The sweet smell of flowers and fancy food floated through the air. Future brides bustled from table to table to explore wedding options. A few men stood around - some looked excited, some looked bored.
All were moments captured at the semi-annual wedding planning exposition.
Mostly women and a few men were taking a crash course in wedding planning at the 39th semi-annual Gainesville Wedding Expo Sunday at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
The event brought together 44 vendors and about 800 people exploring the art of planning a wedding, said Paul Rhodenizer, owner of Jay's Bridal & Special Occasion and organizer of the event.
The bridal shop, locally owned for 73 years, has assembled vendors twice a year since 1987. The event aims to make wedding planning easier by bringing in many of the businesses central to weddings.
"We wanted to look at it from the bride's point of view," Rhodenizer said.
Every bride-to-be at the event wore a sticker proclaiming her engagement status. Most brought at least one companion to discuss colors, foods and photographers.
Stefanie Rice, of Gainesville, received her engagement ring on Dec. 26. The 19-year-old will have to wait at least a year for the wedding, because her fiance is in the U.S. Army. But she attended the wedding expo to get some ideas, since the volume of work it takes to plan a wedding has her a little nervous.
"After seeing everything," she said, "I'm overwhelmed."
Hillary Howe, 24, was a rare find, because she came with her fiance, 26-year-old fiance Chris Tassin, to search for ideas for their ceremony together.
"We don't know exactly what we want yet," Howe said.
The UF students have a while to figure it out, because they are waiting until March 2009 to wed. By then, Tassin will have his master's degree and Howe will have finished medical school. The two have been together for "three years as of Friday," said Tassin, while smiling at his future wife.
Unlike Howe, many brides-to-be brought along someone with a little more experience like their mothers to discuss wedding details.
Lauren Bumpus, 22, came with her mom, April Floyd, to browse the vendors and enjoy the half-hour fashion show.
"My mom said she's going to get remarried in that one," she said of her mom's favorite dress from the runway show.
Bumpus, a Gainesville resident, is going to get married at the Baughman Meditation Chapel on Lake Alice this March.
Though most of the girls present were engaged or helping a friend, Denise Bloom, a UF freshman, came with a friend to explore the world of wedding planning. She hopes to make a career as a wedding planner, so she spent most of her time talking with vendors.
Frappe Royale has provided their slushy punch as a sample at the expo for the past six years, said representative Stephanie Mikl. But vendors like Josh Miller provided a different side of wedding planning to the expo.
A personal trainer at the 300 Club, he said between 10 percent to 20 percent of his clients are young ladies trying to get in shape for their big days.
Though the expo happens twice a year, in January and September, each event offers updated wedding trends, organizer Rhodenizer said.
"We sort of call it 'plan your wedding in a day,'" he said.
