What a great year this was for the Bridal Expo! While was super cold outside the hundreds walking through the main hall kept it VERY warm inside! 🙂
My story begins last year at the 2010 expo. I decided I would take the plunge and spend some money to be featured in the 2010 bridal expo in Effingham. Unfortunately back then, the entry fee alone took most of my budget for photography, so my booth was to say the least… lacking! My booth featured a total of 8 prints; four 16x20s, and four 8x10s and one album of me and my wife, not even my own work, but I needed it to at least show what kind of albums I offered! Oh boy, Steffen from the past, if only I could have warned you at how poorly your booth looked. I set up my booth, take a walk around and immediately lose confidence in the odds that my booth has to succeed. However, I did meet a lot of awesome people and actually brought in quite a few bookings from it.
This year, it was a completely new story! The budget was a bit higher and with a studio in the works I knew I could buy things for the booth that I could also use for the studio; win win. To top things off, I had a corner booth! YAY! I was so excited. I spent weeks drawing up designs, purchasing furniture for the booth & studio, then a week before the expo I start to move things into the studio and with the help of my wife and parents we completed the booth a day before the expo. The big day finally arrives and we set up the display and the future brides and grooms, friends and family members came in masses! As the saying goes, “if you build it, they will come.” In a sense, that was totally the case here!
Overall, it was a great success. I again met a TON of awesome people, and I look forward to working with some of them! Thanks again to all those who came by and good luck with your wedding planning!
My wife and I with the much improved (from last year) booth. 🙂