After 32 years of the annual Rapid City Bridal & Prom Showcase, organizers say more men are attending.

But Saturday's event at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel, including fashion shows and vendor displays, still was dominated by brides to be and their mothers and bridesmaids.

Bob Richeal, a representative of Randall's Tip Top Tux of Sioux City, Iowa, spends most of January and February at bridal shows.

In his experience, most grooms let brides choose just about everything, including their tuxedo. If grooms are getting involved, it's not eagerly in most cases.

"They come - begrudgingly, but they come," Richeal said, adding, "Some will put their foot down and say, 'I won't wear a particular color.'"

Riley Cassidy, owner of Uptown Sounds, has done the showcase in Rapid City for three years.

"We tell the guys, 'It's just as much your day as her day,'" Cassidy said.

Still, most decisions on music and entertainment are being made by the bride, he said.

Lia Green of Rapid City, who has been helping show coordinator and friend Sally Samuelsen-Wharton with the event for more than 25 years, said, "Every year, we get more and more grooms."

She held up a box full of blue slips of paper, all with names entered in a groom-only drawing for a 23-inch Sony flat-screen high-definition TV.

Beyond the TV drawing, most of the attractions were geared to women.

A fashion show at noon showcased dresses of all shapes and sizes for flower girls, junior bridesmaids, bridesmaids and of course, brides.

Bridesmaids sashayed down the catwalk in dresses, long and short, in purples and turquoises, oranges and pinks, browns and blacks. Brides wore white and cream, detachable straps and colorful ribbons, in silhouettes both billowing and slender.

During the show, men of all ages also modeled tuxedos and suits - some black, some brown, some even white - but all eyes were still on the sparkles and gathers of the wedding dresses.

One couple who attended the show together were Miranda Huber and Jon Andrew. The 23-year-old Rapid City residents got engaged Dec. 28 and are just starting to plan for a September wedding.

Huber and Andrew hope to make wedding decisions together, but even so, Huber did most of the talking Saturday.

"We both have a really good idea of what we're after. We have really strong opinions," Huber said. "I don't think it would have worked for just me to come."

Contact Emilie Rusch at 394-8453 or emilie.rusch@rapidcityjournal.com.