Ethan Allen: Portsmouth, New Hampshire

I was a little wary of a bridal show expo hosted at a furniture store instead of a restaurant because I figured the food wouldn’t be as good.  But when I walked in, it was actually very pretty.

There wasn't LOTS of food at this bridal show expo, but what they did have was very good.  They had clam chowder, which I like.  And lobster bisque.  I never had it before; it a little looked gross to me (pureed lobster in a cream base...eek.)  But it was DELICIOUS.  So creamy, with a buttery lobster flavor.  I wouldn’t mind having that at my wedding reception!  It was so rich that even though we just got these tiny little samples of it, that was enough (at first; I had to get seconds after the next hour, haha).  There were wedding cakes too, and I tried 5 of them, haha.  One place at the bridal trade show was just so so, but the other place had a very unique (and good) carrot cake, and a REALLY rich chocolate wedding cake.

There were no raffles at this bridal trade show (well, I'm sure I'll "win" stuff through email, hah) but I did get a present a pretty nice gift!  When Adam visits at Christmastime we can use them for New Year’s.  We can use them to have our champagne on New Year's!

As we were looking through some sample wedding albums, a photographer was chatting with us.  Somehow my engagement photos came up, and he asked where we had them done, so I said England, and he said, "Oh, so no one I know!"  Heh.  He asked where and actually had heard of Kettering (or lied and pretended to hah).  He asked why we got them in England, and asked if I was "bi-coastal" or something, and I said, "because my fiancé lives in England."

Now, usually at this point, the pat answer from vendors at a bridal show expo is, "Oh, wow."  Or, “That's cool," or something happy and positive, smiling cause the customer is always right and needs to be patronized or whatever.  Instead he said, "Oh!  That SUCKS."

Hahaha!  I LOVED that!  I said, "It DOES suck!"  Haha  I want Adam to BE HERE during our engagement but I can’t have that.  Instead I’m spending my engagement with these same vendors over and over at each bridal show expo.  So it felt good to just have someone voice that, instead of me smiling and pretending like it's all rainbows when I just really miss Adam.  It validated that it’s okay and normal to feel lonely without him here with me.