No Fail Strategies to Survive A Bridal Show

Feature Article

by Tracey Baxter

Throwing bunches of wedding professionals together in one place should make it easy for anyone getting married to find their preferred pros for everything from bridal fashions to wedding stationary. It seems like a no-brainer: as a bride to be, of course you want to go to a bridal show! Unfortunately, these events are often overwhelming for everyone involved and lots of energy is expended without the intended end results: wedding service professionals and brides, grooms or MOB's finding each other to create memorable weddings for the couples and their guests. You can avoid this by attending bridal shows with a little strategy to get you through the day!

Keep those dogs from barking! Be sure your shoes can go the distance. Most shows last 4 or 5 hours so choose your shoes accordingly. Depending on the location, you may not be permitted to kick off those heals let alone want to if it’s a concrete convention center floor.

Bring your road map. Have a list of your priority professionals prepared so you can bee line to their booths first. Remember, priority professionals are the services that you must have for your wedding and without those services, your personal wedding will not feel complete.

Take your time! Plan to spend time and start to build a relationship with the professionals you need. After you've visited your priority pros, go back and invest some extra time with the ones you think will be your best partner in creating your wedding vision. You can possibly prequalify who gets your valuable time if the show lists the participating vendors in advance of the show. Send an email question to that professional to see how you like their response time or enthusiasm to help you - or if they respond at all.

Any old bag will not do. Especially not the bag they give you at the show pre-filled with all kinds of professional promotional materials. This bag will probably have an uncomfortably awkward handle at best but at worst, the handle will not be sturdy enough for all that crap the show producers, bless their hearts, charge to shove in there and it will break spilling all the contents! BYOB! Bring your own Bag! A flexible bag, especially something with a shoulder strap will assure you can comfortably carry everything you want to collect.

Know your budget! There will be deals and you will be tempted. Deals like those won’t last for long. Knowing the parameters of what you can realistically afford will help you stay on track and not impulse book so many “great deals” on the spot that they may not be so great when the math gets done later.

Book’em Dano! Sometimes the on the spot deals really are THE REAL DEAL! Knowing your budget and your priority professionals in advance will help you secure the best professionals for your wedding at a phenomenal savings.

Knowing your rights, you can tell who is legit in their business practices. The CAN-SPAM law prohibits people/businesses from using harvested or paid for lists in email marketing. This means that the bride attendee list the promoters of the show will give to the participating wedding pros, as part of their booth fee, may be used for direct “snail mail” but not email. When you registered for the show, you gave the show producers permission to send you email, but not the 70+ professionals at the show. Technically, you should not receive post-show email from any professional that you didn't visit to personally. You may however get letters, post cards or other physical mailings from everyone who had a booth! And just so you know, every e-message that is 'commercial' in nature must have a one click 'unsubscribe' and you must be unsubscribed within 10 days of that request.

Decide from who you DO want to receive email contact:

• Be sure to get on your priority professionals’ list– in their booth! If they offer email newsletters, coupons or other promotions, they will have a sign-up sheet available!
• Create a separate wedding email address for keeping all your wedding related email organized and reduce personal/work and wedding message mix-ups.
• Make signing up a snap: print address labels with your name, address, phone number, email address and wedding date and put this on the sign-up sheets in the wedding pro’s booth rather than having to write this info 75 times. Including the contact info for the groom to be can also be helpful.

Nobody Wins! If you already have booked a photographer, don't go looking at photographers at the show because you lose valuable time. Likewise, the photographer would rather invest their marketing materials and time in someone visiting their booth that truly needs their services. It's not a winning strategy to waste your time or theirs.

Your Wedding Planning Homework:

Don't forget to get your tickets to The Wedding Connection Bridal Show!! Make a plan that you can stick to no matter which bridal show or event you visit!

copyright 2011 Aisle Do

Want to use this article in your e-Zine, blog or website? You may as long as you include this complete statement:

Wedding Solutions Specialist Tracey Baxter publishes the "Aisle Do" bi-weekly e-zine. Get your Free Report: "From Drab to Fab - The Five Secrets to a Show Stopping Favor Display” at www.aisledoweddings.com