North Georgia Bridal Show | Wedding Photography Booth | Cleveland and Chattanooga Wedding Photographer

I recently hosted my first ever photography booth at the North Georgia Bridal Expo! I wanted to make sure I did a lot of research first to make sure I did all I could and I started prepping for this show 3 months ago!

Because we are living in the age of the recent global pandemic that is the Coronavirus, I knew that ordering canvases, prints, and business cards among other items for my booth would take longer to ship. I wanted to give myself plenty of time so all of my orders would arrive well before the show and in case I had to make any changes.

Before I made any purchases, I first looked on Pinterest to find other examples of what photographers had done for their set ups at bridal shows. Some of them even had made a blog post like I’m doing now that outlined their materials and what they included at their booth. I found so many great resources, and I hope my blog post will help out other photographers who are looking to set up a booth at a bridal show. I will also list where I purchased all of my materials later at the end. Community over competition!

I couldn’t have pulled all of this off without my husband refinishing all of the furniture pieces I found and helping me pay for my expenses for the show and my mom being my assistant during the show. It really does take a village!

After preparing for this bridal expo and doing a lot of research into what I needed to have, I have some tips and ideas to pass along if you are planning on hosting a booth at a show. The lighting in the event room was turned down low so I just took a few photos of my booth to show you my set up.

Make your booth a cozy space

You want your clients to have a place to sit in case they want to take a few minutes and look through your sample wedding albums. But it also has to do with setting up your booth like a small living space. You need to show them what their wedding photos would potentially look like in their house. So include a chair or two, a nice side table, some fresh flowers and a picture or two on the table. Unless you have seen the bridal show set up to begin with, you aren’t going to know the space you have to work with until you get there. So it’s always a good idea to bring more than you need. I also had a sofa table included in my booth with a raffle and framed prints displayed; this is common in some houses to display photos this way and we since we have a sofa table in our home with a lot of pictures of family and our wedding day, I wanted to display something similar to what we have at our house.

Raffle off a giveaway for potential clients

A lot of photographers raffle off an engagement session, but most include those as complimentary when a client purchases a wedding package, just as mine are as well. So I decided to make a bridal gift basket. All of the items I found were wedding related including a coffee mug, a bride water cup with straw, zipper bag, thank you cards, a photo frame and a few other goodies. In order to get potential clients to sign up for the giveaway, my mom came up with the idea to print off my own QR code for my email landing page. Because we tried to slow the spread of the virus with clients touching the same items like pens, we printed out a QR code that people could capture with their camera on their smart phone and sign up for my email. (I will include the free site at the end of the blog where you can do the same. And I tested the code to make sure it worked with the glass cover in the frame.)

Towards the end of the bridal show, I chose a winner at random from everyone who signed up for my email. Everyone was impressed with the QR code system, and I plan to use it again even when we are no longer dealing with the pandemic. After the show, I only had two people unsubscribe from my email list.

And of course, make sure you have an email ready to send to all of those potential clients you met to keep their interest after the show so they don’t forget about you! I had an offer that if any bride booked their wedding with me in a week’s time, they would receive $200 off any wedding package. I didn’t have anyone book with me but I did send out an email to remind them about the offer, and I sent out another one after that about another offer if they book with me by the end of this year.

Show off your work in lots of different formats

It is important to show your work on a canvas, a framed print, and in a wedding album. A lot of people hang canvases from their wedding in their home and nearly everyone prints off images to frame. This is definitely something we have done in our house. Not to mention, having a wedding album with pictures from different parts of the wedding day is nice when you want to look back. It’s also nice to have in your living room as a coffee table book. Showing brides what their images would look like framed or as canvases also shows them what you offer for ordering after their wedding day is over. I was able to order a sample wedding album with my work, which is less expensive than a regular wedding album so I could show clients the possibility of ordering one and what theirs could look like. It’s always a hit with brides.

Give your clients something to take home

You don’t want your clients leaving empty handed since everyone can’t take home your raffle giveaway. So make sure they have a business card and pricing guide when they leave your booth. But I didn’t want to just give them a plain business card; I wanted to attach something extra so I found heart shaped paper clips on Amazon and got pricing guides made through Vistaprint. My mom was my assistant at my booth and she also passed out business cards to pull them in while I started up a conversation and handed them a pricing guide. I explained the included information and that all of my wedding packages come with a complimentary one hour engagement session and pre-planning session. I placed business cards in three different areas so clients had multiple opportunities to pick one up.

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As far as the bridal expo overall, I went in with low expectations knowing I probably wouldn’t book a wedding from it. However, putting myself out there and talking to my brides about what I offer is the most important thing for me. Sometimes just getting interest from a potential client could lead to something later on. You never know to whom they will pass on your information.

After the show was over, I made some notes on things to include for next time. I realized that my white panels for hanging my canvases were not wide enough, so I either need to order another panel or make my background stand less wide. I had ordered some thinner hooks to hang my canvases, but they didn’t arrive on time. So I used another kind and they were a bit too heavy and made my background stand sag a bit. So I will try the other hooks next time. I searched all over and tried to ask other photographers how they hung their canvases from a stand, and this was the only option I could find that would actually work. I need to bring an extension cord in case I am not near an outlet at the next show. The lit white tree in the background was set up by the show but it actually looked cool with my set up, so I may invest in one of those if I end up doing more shows. Other than investing in larger set ups or more furniture pieces for future shows, I think my set up was really good and it was one of the best at the show overall.

And as promised, here are all of the links and places on where I purchased my products:

Frames- Michael’s and Dollar Tree

Canvases- www.canvaspeople.com

Chiffon table runner and white backdrop panels- www.efavormart.com

Prints- www.mpix.com

Console table, end table, and chair- Facebook Marketplace

Pillow, heart paper clips, hanging hooks, and easels for frames- www.amazon.com

Business cards- www.moo.com

Rack cards- www.vistaprint.com

Gift basket items- Hobby lobby, Michael’s, TJ Maxx

Rack card stands- Office Depot

Sewing table- local antique store

Cake plates- I’ve had these for a while, but you can purchase them at places like Target or Bed Bath and Beyond.

I hope this information is helpful if you’re planning on a photography booth at a bridal show! Good luck and leave me a comment below of something you believe is essential to have for your booth! I always love finding new ideas!