HERE COMES THE WEDDING\Bridal show provides one-stop shopping for frenzied fiances.

Byline: Kermit Pattison Daily News Staff Writer

The wedding day was still a year off, but Christine Dawson wasn't wasting any time blazing her path to the altar.

Over the next 12 months loomed a dizzying list of details to tend to - flowers to buy, photographers and caterers to be hired. To top it all off, the bride-to-be still was toying with the idea of baking her own wedding cake.

"It hasn't hit me yet," said Dawson, 22, of Thousand Oaks. "In six months, probably the rush will be on."

With her mother and future mother-in-law in tow, Dawson joined hundreds of others Sunday at the Bridal Premiere at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza in Westlake Village to sample more than 60 nuptial services from florists to photographers to limousine services.

"It's one-stop shopping," said Diane Boyd, coordinator of the Bridal Premiere. "Some one could come here and actually book their entire wedding."

After paying $6 at the door, prospective brides had red hearts fastened to their lapels and entered the exhibit to a soothing cascade of notes played by a harpist. Most were future brides, mothers or mothers-in-law with only an occasional groom.

"It's all right here," said Boyd. "Within three hours they can visit with every exhibitor and see a fashion show. They can't get that at a mall."

Summer Cary, 18, came to the show with her fiance Mark Heathcote, 22, to iron out the remaining details in their fast-approaching wedding in May. But the young couple was used to moving quickly, having met each other just four months ago while students at Ventura College.

"It's getting pretty close to our wedding date," said Cary. "We're looking for a florist and caterer. We're looking for a good price."

As one of the few future grooms at the show, Heathcote chuckled, "People act like I got stuck."

"I don't like to go shopping for a bunch of different things," he said. "But everything is right here and you can do in a few hours what would take days."

Bakery owner Susie Shin stood behind a eye-level rampart of wedding cakes and sweet treats as she doled out sample bites and business cards. She said she gets many clients from the shows, especially as wedding bookings pick up for the peak summer season.

"I always ask them about how they found out about us," said Shin, owner of Phil's Simi Bakery. "They always say it's from the show."

A few feet away, sharply dressed representatives from tuxedo shops gave a glimpse of how the right suit of clothes could turn an average Joe into a handsome groom. Photographers and video services showed images of fairy tale weddings. In a fashion show, models showed off how wedding gowns or tuxedos would look on a bride or groom walking down the aisle.

Beauty experts promised to coif the bride into a picture of elegance. And professional wedding planners offered to take care of all the nettlesome details of planning the ceremony.

Wedding getting too stressful? A masseur invited prospective brides and their parents into her message chair to demonstrate a way to knead away that pre-ceremony anxiety.

"It's relaxing the bride prior to the festivities," said message therapist Deborah Lee Nesbit. "Lots of times you'll see brides shaking and nervous and teary. This is one way to avoid that."

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Photo (1--color in CONEJO only) Visitors check out more than 60 nuptial services at Sunday's Bridal Premiere at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza. (2--ran in CONEJO and SIMI only) Visitors - mostly female - get a glimpse of what's new in wedding dresses and tuxedos at the fashion show at Sunday's Bridal Premiere. (3) Becky Walden models a classic wedding gown in the fashion show. Phil McCarten/Daily News