PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula Daily News Bridal Show was an extravaganza drawing about 300 people to plan the biggest day of a bride’s life.
Caterers, florists and even interior designers flooded the Elks Naval Lodge Ballroom, 131 E. First St., in downtown Port Angeles while two fashion shows detailed the latest in wedding dresses.
“It has gone really excellent,” said Sue Stoneman, the newspaper’s advertising operations manager and one of the coordinators of the event.
“It is a great combination of everything you would need to plan the perfect wedding.”
Latest fashions
Two fashion shows displayed the latest designs from Black Diamond Bridal, The Toggery and Necessities & Temptations.
Rain Alberti and her fiance, Jet Myers, both of Port Angeles, attended the show to get some ideas for their May 7 wedding.
“We already had a florist, but we didn’t have someone to do the cake,” she said. “I think we really liked one of them here, and although I think I have a dress picked out, I thought it might be good to look at the fashion show and see what they had that was different.”
Terilee Allsop-Howat stopped by the event to check out ideas for her daughter Brookann Howat’s wedding on Oct. 9 at the John Wayne Marina.
Brookann was traveling outside of the country, so her mom filled in at the show for her.
“I think she had the date picked out the minute he proposed,” she said. “I came because there was a lot of selection — especially in things like bridesmaid’s gowns to an arch for the wedding to cakes and accessories.”
Jodi Fairchild, who was manning the booth for Skin Care Solutions Spa, which is in downtown Port Angeles, showed off her newly invented “towel cakes.”
In addition to touting her full-service spa, she showed off the three-tiered gift item. The “cakes” are made out of spa towels rolled to look like the tiers of a cake and then decorated with various spa items.
“I got the idea from a baby shower, actually, where they had diaper cakes — I thought that I could do that with spa towels,” she said.
Caterer Jeff Cameron, who owns Cameron’s Cafe and Custom Catering, said he was excited to return to the show after a one-year absence.
Drawn to the Peninsula
Cameron said although there are many local brides, he has also seen an uptick in the number of brides selecting North Olympic Peninsula locations as a destination wedding.
“I have one that I’m doing where the bride was going to Forks . . . and she looked out near Sequim and saw the lavender fields and thought it would be the perfect place for a wedding,” he said. “So now she is coming back to have her wedding here.”
Cameron said he works with brides to build around their tastes and budgets, and he has noticed many couples favor the Northwest flavor with crab and other seafood featuring the area’s specialties.
Cake maker and decorator Sue Boucher spent the last 25 years in the Puget Sound region making anything from fondant cakes to intricately decorated tiered cakes.
When she married, she moved to the North Olympic Peninsula to be with her husband. She now operates That Takes the Cake out of Sequim.
“I specialize in custom work,” she said. “I’ll work with a bride whether that means incorporating details from the bodice of her dress or scroll work.”
In addition to meeting up with new brides, Boucher said she also thought the show was a good way to meet up with other vendors such as florists or caterers she will likely be working with in the future.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
