Helpful Tips for the Austin Bridal Extravaganza

As a veteran vendor of the bridal shows, I believe my first show was 9 years ago. I have watched tens of thousands of brides come and visit the show. Some come prepared and most are overwhelmed. After listening to some of the brides and from my personal observations I thought I’d put together some information together and thought I’d pass it along to possibly make your experience a little bit better and help with the journey of planning your wedding day a little less stressful.
1. Wear comfortable shoes; you will be on your feet for a long time.
2. Bring a bag or get one as soon as you can to collect all the fliers etc so you can sort through them later. (Some brides put a special mark or star to remind them that they really liked that vendor, I always like it when I see a bride do that with my info.)
3. Bring a bottle of water (if you get thirsty they charge several dollars for water or a drink and it’s all the way in the back , The line gets really long too.
4. Plan ahead, decide what you really want to look for and accomplish. It’s kinda like taking a grocery list with you. If you’re like me and you go to the store without a list you get a lot of stuff you don’t need and forget a few things you do need.
5. Bring a camera. Take a picture of something you really like i.e table settings, cake designs, flower arrangements, color schemes, even photos I’ve had many brides take pictures of my photos because they liked it and wanted their photos like one of mine.
6. Don’t get overwhelmed there will be about 50 photographers, 40-50 venues lots of DJ’s and florist. Some are new and many of us have been doing our craft for a while.
7. Find out if they have your date available before you go too far into the conversation. I usually ask but not everyone does.
8. The benefit of the January show is its two days. Make it a fun night and go through all your fliers, etc and make a pile of the ones you want to look at a little more. If you can go back Sunday and just hit the ones you have more questions for. They give you a map of the floor plan so you can mark it and it will help you find everyone the next day a little faster.
9. Don’t feel pressured to make a decision on the spot this is your wedding most have specials that last past the show. You can ask if they will honor their show special for a few more days so you have time to speak with everyone (mom, dad and your groom). I do, I just make a note on their paper work. I can’t hurt to ask, worse case they say no.
10. Bring money for parking, if you plan on staying till the end back in to your spot so you can get out easier.

I hope you’ll find this helpful I’d love for you to stop by my booth Signature Images Photography Studios and let me know if you have any other suggestions I can add for the next show. We will be offering out $995.00 show special 5 hours, 2 photographers, CD with reprint rights and on line hosting. $200.00 holds the date and is deducted from your package price. Our dates do fill up early since this is such a great deal. Since the economy is tough right now this is our way of helping out. Best wishes and bring your friends they always make it a lot more fun!