The National Wedding Show
Celebration House returned to Cape Town recently, having exhibited for the 8th time at The National Wedding Show, held at Earls Court in London. This event, the British capital’s largest wedding show, was once again extremely well attended. From the minute the doors opened on the Friday until they closed at 5pm on the Sunday, we were rushed off our feet. When we arrived about half an hour before the Show opened on the Saturday morning, we were amazed to see that the queue outside was already around the block! Needless to say, we hardly had time to draw breath and were usually only able to take the first break from our stand after 3.30pm. We certainly could have done with another pair of hands!
This year, thanks to Cape Town Tourism, we were able to have a larger stand and our eye-catching display attracted a lot of attention, with the result that we were extremely busy the entire weekend. Besides the larger display area, this year our stand boasted a 42” plasma screen, which certainly caught the eye of visitors, as did our beaded soccer balls and displays of proteas and vuvuzelas!
At the Show we handed out thousands of copies of our publication, Under African Skies - a guide to weddings and honeymoons in South Africa,and also sold many copies of The really useful WEDDING BOOK for South Africa.
As always, one of the highlights was the fashion show, held four times a day over the course of the three-day event. I find that this show usually gives a clear indication of the direction bridal fashion will be taking for the next year.
This year’s fashion show - described as being all about glamour, glitz and loads of romance, with a return to the 1920s and 1940s eras - was by far the most exciting one I’ve seen at these events. Clever choreography transformed it from just a succession of bored models in wedding dresses, to a most visually entertaining event. Indeed, this year the models - especially the good-looking males taking part - actually looked as though they were having fun! (To read more about the Fashion Show, click here)
We were also most fortunate to be offered the opportunity to advertise on the inside back flap of the Show Guide, which is given to all visitors attending the event. Since this back flap covered the map giving details of exhibitors, our advertisement was very prominent and was viewed by thousands.
As always, visitors to our stand expressed lots of goodwill towards our country and all it has to offer, which meant that we once again returned home feeling even more ‘Proudly South African’ than when we left!
