Who's doing wedding fairs?

[Steve Bleasdale]

cheers Jmes

[Roger Gunkel]

Originally Posted by Danny O'Neill

Did the national wedding show once. £5k and not a worthwhile return. Better suited to people selling shiny things.

**##!!! 5K for a wedding show!!!!!!! I'm not surprised you are not a fan of wedding shows if you spent 5K on one and didn't get a worthwhile return. The National Wedding Show is not for booking things, it's for walking round and seeing what you might like at your wedding while being totally overwhelmed by the huge number of exhibitors.

If I had 5K to spend on a wedding show, it would pay for 25 shows at a max of £200 each. That would bring me an average of 5 bookings per show over a few months from each one. Total bookings about 125, giving a profit afterl expenses of about £80K. I would consider that a worthwhile return.

Roger

[Roger Gunkel]

Originally Posted by James Manford

All depends what you want ...

If you've got wife and kids you might fancy devoting more time to them ... which means high end / few weddings a year would suit your lifestyle.

Otherwise regular work is probably best. Stick to what you're doing.

There is another down side to the high end fewer weddings of course. If you do 40 weddings at £1000 each and two cancel out, you lose £2k, but if you do 10 weddings at £4000 and two cancel out you lose £8k. Of course it's all just juggling figures to make a point and 'Not life as we know it Jim" :-)

Roger

[Robert Benda]

For wedding fairs, it's all about which fair it is. In my town, we have three. Two are rubbish - hundreds of brides who are only there for the fashion show and door prizes. The third is cheaper ($400), much smaller (42 brides last time I was in it), BUT is run by a high-end photographer, so the brides tend to be of a better quality. For starters, they're all actual brides, and they tend to be looking for the right vendor, not the cheapest. Last time, out of 42 brides, I booked 5.

As for marketing and branding, it shouldn't matter if you're a solo shooter or not. My company is just me and my wife. I'm actually a 15 year veteran MC/DJ, she's been shooting two years. I do a fair amount of work to make sure our website does well in the search engines, but also so that our marketing is done correctly. This year I will DJ 32 weddings, she'll shoot 16. We are doing some changes because we want to hit 40/20.

Basic things like having an identity: "The Smart Choice for the Savvy Bride."
and calls to action: "Call us at XXX-XXX-XXXX"
Selling emotionally, not logically: Fear, fun, empathy, sense of belonging, pride

That's all the marketing and branding is. It answers the questions: WHO should hire you? WHY should they hire you? HOW do they hire you or WHAT do they do next?

Even the basics of your unique selling proposition: Cheapest, best, best value, most reliable, personal relationships, et al.

RNB Weddings

[Daniel Latimer]

Originally Posted by Roger Gunkel

There is another down side to the high end fewer weddings of course. If you do 40 weddings at £1000 each and two cancel out, you lose £2k, but if you do 10 weddings at £4000 and two cancel out you lose £8k. Of course it's all just juggling figures to make a point and 'Not life as we know it Jim" :-)

Roger

Of course the upside is that you did 10 weddings instead of 40. Or if you decide to do one more you four times as much. It goes both ways.