Highlights Studios: Our first Bridal show

Yesterday, Sun April 1 2012 we participated in our first ever bridal show! We were so excited to have this opportunity to meet new people and make new friends while getting our name out there. The Perfect Wedding Guide hosted the show at the Overland Park Convention center.

Saturday we went in to get our booth set up, since we have never done a show before we weren't sure what to expect other then a 10x10 space with 1 8ft long table and 2 chairs. We planned a little modestly for the display due to not knowing for sure how everything would lay out. We paid a little extra to get a "corner" booth which I think was a good thing. As we were setting up and starting to look at what we had to work with I realized that we could make our booth look even better if we added something. So after we finished setting up what we had we ran over to Hobby Lobby and got one of those privacy type half walls that had places to place photos. The "photo frames" were an unusual size, not something we could get a picture to fill. The frames had mat boards in them and the biggest opening they had was a 5x7. So I thought it out and decided the best thing to do would be to cut some of my black backdrop paper off the roll and cut it to size to place pictures on and create like a large "floating" frame type look to it. Of course being such short notice I wasn't able to use my professional print lab to make the 8x10prints for me and had to settle for less then perfect quality prints. But they still looked pretty good and I got a lot of compliments on the display.

Sunday we woke up bright and early and after leaving instructions for Grandma headed to the convention center to finish with the final touches on the set up. Finally the moment came when they opened the doors and brides and grooms started filtering past our booth. Being in the very back it took a little longer but we finally saw some of the happy couples and began talking with them as we could. The turn out was a bit smaller then expected but we still connected with several people and we are hopeful to get a few clients.

At our booth we also offered a prize drawing, the drawing consisted of 1 free engagement session and 100 free wedding invitations. Our drawing box that we got was super cute, it was a big "book" that opened up into a box. It had magnetic closers so we decided to cut a slit in the top of it and have it standing like on a bookshelf for the couples to drop their entry forms into. Several of the brides and mothers LOVED the box, in fact we got more compliments on that then anything else! Of course every time someone complimented the box my husband would beam with pride because HE was the one that found it and got it. Job well done hubby!

So while the day was long and a lot of standing in one place it was overall a good day. We love getting to know our brides and grooms and really hope to be able to be a part of a few couples special day.