Young brides-to-be, many accompanied by their fiances, friends or family members, streamed into the Wedding Showcase at the Convention Center in Myrtle Beach Sunday to meet some of the area's top wedding professionals and get ideas or make selections for their weddings.
Almost everything they needed or might want for their weddings was exhibited. "The exhibitions have been very exciting," said show producer Cheryl L. Cox. "We have the best of the best in the Grand Strand. We have people here from the north end all the way to the south end."
The 13th showcase also had representatives from the Wedding Channel and the Knot, two websites that most brides-to-be visit, Cox said. Brittney Holsinger and C.J. Baucke of Myrtle Beach are planning a June wedding and already had most of it planned.
"It's just the little stuff now," Holsinger said. "The flowers and the cake, that's what we came to get information on, and we got it," Baucke said. The couple said they have family members in other states who are coming to their wedding. "I just want everybody to have a good time. So long as everybody has a good time, we'll be happy," Holsinger said.
The couple said they hoped to eventually have some little ones, and to enjoy each other and grow old together. "That's the plan," Baucke said.
Bride-to-be Amy Wright of Surfside Beach and her fiance, Shawn Bell of Myrtle Beach, are planning to wed in August 2012, after she graduates from the Medical University of South Carolina, where she is studying to be a pharmacist. They were there with several family members. "We just got engaged Christmas Day, so it's all pretty new," Wright said.
As for making choices for the wedding, Bell said, "Whatever she wants."After the wedding, he said they plan to go on a honeymoon "and then live together forever and make her the happiest girl in the world."Many of the vendors were giving away various things. Wright and Bell won two nights in a Myrtle Beach resort and a $40 coupon for the spa there.
Bride-to-be Nicole DeCarlo of Surfside Beach had help from her mother, Barbara DeCarlo, and her maid-of-honor, Jerra Watts of Conway. "During the fashion shows they were opposites; one would tell me, 'I liked it,' and one would tell me, 'I didn't like it,'" Nicole DeCarlo said. De Carlo said the show helped her narrow down her choices a lot. "We're looking for everything, a place, colors, dresses, food, cake, pictures."
DeCarlo plans to marry Alex Foxworth of Myrtle Beach in 2012, near the time she graduates from Horry-Georgetown Technical College. After getting married she said she "just wants to go with the flow for a while, and hopefully we'll turn out successful. I want to be a teacher and Alex wants to go into the military, so we'll see how that works out."
Alli Mitchell of Charleston and Matt DeCastro of Myrtle Beach are planning their wedding for sometime in the spring of 2012. They said they got a lot of good ideas at the show. "I'm only doing this once. We want our guests to have a really good time," Mitchell said.
"We want to keep it classy and fun," said DeCastro, a Coastal Carolina University graduate now studying physical therapy at HGTC. Mitchell is studying to become a registered nurse. She attends Trident Technical College and will graduate before their wedding.
After kissing Mitchell's hand, DeCastro said, "My hopes are that we will be together 60 years from now with healthy, happy kids - just living a happy life.""That's what everybody wants, to have a house and kids and grow old together," Mitchell said.