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Amy Koch Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #1 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Last September we decided to participate in this years Bridal Festival. It worked better than we could have ever imagined! We put 2 complete high end wedding packages on each cocktail table. We had a 12x12 and a 10x10 storybook album from 2 different weddings we shot from last year. We discovered something pretty funny about the books when it came to attracting brides: they came in substantially more often and in greater volume when they were left on pages with bright red and pink photos. At some point we started calling them "hummingbird feeders". We had several people sit on the love seat and look at the albums! The fact that you could walk into our booth to look around and get out of the traffic set us completely apart from nearly all of the others too. Overview of the show: - $1100 booth fee - $600 in prints - $1300 in albums and parent books - $500 in miscellaneous other booth goodies (carpet, couch, table, linen rentals, etc.) - 6 weddings booked at the show - 1 senior session booked, also at the show And without making this too long, the booth: And our handout, borrowing the idea from Melanie for a 6x9 postcard: Jan 14, 2009 at 05:05 AM

ngoduyviet Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #2 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Very nicely done and congrats on the bookings. Jan 14, 2009 at 05:58 AM

sboerup Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: On p.1 #3 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Congrats, nice setup . . . big investment so I hope it continues to pay off! Jan 14, 2009 at 06:38 AM

dannyrod Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #4 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Yea that IS a big investment, but if it brought you those clients it's definitely worth it! Great setup and congrats! Jan 14, 2009 at 06:39 AM

sidewazzz388 Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #5 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! That is great, we are doing two shows in March! Hope it goes half as good as yours did! Jan 14, 2009 at 07:43 AM

Andy Wood Offline Upload & Sell: On p.1 #6 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Big risk. Big reward Jan 14, 2009 at 07:44 AM

gravy graffix Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #7 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! wow! nice! We did ours sunday and all they would let us have is the 5 foot table they set out. I love the couch, great Idea as many are tired from all the walking... nice to relax and shows that your in touch with their needs. add a water cooler or wine... some cheese... lol Jan 14, 2009 at 12:37 PM

Andrew Welsh Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: On p.1 #8 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! $3500 invested for 6 weddings and a senior session, not a bad profit. Especially since the prints and albums and doodads can be reused at the next show. I have mixed feelings about spending money on a booth at bridal shows myself. Jan 14, 2009 at 01:40 PM

Tony Harrell Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #9 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Nice set-up Amy. Out of those who booked - how many went for the $1275.00 wedding coverage starting point mentioned on your flyer? I've unfortunately found only tire-kickers, or budget shoppers at most of our regional bridal shows. Jan 14, 2009 at 02:05 PM

DB Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #10 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Wow, congrats! Actually, you can still use a lot of those materials when you meet with clients. I can see myself spending about $1k on albums, prints, and other things just for client meetings, so I think you did really well. Jan 14, 2009 at 03:41 PM

Ryan Britton Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #11 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Tony Harrell wrote: Nice set-up Amy. Out of those who booked - how many went for the $1275.00 wedding coverage starting point mentioned on your flyer? I've unfortunately found only tire-kickers, or budget shoppers at most of our regional bridal shows. None. The first two to book went for the highest and second highest packages, which are substantially higher than the starting point. Jan 14, 2009 at 04:04 PM

RichardLavigne Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: On p.1 #12 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Very nicely done... Jan 14, 2009 at 05:14 PM

Ryan Britton Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #13 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! A few other notes for those curious: - Get as big of prints as possible. The largest size you see in the photos is 20x30, and they look tiny. The smallest size you see are 11x14. - Carpet is very, very nice for your own use when tending the booth all day. It's much easier on the feet than concrete. - Getting placed next to vendors you like makes all the difference in the world too. One of our favorite DJs was across from us. - We would not go with anything smaller than a double-booth. - Watch your samples. People will walk off with them. We lost one of the sample slideshow cases/DVDs this way. They'll be in for a surprise when they find out the disk was empty and it's just a show sample though. - About 30% of brides registered at the show took something. Most of those that stopped in the booth took something though. Jan 14, 2009 at 05:53 PM

Amy Koch Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #14 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Thank you all for the positive comments! Ryan and I are thrilled on how the booth turned out. Just a thought for those who are participating at an upcoming bridal fair. Dress as if you were going to a job interview. That's what you are doing, applying for a job. We both wore black dress pants and shoes, I wore a blouse and Ryan a dress shirt. There were other vendors wearing sweatshirts, and one was wearing a bright orange hunters hat...(not kidding!) They were being avoided by potential clients. We "asked" people passing through if they would like a brochure and price list. We did not push anything, and just let them come to us with questions. It worked wonders! Jan 14, 2009 at 06:23 PM

jefferies1 Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #15 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! You did great. I spent about the same last year with 6 wedding albums, wall portraits, chairs to sit in etc.Dressed to impress (I always wear suits) with 2 assistants to keep up with the questions. Rave reviews from photographers and vendors but to this day not one sale.....nothing. Walked out that evening thinking it was the best show I had even done. Looking back it was the worst being the only one without onsite or after show sales. If you find what works leave it alone and use it over again. Jan 14, 2009 at 09:21 PM

jeremy casanav Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #16 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Looks great! We thought about doing a show this year, but we just started and want to spend the money in different areas. But I am bookmarking this thread to use for next year when we want to do one. Jan 14, 2009 at 11:32 PM

rhembein Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #17 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! yaay! good for you guys!!! I think many people are leery of the shows but I am booking one or two of them for next year. Totally worth it! Jan 14, 2009 at 11:45 PM

BKphotography Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #18 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Its like most things in life, the more you put in the more you get out. Well done folks. BK Jan 15, 2009 at 08:04 PM

unblinkable Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #19 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Awesome!!!! Don't get discouraged if, when you raise your prices, you stop booking AT the bridal shows. This is what happened with us. While we were low (under $2500), we would book while there... but once we hit where our lowest package was $3000, there was a drastic drop off in immediate response... but that's because we were in a different bridal bracket. We still booked as many as before, just three to five weeks down the road, as these people tend to THINK more about where their money is going, and not just looking for the lowest price with the best look. I'm so happy for y'all! Jan 15, 2009 at 08:34 PM

Sam Hassas Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: On p.1 #20 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Awesome. Be proud. ~Sam Jan 15, 2009 at 10:00 PM

The Grays Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #21 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! What type of clients are you attracting from the show? We have done a few in the past and they (at least here in Nashville) always seem to attract a lower budget bride regardless of how they market it. We stopped doing them because of that, and because we realized that selling ourselves to clients is not nearly as good as someone else selling us and someone else selling us usually cost us nothing but our time. -Zach Jan 16, 2009 at 07:29 AM

Amy Koch Offline Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #22 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! Actually, brides were attracted to our high end packages. The storybooks sold the packages. I heard most of them saying that they have never seen any storybook albums before. Out of 22 other photographers there, only 3 of us had them. That truly set apart from everyone else! Jan 16, 2009 at 05:34 PM

unblinkable Offline Dedicated FM Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #23 · Our 1st Bridal Show and we Rocked It! The Grays wrote: What type of clients are you attracting from the show? We have done a few in the past and they (at least here in Nashville) always seem to attract a lower budget bride regardless of how they market it. We stopped doing them because of that, and because we realized that selling ourselves to clients is not nearly as good as someone else selling us and someone else selling us usually cost us nothing but our time. -Zach This probably means that bridal shows are just different in your area. We do two a year here and our base wedding is $3200... with the average booking hovering around $5000 or so. For us, in this area, we get all kinds... there are definitely budget brides, but we have high end ones, too. The only difference is that we don't book high end ones while there... they come meet with us at the studio later. But, yes... free advertising is the best. That's the only other thing we do besides the two expos a year. I like it that way. I want to have people seek us out, but I want to keep my name being seen at the expos so that we can widen our recognition. Even if a bride can't afford us, she'll still tell her friends about us if we impress her. Jan 16, 2009 at 05:57 PM

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