Vicki's Blog

With apologies to all my photographer friends who are doing some amazing work with trash the dress sessions, I have to ask, “Please Don’t Trash the Dress”.  Call me old-fashioned but seeing those beautiful dresses being ruined makes me cringe . . . .  especially after talking to Dawn Olds with Brides Against Breast Cancer. Instead of trashing your dress, donate it and it will be sold to help raise money for breast cancer research.  That would feel even better than jumping into a pool with your dress on!

I was reading the Sunday paper this morning (yes, I know it’s Monday but I’m doing the best I can!).  I always check out the Celebrations section of course, to see what the new brides are wearing, where they got married, etc.  But I couldn’t help that my attention was grabbed by some of the anniversaries.  Wow!  Jean and Doris Burns will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on June 23rd.  Here’s a quote from their announcement:  “Their 60 years of married life have been an adventure.  (I bet that’s an understatement.) They lived in four states and five countries and traveled the world before returning to OK in 1983.”  And there were 5 other couples celebrating their 5oth wedding anniversaries.   And they’re all smiling!  So here’s to Jean and Doris and to you, who are engaged and newly married, with hopes and prayers that 50 years from now your picture will be in the paper, too!

Isn’t it frustrating when you go to the hairdresser, get a cut and style you love when you walk out but when you wash and style your hair yourself you can’t even get close to the look you had at the beauty shop?  It’s happened to me many times.  Good News, that’s not a problem anymore!  Try seeing Shari, the owner of  Mystique Salon and Spa in Bixby.  I was really glad to see them open – I live in Bixby and we’ve been needing a full-service Salon.  And when I met Shari and saw her in action, I was even more excited.  I watched her cut and style someone’s hair and patiently explain everything that she was doing and why she was doing it.   The guest’s (that’s what Shari calls her clients) hair looked fabulous and what was almost as good was that, when Shari was finished,  the guest knew how to duplicate the look herself at home.  Mystique is a new exhibitor you can see at the August Show at the Renaissance.  But don’t wait until then.   Shari and her staff offer some wonderful Bridal Packages.  Call at 369-4247 (HAIR) and get a list of all their services.

NEWS FLASH:    David’s Bridal  just announced that Vera Wang will be designing a collection for them.

I read some interesting statistics the other day. A survey was conducted in 15 countries asking the question, “Would you marry the same person again? What would you think the answer in general would be? In every single country surveyed, over half of the people responding said they would marry the same person again. Surprised? In China, 83% of the people responding said they would, but it was only 66% in the US.  The answers were broken down by age, etc. and they make for fun reading but you have to keep cultural differences in mind. You can find lots of interesting statistics in a lot more detail at Around the World with One Question. And be sure your answer would be yes in 20 years or so by getting pre-marital counseling!  Check it out at the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative website.

I just read the best story. Adam Hatfield and Julie Brockman were having pre-ceremony shots taken on a sunny spot overlooking the Mississippi River in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. They didn’t notice a little girl walking on the levee path with her grandfather. But suddenly they heard the grandfather shouting the little girl’s name and the photographer began running toward the sound. Adam took off running as well and when he and the phtographer, Russ Konrad, got to the levee wall they could see the grandfather in the water, six feet below. He had grabbed the girl and was keeping her afloat while treading water. Adam yelled to Julie to go get help so she took of running in her wedding dress, 3′ train and 2″ heels. The two men were attempting to pull the grandfather and the child to safety when a passing jogger that Julie had stopped, reached down to help. A policeman arrived shortly and, in the meantime, the girl and her grandfather had been wrapped in the white sheet that the photographer had brought to protect Julie’s gown from the grass. After they had warmed back up the grandfather hurried home with his granddaughter.

You can imagine how surprised the bridesmaids and groomsmen were when they came for the session. Apparently the bride had been stressing earlier over all the last-minute details but now was totally calm. Helping to save someone’s life had put everything into perspective for her.

I trust something this drastic won’t happen to any of our brides but the lesson is the same: Keep your wedding plans in perspective and remember to be aware of what’s going on with everyone else around you. That will make all the events surrounding your wedding lots more fun for everyone.

Kudos to Adam and Julie and many blessings on their marriage.

Wow, what a Show we had last Saturday!  It was a record-setting attendance of 2700 people with 114 exhibitors!  I’ve been so busy following up that I haven’t stopped to thank all the brides and their friends and families that attended the Show.  So thank you on behalf of myself and all the wonderful exhibitors who were there.  I know it was crowded, so if there was someone you wanted to visit with and weren’t able to, please go to their link on the Show website and contact them.  They would love to set up a consultation time with you.

We sent out a survey to all the brides-to-be.  If you received one and filled it out, thank you.  If you haven’t filled yours out yet it would be so helpful to us if you would take a few minutes to do that.  We want to make The Tulsa Wedding Show better and better all the time!  One thing we forgot to ask was, of those of you who knew there was a shuttle service from the Target parking lot to the Renaissance Hotel and did not use it, why not?  We are trying to find a solution to our parking challenge and thought that was it, but only a small percentage of people used it.  If you have some insight for us on that I would love to hear from you.

Blessings,

Vicki

Wow, the weather is all anyone is talking about.  That “blizzard” we had at Christmas has everyone totally paranoid.   Strange, because everywhere we went on Christmas day and the day after was packed with cars!  Everyone was slipping and sliding around the mall parking lot and the theaters were jammed with people.  Seems we’ll manage to go wherever we want to regardless.   It is really cold though, and I wanted to let everyone know that we will have a shuttle service for the Show Saturday.  You can park on the west side of Target (the side closest to Hwy. 169) and Party Express Bus or the Renaissance Hotel Shuttle will pick you up and take you to the Convention Center entrance.  I’ll see you all warm and cozy in the Renaissance Grand Ballroom on Saturday!

KBEZ and KHITS are The Tulsa Wedding Show’s radio sponsors and I am going to Renda Broadcasting Studios tomorrow morning to be interviewed by Carly Rush.  We should go on about 8:40.  Usually Steve Smith is there as well and we have alot of fun.  I’ll tell them about the 110 exhibitors, the prizes worth over $15,000, the cake samples, the fashion shows – and that each bride and groom who pre-registers will get two chances to win one of the 4 prize packages.  Tune in!

I hear that Christmas is the #1 time that people get engaged.   If you are one of those people, Congratulations!  Did your future groom pop the question in a unique way?  Or was it  simple and sweet like an ornament box hanging on the tree with a ring inside?  (I’d love to hear the story!) In any case you have a really fun year or so of planning ahead of you and The Tulsa Wedding Show is here to help.   On Sat. Jan 9 at the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel you can find every single service you need and some you didn’t know you needed.  There is everything from what everyone has to have at their wedding like photography, videography,  flowers and a great venue to a service that specializes in childcare during all your wedding-related events, Kids at Play.  And not just one of each category but several in different price ranges.

You might be feeling overwhelmed right now; most everyone does.  Take a deep breath and make a note to visit the many event planners at the Show.  You might not know this but they can do as much or as little for you as you need them to do,  from full services (planning, decorating, soup-to-nuts!) to just helping on the day of the ceremony.  There are more than 105 exhibitors at the Show this year and you can link over to all of their websites from the Exhibitor list.  They are listed by category and alphabetically.  A lot of ladies have found it very helpful to make a list of the exhibitors they absolutely don’t want to miss.  You can even map out your visit by the using the show floor diagram on the Bridal Show page.   And don’t forget to pre-register while you’re here!

These exhibitors love brides and love weddings and are devoting themselves in the days before the Show to making everything perfect for your visit to their booth.  We’ll see you there!