Hey guys,

I'm really needing some help here. I've been doing bridal fairs for about two years, mainly one big one that I fell into by the grace of God. Now, I typically have a lot more time to prepare, however, I'm a new mom and all the time I thought I would have to plan for this fair since January, has somehow flown by! So, I'm trying to think up ways to be creative and stand out and have some prints made that won't cost a lot.

In the past, I set up the booth as a living room, so that bride's could take a look at how their photos fit into their lives after the wedding. Then the next time around, it was pretty basic as was the last time. I guess the living room didn't really give me optimum space for photos and it looked too much like a living room.

Any suggestions on how to do a display inexpensively that really wows. I don't mind spending some, but I just don't have the money to go all out this year.

Thanks a bunch!

Krystal

I just did my first bridal show a week ago. I had never attended a show before and had no idea what to expect. I had the simplest setup, by far. What I did was setup two laptops each playing a slideshow of our best and most recent weddings. These were on each end of the table. In the middle of the table we had 3 5x7s and in front of that was a letter-size collage with our package info on the back. We also had a couple 5" cornerstone example books which most brides were really impressed with.

While our display wasn't the most impressive, I'm not sure it mattered. I'm not the primary wedding photog, but she was with me during the entire show. What most impressed brides is when she'd say, "Hi, I'm Abbie and I'll be your wedding photographer. What's your name?" I'll bet that no other booth in the show had that.

To prove the point, we got a comment on our blog a couple days later.

I meet so many people that day but you were the one I was just like "When I get married I'm calling this lady."

I've seen it posted before and I think it makes a huge impact - Be geniunely interested in people. Introduce yourself and ask their name. Be friendly and not "salesy" (if that's a word).

Laptops and monitors - Free (borrowed from my studio)
3 5x7s - less than $5
Frame - $15 at Garden Ridge
2 Cornerstone albums - $170
New Business cards - $75 (1000 cards)
Double-sided Collage with packages - $200 (500)

Total under $500. Of course the cornerstone albums are reuseable, so the cost for the next show will go way down. We bought 500 of everything and only handed out about 75. Since it was our first show we weren't sure how many of anything to have, and went way overboard. If we had more time we could have ordered some items from the internet instead of printing locally and saved at least 10%.

Hope this helps.

-Nick