Bridal Show is Over!!

As you could imagine, the Bridal Show is very tiring for the vendors, not only selling to the throngs of brides sweeping through the place, but being on your feet for 7 hours. I don't know how the women do it in their high heels but I do applaud them for it. Overall it was a great bridal show. I met some really good vendors that I want to work with in creating my preferred vendor list. I met with several vendors today that I have worked with in the past that I thought were exceptional. After being at so many weddings, you get to see what other vendors do and can spot which ones did a great job and which ones are just okay. I am hoping to create a preferred vendor list for my brides that will hopefully help them in picking out other vendors they are still looking for. I think this will really help out the brides. I am often asked for recommendations on make up artists, DJs, and especially videographers. This list should be done soon and hopefully I will have to packet ready for some of my brides from this show. Well back to work for me.
Trung

Bridal Show 1st day done!!

Wow, that first day of the bridal show was awesome. I met some really great brides yesterday. This show is a lot different from the bridal show in January. In January it seemed like most of the brides just got engaged in the holiday season and were very non committal. That combined with the fact that the economy was heading in a downward spiral, left most of the brides very reluctant to book a lot of their vendors since a lot of them didn't know if they would still have a job or not. Yesterday, on the other hand, we met a lot of brides that wanted to come into the studio and wanted to book consultations on the spot!! That was very exciting!!
Yesterday was very interesting in that we got a lot of inquiries for upcoming weddings for the later part of this year and even some in September. That's less than 2 months away!!! The July show, historically, has been the show where we book mostly Spring weddings, but this weekend we've talked to many brides about weddings coming in in less than 3 - 4 months!! This is very unusual. I would speculate that the economy has something to do with this.
Another interesting this I noticed yesterday was the smaller number of vendors at the show!! There were noticeably less photographer vendors there, which I guess is a good thing, less competition. The economy has definitely affected everyone's business.
Hope to have another great day at the show!!
Trung

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

Albums get 1st and 2nd place!! woohoo!!

I attended the guild meeting on Tuesday night( PPGH, Professional photographers Guild of Houston) and submitted two of my recent albums for print competition. I entered Nikki's coutoure bridal album and a Budoir Album (an album we created for the client from their "For His Eyes Only Session). Both of them merited in competition, getting 1st and 2nd place. As a photographer, it is always good to get affirmation from colleagues and people in the industry that your work is good. Of course the real reward is a client that absolutely loves their album but to grow as an artist, we need to continually critique and scrutinize our work as well as get feedback from others. Often times, it's nerve racking when people are saying critical things and I may not necessarily agree with what they are saying but I have to swallow my pride and take it. Criticism sucks sometimes but that's the only way to grow. Well, the albums will be displayed at my booth at the upcoming bridal extravaganza show!!! Come by and check them out.

Trung

new website finally live

I'm so excited!! The new site is up and running finally!!! I've been working so hard lately to get this thing up and running and the day is finally here!!! I hope you like it. There have been many late nights. All the hard work by my graphics artist and the many late nights in the last couple of weeks have been worth it! This will probably be one of the last posts for this blog as the new one will be up and running within the next couple of days!!!
Trung
www.montagephotographers.com

Facelift - Montage's new look.

Recently, I've been working with a great graphic artist to come up with a fresh new image for my business. We are working on the new logo and website, which I hope to launch very soon. It's a super exciting time of the year for us as we prepare for the upcoming bridal show, and having a whole facelift to the business. This is huge. We hope to go live with the new website this coming week. Hopefully I can get everything in line with it this weekend and then launch the new site!! Everyone I've shown it to has loved it.

Trung

End of spring weddings

Wow, it was a hot wedding yesterday. Cydney and John got married yesterday at Brenner's Steakhouse off of I-10. An outdoor wedding at 5pm in the middle of summer is quite hot, and it doesn't help that John was wearing a tux with a vest. Needless to say, everyone was happy to start the reception inside the A/C'd restaurant. That was my last wedding for the spring/early summer wedding season. We have a month of no weddings!! It is a much needed break from the back to back weddings. This month "off" is still very busy as we are going to be soon unveiling a whole new logo and image. We will be revamping the website and then redoing all out marketing material in time for the upcoming bridal show!! We have been working with a very talented graphic artist to come up with a whole new look. I'm super excited!! keep an eye out for it!! The website landing page has already got the new logo and we shall be updating the website with new images as well as the newsletter!!
Try to stay cool . Til next time!!
Trung

Facebook!!

Hey there everyone, we are finally on facebook and I finally figured out how to get one of those snazzy Facebook Badges so people can link to us on there and "Become a Fan" How cool is that?? I'm only a recent adopter (I guess 9 months is still not that long) and I've become a huge fan. I'm so busy that facebook has become a great way to keep in touch with so many friends, other photographers, and meet some really cool people. Some of my clients have told me that they don't have the time to do facebook and I can understand that, but not having time is all the more reason to get onto Facebook. It's the easiest way to keep in touch with friends with the least amount of effort. If you get a chance, find us on there and keep up to date on what's happening in the studio and upcoming events .

Trung

Wedding at Corinthian - Peter and Nikki Talosig

My good friend Peter and his beautiful fiance, Nikki, got married at the Corinthian (http://www.thecorinthianhouston.com/) in downtown houston on June 13. Her dress was absolutely gorgeous. The decor and flowers were amazing. The party was going strong all the way til 12:30 in the morning. Many people were disappointed that is was over, even at 12:30am. I had so much fun. Here are some pictures of Nikki at the Corinthian. I could probably take pictures of Nikki all day. She's so much fun to shoot.

More pictures of the wedding will be online soon!!

Oh, I finally set up a page on Facebook!! Find us and Become a Fan. If the link doesn't work, just search for Montage Photographers, LLC. I will be posting images from our recent sessions.

Mandola Estates Winery and Cabo Weddings

Wow, the last two weeks have been insanely busy. On May 2, we headed to Mandola Estates Winery (http://www.mandolawines.com/) for Barbara and Scott’s wedding! Barbara and Scott currently live in Kuala Lumpur and they flew in for the week for their wedding. How cool is that to live in KL!! I now have a friend in KL that I can visit in that part of the world. Now I just need to find time in my schedule to travel there!! That winery is absolutely gorgeous and the people there were so awesome to us. I hope to shoot there again. Here are some images from that wedding.
TX School
Kristie, my assistant, and I spent last week in UT Arlington attending TX school. It’s a week long photography class where we spend the entire time learning from one instructor but also get to meet a lot of great photographers. I spent a whole week learning from Vicki Taufer and Sarah Petty, two of the most sought after photographer instructors in the country. They were teaching about “Branding the Boutique studio”. It’s something that I aspire Montage Photographers to become soon. It’s great to get inspiration and guidance from some of the best in the business.
At the end of the week, I flew from DFW airport to Cabo San Lucas to shoot my best friend’s wedding. Joseph and Michelle got married at the Riu Palace Hotel in Cabo. The backdrop is the beautiful ocean with a light breeze blowing. It was absolutely gorgeous day with the slight cloudy day that made taking pictures manageable. This was my first time in Cabo but definitely not my last. I love it there. I spent 4 days there taking pictures and sipping on some poolside drinks. Sometimes I can’t help but smile about being a photographer. It definitely has it’s perks. Here are some of the pictures from there.

Oh, find me on Facebook or find the group Montage Photographers where we will regularly post images from recent shoots!! Hope to befriend you there!!
Until next time,
Trung