11North Olympic Peninsula brides-to-be can get tips, inspiration and practical planning done at the Peninsula Daily News Bridal Show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Vern Burton Community Center, 321 E. Fifth St. in Port Angeles.
The free show will feature nearly 30 vendors, who offer services and merchandise in all specialities of wedding planning — as well as financial planning and formal wear.
Those attending should enter the community center from the Fourth Street side door, where an arrangement by Hadlock Building Supply sweetens the entrance.
Vanessa Shearer, of Sequim, who will marry Silas Fuller, also of Sequim, on Sept. 6, is one of those who will look for ideas at the show.
She’ll possibly select some of the vendors for photography or flowers for her wedding.
Shearer, who is the director of events and Web master for the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce, also will take a break from wedding planning to help others make one of the biggest choices faced by a bride and members of her party: what to wear.
Fashion shows
Shearer will serve as one of about 30 models showing off some 125 dresses during two fashion shows.
The fashion shows, organized by Belva Bodey — owner of Black Diamond Bridal in Port Angeles — will be at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
“We’ll have wedding gowns predominantly,” Bodey said, but designs for the mother of the bride, bridesmaids and flower girls, as well as a few prom dresses, will also be displayed.
Models of the fashions — all from Black Diamond Bridal — will range from little girls to young ladies.
Immediately after the first fashion show, at 11:45 a.m., will be a different kind of dress-up event: the “Build Your Own Wedding Dress Contest.”
Competitors, who must register by 11 a.m., have 10 minutes to create the most beautiful wedding gown possible out of toilet paper, aluminum foil, duct tape and other odds and ends.
“It looks like so much fun,” said Shearer, who hopes that the first fashion show “will have a quick turn around, and I can participate in the toilet paper wedding dress competition.”
Collecting ideas
Shearer said that she has been collecting ideas of what she wants since she became engaged in January to Fuller, advertising account executive for the PDN in Port Townsend.
“I want to make sure I am a bride who knows what she wants,” Shearer said.
“In that way, I think it makes me easier to work with because I’m very detail-oriented like that.”
One focus of her trip to the bridal show will be to examine displays of photographs.
“I haven’t booked the photographer yet, but I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the displays besides just clicking through them online,” Shearer said.
Although she said Fuller won’t be accompanying her to the show — “Sunday is golf day,” she said — he has been part of every decision.
“He really is a groom who is involved and cares,” she said, adding that they have discussed many of the vendors who will be at the show.
“The great thing about this is that because I work for the Chamber of Commerce, I would love to keep my business on the [North Olympic] Peninsula.
“So at the show, it is a great way to meet local businesses.
“For example, I’ll be registering at Necessity and Temptations [gift shop], who will be at the show, and I’m going to do my best to find a dress that I can order through Belva at Black Diamond Bridal.”
The show will also feature drawings for prizes, free samples from many of the bridal show’s vendors.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
