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Fellows Riverside Gardens hosts bridal fair
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.One of the vendors at the bridal fair was Novalash Eyelash Express, which lengthens eyelashes. A bride to be laid down to get her eyelashes worked on.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.An attendee of the bridal fair examined some of the treats offered by Kim's Confections at Fellows Riverside Gardens.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.A large selection of various cakes were among the 29 vendors during the bridal fair at Fellows Riverside Gardens.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Leslie Cusano (left) of Leslie Cusano Photography showed off her work during the bridal fair at Fellows Riverside Gardens.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.NewMe Pies owner Becky Minamyer posed next to her display table during the bridal fair at Fellows Riverside Gardens.
By TIM CLEVELAND
For the 10th consecutive year, Fellows Riverside Gardens hosted its annual bridal fair, bringing area business owners that offer wedding-related products with brides-to-be.
During this year’s event, which was on Sept. 7, there were 29 vendors, ranging from photographers, cake makers, decorators, DJs and many more. There were 120 registered brides, and with friends and families the total attendees were approximately 300 at the four-hour event.
There was also a bridal show in which 15-20 models showed off the latest wedding dresses. The bridal show was sponsored by Komara Jewelers, which gave away men’s and women’s wedding rings worth a combined $2,500.
“It’s very successful, which is why we continue to do it,” said Fellows Riverside Gardens visitors services manager Arlene Lanz, who was overseeing the show for the ninth year. “I’m sure the reason why we started to do this is that we consider ourselves one of the premiere bridal wedding venues in northeast Ohio. This helps us to bring people to the Gardens when the weather’s beautiful so that they can enjoy the Gardens and also work with a lot of the vendors that we work with on a regular basis.”
Jessica Creque of Hartville was one of the brides who attended the show.
“I’m getting married next September [19, 2015], so I’m just kind of finding photographers and cakes,” she said. “We did cake testing already, and then we’re going to look at photographers.”
Among the 29 vendors at the event was Becky Minamyer, who has owned her personalized pie business called NewMe’s Pies since 2011. She started the business after being a part of a family-owned floral business for 37 years.
Minamyer has been a part of the bridal fair for the past four years. She related the story of how she first began coming to it.
“I think we had done a wedding here and they [Fellows Riverside Gardens] invited us at that point,” she said.
She said being a part of the fair has had a positive impact on her business.
“We’ve come and met lots of brides,” Minamyer said. “We’ve enjoyed being here. It has helped our business, so I’d encourage other vendors to see about coming.”
Lanz said doing the bridal fair is a good way for brides to check out options for their wedding under one roof.
“You can talk with vendors face to face,” she said. “I’ve had brides say they got all their vendors for their wedding reception here. They got their florist, their caterer, their DJ, their photographer, everyone they needed for their wedding day here.”