Local business owner establishes Strathmore’s first wedding expo
By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter
A local DJ, wanting to get everyone on the same page and caught up with up-to-date local wedding vendors and details, is hosting a trade show in town to help with that.
Daniel Wiewel, owner of MaxSPL Music, is working with the Town of Strathmore to put on the town’s first wedding expo, which will be held at the Strathmore Civic Centre later this month.
“I had a bride and groom come in who were looking to book me as a DJ for their wedding and they were saying that they’ve been in a panic mode getting everything booked,” said Wiewel, regarding his inspiration to get the event off the ground. “I was looking into whether there were any wedding expos in town and I couldn’t find any, so I contacted the Town (of Strathmore) about it and they said it was a great idea.”
According to Wiewel, there are some venues and vendors who are tremendously overbooked due to the postponement of weddings from 2020 and 2021, which are now preparing to take place this summer.
Inversely, there are other service providers who have a surplus of availability due to cancellations and potential clients thinking they are unavailable.
“We kind of just want to get everybody under one roof, that way everybody gets an easy way of meeting a bunch of these venues, (and) talking to them about what their availability is,” said Wiewel. “There are a lot of small businesses who have been hurt a lot by the pandemic, so it’s a chance to really get them out there.”
The event will be free for the public to attend and thanks to a sponsorship from the Town of Strathmore, Wiewel has been able to keep vendor fees low. The idea being to give those who may not usually attend similar trade shows, a chance to make themselves known.
According to Wiewel, vendors including venues, photographers, décor companies, nail techs, jewelry companies and travel agents will be setting up tables at the expo.
“This, I kind of set up as a spur-of-the-moment idea … and it’s been a bit of a roller coaster. I’m hoping that this does become a yearly event and that will give me more time to plan,” said Wiewel. “I’ve never run an event of this nature before because I’ve run music events. I booked bands and set up all the sound equipment and all that stuff like that I can do in my sleep. Putting together a trade show has been a whole other ballgame.”
The event will be operating under the provincial restriction exemption program, which will require proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test and ID to enter. This being subject to change depending on provincial health mandates at the time of the event.
The wedding expo is scheduled to have a sneak peek night on Feb. 26, with the main event taking place on the Feb. 27.