Wedding fair connects couples with marital options

When Havila and Jack Helmsing were getting ready to get married, the bride-to-be had a single request. She wanted to get married in a barn, and she wanted Jack to build it himself.

“What can I say? I dream big,” Havila said.

Her husband, who has a background in construction, put up a barn in time for their September wedding. Now the Helmsings are hoping to turn their wedding location just outside of St. Ignatius into an event venue, marketing it under the name Rugged Horizon.

The couple were among nearly 50 vendors who set up tables at the 29th annual Missoula Wedding Fair, held Sunday at the Holiday Inn hotel in downtown Missoula.

Jack said they are just starting the new business venture and are hoping to find couples who are planning their weddings and finding that other venues are already booked.

“I think as much as anything, it’s just about giving people some options,” he said.

Anna Homen of Cherry Creek Radio, which organizes the fair, said the point of the event is to bring all the various wedding services and companies together in one place.

“That means we have wedding planners, dress and tuxedo shops, caterers, photographers, entertainers and venues,” she said.

Every year, the fair brings in between 1,500 and 2,000 attendees, Homen said, with about 300 brides registering with the organizers.

“Brides are the biggest group that attend,” she said. “There are some who aren’t actually engaged yet, but have been talking about getting married.”

While the fair is a great place to network with businesses, Homen said some of the brides-to-be end up hiring vendors if they already have a day set and find something they want.

Kate Spalling, who said she got engaged at the start of the year, hadn’t started thinking about the wedding yet but decided to come to the fair anyway.

“It’s all a little overwhelming. I guess I didn’t realize there were this many things to consider,” she said. “I’m a big planning person, but today I’m just seeing what’s out there.”

Tom and Tonya Seiler, the couple who own Slikati Photography in Missoula, said in 2015 they shot about 15 weddings, and already have eight booked for this year.

“Probably by the end of the spring we’ll be booked up for the rest of the year,” Tonya said.

One couple has even hired them for a 2017 wedding already.

“You get engaged and you get so excited about it and you want to start making plans right away,” Tonya said.

Making plans early is one of the best tips for newly engaged couples, said Rebecca Wagner, who owns Rococo Bridal.

“A lot of people don’t realize that you might need to order your wedding dress six to 12 months in advance if you’re not just buying off the rack,” she said.

Changes in size, color or length all mean that a dress has to be custom-made, Wagner said. For her company, the wedding fair is a good place to meet potential clients and give them a sense of what her store offers. Wagner said online websites like Pinterest and wedding-themed television shows like “Say Yes to the Dress” have made parts of her job easier in recent years.

“The brides-to-be tend to come in better informed about what they want and the types of decisions they will be making,” Wagner said.