I attended a few wedding shows/fairs/fayres in London and one in Essex the first few months after we got engaged and decided on Hawaii for our wedding in 2009. Wedding shows are a good starting point for planning your wedding. You get a lot of ideas and find things you didn't even realise you would need!

I went to the Designer Wedding Show, the National Wedding Show, and a small wedding fayre by the sea in Essex. The Designer Wedding Show was the first one I went to, and it was a good one to start off with as it wasn't too big and overwhelming. They had some really great wedding dress labels like Pronovias and Jenny Peckham on display. I recommend going reasonably early in the morning to the first catwalk show of the day, there's a lot less people there so you can get a seat and a good view. The space for the catwalk show is relatively small and you sit really close to the catwalk so you can see the details on the dresses quite well.

The program they give you for the show is really useful, it had details on each designer and pictures of each dress with space to make notes, so bring a pen.

There wasn't much for the grooms at that one, so I was glad I went with a friend and not my fiance. There was only one cake stall, Peggy Porschen, who is just an amazing cake maker, and it was easily the most popular stall there. I hadn't realised up till then how amazing wedding cakes are, how beautiful each creation can be. I've always loved baking and making cakes, but I hadn't realised you could make them look like works of art!

There were also some stationers there, who I left my details with to be sent samples, and not a single one of them sent me anything! Not impressed (and obviously, I didn't end up using any of them for my wedding stationary).

Oddly enough, any stall owners that "harassed" me when walking by ("Hello, do you need this that and the other? We're really great" type thing) were not put off by me saying my wedding was in Hawaii. "Oh, Hawaii, fabulous, we can easily ship our tables and chairs over there for a small fee". Yeah right! I was only there to gather ideas and look for a dress, not pay a fortune to ship over the entire wedding!

The National Wedding Show was HUGE!!! It was a lot of fun, there were lots more stalls and booths and LOADS of freebies! Free chocolates, cake samples, make overs, magazines, sweets - it was great! And also a good one to bring the fiance to. He loved all the goodies and was very patient with me while I had a free make over and tried on several different hair combs and items of jewellery, bless his little cotton socks. There were also lots of stalls with mens suits, which he hadn't even started to think about so it was good for him to see the different options available and get him thinking.

(BTW, here's a tip for you. Grooms usually tend to leave their suits to the last minute, ladies, some advice, don't let them! They often don't realise how long it can take to get a suit made or ordered. Many of them leave it till quite late, then the suit doesn't arrive till the week before the wedding! You don't need that extra stress so close to the day, believe me!)

The catwalk show here was a much more glitzy and showy affair with lots of lighting and effects, and accordingly, a lot more people watching it. We didn't even get vaguely close to the catwalk, so if you really want to see it properly, get a seat early because standing at the back, you really don't see very much at all!

There were several cake stalls which again were very popular, especially since they had free samples! And again got me thinking, I'd like to try making cakes like that.

Confetti also had a massive area and sold lots of really useful bits and pieces, I bought their wedding organiser folder, a good buy that's been really useful. Many of the stalls also had deals available only on the day, lots of bargains to be had.

Other exhibitors included limousine companies, stationers, string quartets, wedding favour suppliers, dresses, honeymoon travel agencies, photographers, videographers, venues, event decorators, jewellers, toast masters and so much more. Definitely worth going to, and if you are only going to one wedding show, I'd say this is the one you want.

One to avoid was the wedding fayre I went to in Essex. I attended this one because I was going that way to visit a friend, and she took me to it. The name escapes me now, but it wasn't worth the trip out there! A really small number of stalls (about 10), a terrible catwalk show (does anyone really want a groom in a shiny gold morning suit???) and possibly the worst wedding cakes I've ever seen. Even the free cake samples were awful! In fact, it was this wedding stall that made me start to think seriously about starting my own cake business. If they could have a business with such a terrible product, surely I could have a business too, with a much better product! I now do have my own cake business, Delicious Cake Design, so I guess going to the show was probably worth it after all!