Bridal Fairs Can Be a Great Business Jump Starter!

[ChefKelebel]

I wanted to share with all my cheffer friends about a Bridal Fair I literally fell into a couple of weeks ago. About 4 days before this bridal fair, I reached out to a fellow consultant who had already booked a booth at a local fair. It turned out he couldn't use the booth so he let me go in his place (cost to me: $75). I thought this was a really great deal because I know how expensive these booths cost. With only 4 days to prepare, I decided to put "bridal packets" together (just like a host packet, only for brides, mother of brides, whoever was giving the shower) and I went in with a plan...

I talked to everyone about "double dipping". I focused on how to use the wedding shower to get one set of great hostess benefits and then use the registry to get another (the double dipping!). I even "triple dipped" a mom of the bride by explaining how she could host a show first (to get her own rewards) and then the wedding shower and registry!

My "double dipping" strategy paid off! I have 8 bridal registries all of them planning their wedding shower with me, up to and including 2 Moms and 1 maid of honora who are hosting cooking shows with me before the wedding showers!

Here's some photos from the event. I'll definately do this again!

 

[Jolie_Paradoxe]

Wow! Great display and a super smart idea! Could have used this a few weeks back! lol

Thanks for sharing!

 

[leslieprichett]

That's great!

I looked up upcoming bridal fairs here in my area and have them on my list to call when the baby takes a nap today

 

[ChefCat]

Thanks for sharing!What a successful event. Your table looked great!

 

[pcchefjane]

Most bridal fairs are outrageously priced! My share with 2 other consultants for one hour last year was $68. We all thought it would be worth it because the newspaper promised us "weekly engagement announcements" for one year. I got 2 "sets" from it over a period of 10 months. It seems they would "put them together" for several weeks then send engagement and wedding announcements together! I didn't get a single registry with 12 contacts there at the Show. I passed on the leads to my Recruit and she said no one wanted to even book shows! It was a terrible investment to me and I won't do another one. I think they are grossly overpriced!

 

[smithcooking]

In the first picture all the way to the right at the top of the picture what do you have on a stand? It looks like you made grooms cards or something. Your display is very nice. What do you have in the 3 ring binder? I have done this several times and have gotten really good turn out with it. I have made up some boards that I can display with the different and upcoming specials and I have one set-up that is just the bridal info.

 

[ChefKelebel]

The upper right corner is the new 3 tiered stand with the really cute little groomsmen and bridal boxes (found at the Dollar Tree by a fellow consultant). Inside the box were a few hershey kisses and on top a business card.
The book turned out pretty good. It's like a wedding scrapbook, I printed out the free invites that I do for the bridal shower (it's a nice incentive for whoever is hosting that I do the invites for them. And I just did a publisher doc. and print it on cardstock.)
I'm attaching a few photos for you to check out. Sorry if they're a bit fuzzy:blushing:

 

[ChefKelebel]

I tried to post the boxes, but it won't let me

And I forgot to mention, a great incentive for brides to book a cooking show a wedding shower and register is that they can use the host benefits to get her bridal party gifts free and discounted (I always showed the bbq turner with the bottle opener on it during this part because it's a great groomsmen's gift. And it can be engraved!) Great review of this product and idea by the brides.

 

[esavvymom]

I love the photos of your Wedding Scrapbook!
I think that would be a great idea to be able to incorporate at ANY booth...not just Bridal Fairs. I can't afford them, but having something like this at a booth would be really handy and attractive! I've met lots of engaged couples/brides-to-be just at a regular booth. Our standard pamphlet is very lacking (IMHO).Thanks for sharing!

 

[Krista Burson]

Alright Kelly, I absolutely love, love the scrapbook. Would you be willing to share your "flyers" that are in your scrapbook? I love the order form one especially.

 

[smithcooking]

I would love to see the flyers that you do myself. I have a few that I use, but really like the idea of putting together a scrap book and doing it for everything that we offer instead of just bridal.

 

[ChefKelebel]

You all are so kind, you'll laugh when I tell you how much I spent on this scrapbook. about $2.00!! I'm a garage sale junkie and whenever I see scrapbook stuff, I buy it up and there was a wedding packet (you know the kind, has all the stuff to make some wedding pages) and I got it for 50 cents and the scrapbook was a dollar. I'm adding another 50 cents for the extra stuff I printed out from CC and I was done! I got the order form from here, I am a firm believer in never reinventing the wheel! Here's a couple of the things I put together, I think they are all publisher or word docs. I hope you can use them.

 

[ChefKelebel]

Here's a couple more...K

 

[ChefKelebel]

fyi...I really need to give credit, I am sure I probably got most of the info right here from these files, I just doctored them up or changed a bit for me. Feel free to do the same

 

[NooraK]

Would you be able to post any of those in PDF or .doc format? I don't have Publisher.

 

[Krista Burson]

Thanks so much Kelly. This is SO awesome. I'm going to go scrounge the clearance racks for a scrapbook because I think this is great and eye catching.

 

[citymouse]

Kelly, thank you SO much for this post and the pictures AND the flyers! I'm doing my first Bridal Fair tomorrow, so this comes at the perfect time. I love your booth set up!!

And to pay it forward, here are some of the publisher docs in Word and PDF. Posting the brochure in PDF doesn't help much, since it has my personal info in it--anyone wanting it would need to change it in publisher. Sorry

 

[ShelbyMichalek]

Kelly, thank you SO much for this post and the pictures AND the flyers! I'm doing my first Bridal Fair tomorrow, so this comes at the perfect time. I love your booth set up!!

And to pay it forward, here are some of the publisher docs in Word and PDF. Posting the brochure in PDF doesn't help much, since it has my personal info in it--anyone wanting it would need to change it in publisher. Sorry

I didn't see any personal info on it...

 

[angieaz]

Thank you so much for all the great ideas. I have been thinking about trying to really push the bridal registry since it is wedding season in just a few short months. I am really inspired now to go for it.

 

[pamperedshep]

OMG!! I have been doing Bridal Expos for 2 years now and this is the best info, paperwork and ideas I have seen!! You go girl!! Thank you so much. Expos here cost $375/table!! I have never thought of offering both the shower and the registry.
My concern is, if guests attend the shower and buy gifts there, who will buy off the registry? Those who do not attend? Do you think that will be enough to make the registry worth while?

 

[ChefKelebel]

I added a registry (the one that adds the well stocked kitchen version) and it gives a total of over $4500 in products. That tells me that there's lots of options for the guests to purchase items. And I would "bride coach" to add all of the extras I could, extra dishes, stemware, etc. I really like the expos because all of the brides (and family/friends) are really interested in all of the options, it's really a great deal, I would have done this myself when I got married if I'd known about it

 

[pamperedshep]

Where do you find the registry with the well stocked kitchen?

 

[chefa]

I took a few minutes and put these into Word docs - they're not as pretty, but they'll work and you can play with them and pretty them up as you like:

Chefa

View attachment Bridal Fair Insert.doc

View attachment Bridal Recruiting Flyer.doc

 

[lesliec]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the ideas here. I am going to have to start checking out all of the opportunities in our area.