Are you Bay Area brides ready for the inspiration event of the year? Because it is coming! This is the most perfect place for you to get totally inspired, meet your perfect wedding team, and party the night away with your bridal party, other brides and the best vendors in the industry! Not to mention spend a wonderful weekend in the Wine Country.

So check out our pretty new website, sign up for e-mail updates, and stay in the loop with all the deets.

The Not-So-Ordinary Bridal Fair coming to the Wine Country.

On this very Wedding Wednesday something big has happened across the wedding world. Something very big in fact! A group of very talented wedding vendors and wedding bloggers have come together to create the ultimate scavenger hunt entitled “Blogging Around the Wedding World: Elegant Decay”.

The head honcho of this whole project is  Aleah and Nick from Valley Co. who have put together a virtual scavenger hunt with a recent wedding shoot they did. 25 amazing blogs take everyone through the entire shoot piece by piece. It starts in New Zealand goes through Europe, heads over to the East Coast and then ends over in the West Coast. Piece by piece and all through the day more photos will surface and in the end will create the full picture!

Follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #elegantdecay and check out the below list of blogs for the shoot to play out.

1: Bubble Rock @stephbubble
2: Magnolia Rouge @rubyandwillow
3: Cap Classique @capclassique
4: Brancoprata @brancoprata
5: The Demoiselle @The_Demoiselle
6: Engaged + Inspired @EngagedInspired
7: Postcards and Pretties @postcrdsprettie
8: Paper Garland @papergarland
9: Sparkle and Hay @sparkleandhay
10: Superburbs @superburbs
11: Every Last Detail @ELD_Lauren
12: Brenda’s Wedding Blog @weddingsites
13: Niche White @NicheWhite
14: Simply and Forever KatieSaeger
15: Bride Goggles @BrideGoggles
16: Landlocked Bride @LandlockedBride
17: Forget Me Knot Weddings @forgetmeknotwed
18: Fabulously Wed @fabulouslywed
19: The Bride Suite @thebridesuite
20: Enchanted Dreams Wedding & Affairs @NaomiVGoodman
21: Marry You Me @MarryYouMe
22: Luna and Chloe Weddings @lunaandchloe
23: La Petite Coquin @lapetitecoquin
24: Glamour and Grace Weddings @GlamandGraceWed

Show it Off:

Posting an ample amount of photos of your dress is better. The more you post, the better idea a person can get of the dress and all the different views. After your wedding you are bound to have tons of photos of you in your dress, in ALL different angles, so give people a real idea of your gown.

Models are no Substitute for the Real Thing:

Posting pics from the designer’s collection photo shoot will give people some what of an idea of the dress design, but it is no substitute for the real thing! So it is time for you to be the model to show your dress in your size, on you (while also giving people a little glimpse of your gorgeous wedding!). The more the buyer can see the real dress, the better chance you will have of getting some interest.

Fill In the Blanks:

Give people as much information as possible about your dress. Fill in all the blanks so you end up in more searches and so that potential buyers can get the true look and feel of your dress!

Promote It!

Tell everyone you know about it. If someone is interested in purchasing your dress, send over the Smart Bride link so they can get all the details. That will save you time and effort and makes it easier for the buyer as well! Tell your Twitter followers, post it on Craigslist, Wedding Bee, etc etc.  Smart Bride is completely free for you as a seller, so use it as a place to store all the info you want about the dress, then send people to the link to check it out!

List your dress now!

I’m happy to announce the release of Smartbride.net – a free online consignment store where buyers and sellers are connected up.  When I was getting married, I really wanted a used bridal gown, but I found ebay very difficult to navigate through and craigslist a bit difficult as well.  I wanted a site that had very specific search criteria for gown styles so I wouldn’t have to sift through thousands of dresses.

Being an avid craigslist user myself, I decided to make the general concept of the site the same–a free interchange for buyers and sellers.  However, I wanted my site to be tailored just for brides and above all to be fun to use!

I hope you enjoy this site and would love your feedback.