Jenn Farrell (any relation to Vancouver’s Jessie Farrell? Wow, her sound has changed a lot in four years) wrote an article (of the appropriate length, hurray!) in The Tyee about trying to find resources and vendors for an alternative, ‘indie’ wedding:
After a dizzying day of fashion shows (featuring faux wedding parties, complete with creepy child-models wearing tiny tuxes), filling out entry forms (presented in an inch-thick bundle), and picking up pamphlets, we were done in. The groom-to-be was especially downtrodden, and I could see the tempting lure of a quick elopement behind his glazed eyes.
The piece goes on to discuss how Virsouq, “Vancouver’s independent wedding fair for the modern, unconventional couple” had been postponed (it was also the subject of a little local blogger controversy last fall).
That’s too bad, because I think it’s a natural fit for Vancouver. There are plenty of marriage-ready hipsters and independent vendors who might flock to this thing. Plus, if it’s pitched and promoted as sufficiently ‘cool’, you’d get every run-of-the-mill suburban bride to attend, either to sneer or to reinforce their delusions of cool. Plus, it’s a ready-made media story (“Wedding Fair Dares to Be Different”). I can even picture the field marketing strategy–get ten alterna-brides handing out flyers at Granville and Georgia, or whatever.
The trick would be to leave plenty of lead time, start small and plan to lose money in the first year. Also, I’d consider alternative pricing models for vendors and attendees, and woudn’t try to compete directly with the humungous mainstream wedding fairs. Maybe Virsouq starts as a series of Tupperware 2.0 parties in people’s homes?
UPDATE: Wow, le monde est tres, tres petite. Ms. Farrell is married to Tom Williams, my colleague at GiveMeaning.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Isn’t the issue that if you’re going to have an alterna-wedding, your wedding starts to look a lot like a fairly conventional party, rather than a wedding?
Wedding fairs and planners specialize in conforming the party to some archetypes, and getting you in touch with the wedding-gear specialists: white dresses, tuxedos, string quartets that know Pachelbel’s “Canon”, etc.
If you toss those elements, you’re probably into the realm of the conventional party planner, where for enough money they can plot almost any event.
And if you have no money, don’t want a white dress, and plan a fairly unconventional event, the whole thing doesn’t end up requiring very much wedding infrastructure, conventional or not.
Ryan: That’s a pretty culturally-specific view of weddings you’re taking. There’s plenty of leeway between ‘utterly conventional wedding’ and ‘generic party’. And I think there’s room for a wedding show to exist in that trough.
For example, you might find a bride who wants a pastor and hymms, but doesn’t want to wear white, get married in a church or be given away by her father.
You’re right about conforming to archetypes. ‘Alterna-weddings’ will just become another set of archetypes. For example, there are already a bunch of cliches around your average lesbian wedding. I’m sure there’s a whole industry dedicated to delivering and reinforcing those cliches.
I’d just like to say that i take offence to your stereotypical view of ‘run-of-the-mill suburban brides’. Just because you live ‘downtown’ doesn’t make you hipper, it takes all sorts. Just because i don’t want to live in the hustle and bustle doesn’t make me uncool. What a narrowminded article, i’m sorry i clicked on it.