MDE Intern Lindsay talks about her first Bridal Expo….
Hello everyone, my name is Lindsay Grote, I am a recent college graduate who is still fairly new to the Chicago area. I just began working as an intern for Michelle Durpetti Events a few weeks ago and I am loving every minute of it. I didn’t know that I wanted to get into event planning until after I graduated, so I am still very new to the industry and am enjoying all that it has to offer. The most recent event I was a part of, was the Bridal Expo, which took place Sunday, November 21, at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Chicago, IL.
For those of you who don’t know about Bridal Expo, it is basically a one-stop shopping experience with aisle after aisle of the city’s best wedding products and services in one convenient location. In other words, it is the perfect opportunity for brides-to-be and their closest friends and family to explore their options and gain a better idea of what local companies have to offer service, and/or product wise for their wedding. One of the most exciting elements to the expo is the bridal couture fashion show, featuring gowns from designers including Ines Di Santo, Platinum, James Clifford, Stephen Yearick, and Melissa Sweet
As I mentioned, I am very new to the event planning industry, so pretty much everything I experience is for the first time which is very exciting! The thing I loved most about being a part of this Bridal Expo was getting together with the rest of the MDE team and Kim from Topiarius to create the look for our table display. From the moment we began planning our display, we knew that we wanted our display to stand out and make a statement. We wanted to display a mix of all of our favorite things that inspire us as well as show what we as a company have to offer. Thanks to Kim, who created a beautiful peacock floral statement piece, which we surrounded with stunning 14 karat gold and sterling silver china – some of the pieces were actually from Michelle’s parents – a gift from their own wedding 42 years ago!
Our second table we had displayed a fun, yet chic candy bar consisting of a variety of delicious candies including black licorice, hershey kisses, peppermint malt balls, and so much more, all courtesy of Ricci and Company. One of Michelle’s favorite parts of the table (and mine!) were the festive, bedazzled bon bons in silver and turquoise-blue…(she loves to sparkle!) Topiarius provided additional smaller floral décor items that brought everything together. We were really excited that we were placed next to our good friends Cara and Scott Nava of Carasco photography, who along with Ivan Carlson had a beautifully unique and collaborative exhibit.
They were also the photographers for the day, and the images you see in our blog are courtesy of Carasco…we always love working with them!
All in all, I had a great time at the Bridal Expo, and felt it was a great learning experience. It was amazing being surrounded by around 50 or so other wedding vendors and being able to interact and relate with them as well as all the beautiful brides-to-be. In this line of work being a people person is a necessity and I really enjoyed meeting all of the brides to be and seeing their excitement as they spoke about their big day!
