One response echoed throughout the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday afternoon: “Certainly. We can do it any way you want it.”
The 43rd Gainesville Wedding Expo, produced by Jay’s Bridal & Special Occasion, gave blushing brides-to-be the opportunity to rendezvous with 40 local wedding specialists.
About 1,200 people attended.
For Yaneisis Hernandez, simply making her way through the crowd was a battle of the brides.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be so full,” Hernandez said.
For $10, guests sampled wine, extravagant menu items and assorted cake. Whole cakes were displayed alongside floral arrangements, rings, stationary and photographs.
The day’s highlight was a fashion show featuring 14 female models of different shapes and sizes and a few men in tuxes strutting to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” in an assortment of bride’s gowns, bridesmaid dresses and outfits for mothers of the bride, each piece assigned a different number for later reference. At the end of the show the guests were invited on stage to get a closer look at the attire.
Although most patrons were female, a few men sacrificed watching Sunday football to join their fiancées.
“When I first walked in and saw a bunch of girls, I wondered if I was even supposed to be here, but it’s nice having a say in stuff,” said Jonathan Walter, who accompanied his financée Nicole Kahhan.
