Bridal Show Dilemma and Tips

The Bridal Extravaganza show is coming up and there will be so many brides looking to plan their whole wedding in one weekend. This is a great place to find a lot of your vendors and do comparison shopping. As Americans we often thrive on the fact that we have so many options to pick from. At the bridal show this January, of the the more than 500 vendors present, there were more than 110 photographers alone!! There were more photographers than any other single type of vendor there!! Now that's some serious competition and enormous selection!! there is a wide gamut of price and styles of photography to suit every kind of bride. This is good and bad for the bride. On the one hand, she has a lot of choices and we all generally think that is a good idea. sometimes though, I think too many choices tend to overwhelm them. Before the show, I often walk the floor and meet many of the other photographers to see their work and chit chat. After going through the show looking at ONLY the photographers, I'm overwhelmed!! Imagine a bride trying to look for all the other vendors as well!!! This is bad for the photographers exhibiting. All photographers want to work with clients that value their work and that can afford their prices. We want to connect with the bride and then explain what makes us unique. At the show, I would much rather connect with 10 brides and really get them excited instead of getting 500 names without connecting with a single bride and get her excited about working with us. Unfortunately, a lot of what happens at the show is, "Do you have a price list??!!", and then they take off to the next booth to ask for another pricelist from another vendor, just to be able to get through the whole show. I do realize my prices are not suited for everyone and I don't want to necessarily book every bride there.

Honestly I think there are a couple of tips I can give brides to make their day more productive and less overwhelming when shopping for photographers.

1. Meet the photographer that would potentially cover your wedding. Do you connect with them??

2. Carry two bags. Place all the brochures that you really are truly interested in and put all the brochures that you happened to get that you have no interest in in the other bag. When you get home, it's easier to know which bag you need to go over first and which bag to perhaps discard....

3. Wear comfortable shoes. I know girls that want to be cute and wear heels, but by the 8th aisle, their feet are killing them. There's going to be a lot of walking.

4. Bring a friend to bounce ideas off of and help you screen your vendors.

5. Print out labels with your contact information. Save yourself from writing down your information a million times to all the vendors you will be talking to.

That's all I have for now.

Hope to see you at our booth at the bridal show! Booth #532