect brochures and business cards and a stapler to keep it all together

▪ Bring a checkbook and/or credit card so you can book a service immediately if you choose.

▪ Vendors will ask you to register for door prizes, so you may want to bring labels with your name, phone number and email address to use, or business cards with that information.

▪ If you don’t want to be deluged with promotional emails and newsletters on your personal email, you can create a free email address just for wedding vendors. Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo offer these accounts.

Lezlie Patterson, Special to The State

This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 11:30 AM.