Lessons and Moments from my First Wedding Industry Event

I don't really do bridal shows.  I have a serious aversion to people trying to sell me stuff and try to stay away from rooms full of salespeople and extraneous wedding crap.  But when Dana the Broke-ass Bride sent me an invitation to her Kick Ass Fantasy Cake Bash I decided to go because a) free cake b) free booze c) I could finally experience The Flashdance DJ hype myself d) free cake e) free frozen yogurt f) Dana and Hunter really are that much fun in person, so I knew it would be an experience g) nearly every Los Angeles-based wedding blogger I follow seemed to be attending this thing and I thought it would be a great chance to meet in person and h) did I mention free cake?  Yeah. The list was enough to convince Jason to join me (and miss Lost.  Woah.) And because Lost was on Hulu the next day, Jason even agreed that the crazy event was worth it.

Ostensibly it was the launch party for Fantasy Frosting's new Broke-Ass Cake Collection. For a celebrity/high-end cake design bakery, offering non-stratospheric (ie Broke-Ass) cake prices is a huge deal.  For ourselves, we're still in the cake-alternative budget category but, if you love wedding cake and live in Los Angeles (home of super-stratospheric prices) I can heartily recommend these Broke-Ass Cakes for beauty and price (comparatively. I've seen wedding cake starting at $7.00 a slice in Los Angeles.  These "only" start at $4.25 a slice.  Still jaw dropping, but muuuuuch more affordable for a giant gorgeous tasty multi-tiered cake).

Photo courtesy of Cakes and Kisses Photography

Really, though, the night was an experience of wedding-meets-Hollywood Industry party, and it freaking rocked in its wonderfulness and weirdness (for me, since I don't really do fancy Industry parties).  We were surrounded by obscenely beautiful people, and enough male-model types that we were whispering about Zoolander all night long. I semi-recognized people, but I couldn't tell if it was from a vague blog profile picture or because they'd been on TV/Movies.  (Best Moment Ever: when Jason said "there are kinda famous people here" and pointed out Hunter... because of the Del Taco commercial he was in and not because of Weddlingland overload.  It's all about perspective.)   We all drank mystery punch (just like college! only a bazillion times classier!) And we danced our little feet off the The Flashdance.

Things I learned from the party:

• Wedding cake doesn't have to taste like a fondant-covered nightmare, it can actually be amazingly delicious. (oh goodness, it was yummy.) However, it's still too expensive for me. But! $4.25 a slice would be a great price though for someone else who was set on cake.
• I want a photobooth with props, hats, boas, wigs and other fabulousness.  I will probably not include bunny ears.  I can do it myself, though Oh Snap did a great job.
• You can serve whatever alcohol you want at your wedding and no one will care, so long as it's free.  Seriously, it was a room full of fanciness and the lines for (essentially) spiked punch snaked around the room. You can serve Two Buck Chuck.  You don't need an open liquor bar.  You just need something free and alcoholic.  
• We need want a DJ. The music was our favorite part of the night.  Jason kept getting distracted from conversation because of the incredible transitions and juxtapositions... the sort you can't quite get on an ipod.  I could see the yearning in his eyes and the desire for equally good dancefloor jams at our wedding harden into steely resolve as we kept dancing.  So, the budget will be shuffled and we're trying to figure out how a DJ fits.  The Flashdance is insanely talented, no doubt.  But our wedding isn't a high-end, high-budget or even dance focused party event.  We're going to look into it (a couple can dream, can't they? Sunday weddings are supposed to be cheaper, right?) but we'll be looking around for non-cheesy dj options from here on out (as I cry into my napkin about budget overages already as we kiss our dj compromise goodbye.  Sigh)
• Big parties are not a great place to first meet anonymous people from the internet.  I recognized no one in the midst of the crowd of beautifulness, despite fleeting profile or dress pics from their blogs.  This should have been obvious.  It was not.  
• I love Jason more than any leather-shirt-and-white-blazer-wearing real-life Zoolander.  I looked around that sea of pretty, all of whom were standing at the sidelines, not dancing (??!!), trying to keep their pretty makeup and detached looks perfectly positioned, and I chose Jason and our messy, sweaty dancing all over again.  Because eff it, life's a party, and it's too much fun to waste on the pursuit of pretty at the expense of fun now.