Wedding Fairs are a fantastic opportunity to meet lots and lots of suppliers all in one place – it’s a bit like a supermarket – you can do all your shopping in one place should you want to!   However,  they can also become very confusing and overwhelming with lots of different companies offering seemingly the same service, wedding fair special offers and the overwhelming urge to simply book everything!!

Here are our Top 10 Tips on how to not just survive any Wedding Fairs that you go to, but how to get the very best out of them too.

1. Have a list of what you want to have at your wedding.

Whilst Wedding Fairs are a great place to get inspiration from have a clear idea of what services you are looking to make contact with.

2. Your bag of …… stuff!

When you arrive home, you’ll have bag(s) of stuff – flyers, leaflets even freebies perhaps all thrust into your hands by eager stallholders.    Sort them out into two piles – a YES pile for all those products or services you loved the idea of and a NO pile for the things you didn’t fancy or the companies who you didn’t get a good feeling for.   This way, whenever you return to your pile of “stuff” you know that everyone in the pile you liked.

3. Don’t get Spammed forever…..

Register a wedding email address.      thesmithwedding@gmail.com   or something like that!!    Most suppliers at a Wedding Fair will want to keep in contact with you.  That’s great!   You might love the product they have, but aren’t at that stage yet to commit to saying yes or no, so letting them stay in contact is great.   However, most suppliers won’t have a system in place to delete your details once your wedding date has passed.   Having a wedding email address allows you to a) keep all your wedding emails in one place, but also b) once your wedding has come and gone you can delete the email address and prevent you from being spammed forever more!

4. Leave your Fiancée at home!!

Most blokes are happy to come to one or two wedding fairs.  Some blokes are actively involved in the wedding planning.  However for most chaps, the thought of trudging around a wedding fair for hours at a time, looking at umpteen wedding dresses, tiaras, shoes, hair & make up stands etc is sheer hell!    Solution:   Leave them at home!   You can report back when you get home on all the bits that they are interested in, and leave all the other stuff back at the fair!

5. Talk to the stallholders – even if you’re not interested…..

Stallholders are there to have a chat with couples who are interested in what they have to offer – for us, it’s our range of Photobooths.   If you aren’t interested in what they have to offer  i.e. you’ve already booked something or perhaps it’s the last thing on earth you’d want to have at your wedding!   and they try to engage with you as you walk past – don’t just ignore them, just smile and say something like “Thanks, but I’ve already booked with someone else I’m afraid…”  or “Thanks, but not today…”   Be nice, they are generally all really nice people who are just trying to find out who is interested and who isn’t….

6. Ask for advice……

The stallholders generally have a lot of experience when it comes to Weddings, and not just about their own product or service.  Pick their brains, ask for advice, recommendations, questions about your venue….

7. Price isn’t everything…..

You’ll usually find two, three or more suppliers who all offer the same service, but have different price points.  If it’s not obvious as to why someone’s price is twice as much as another supplier don’t be afraid to ask them why.  Once you understand why their price is what it is you can gauge whether not it’s value or not.   Cheap doesn’t always been it’s an inferior product or service, but Expensive doesn’t always mean it’s the best either.

8. Who can you trust……

There are two types of Wedding Fair – one organised by a Venue and one organised by an independent business (which could be held at a Wedding Venue).   General rule of thumb here is that anyone can take a stall at an independently organised wedding fair, whereas you have to be liked by the venue, and often on their preferred suppliers list, to be offered a space at a venue organised fair.   The more venues recommend a supplier is quite a good indicator of how good a supplier is.

9. Awards – don’t get blinded by lots of them!

If a company promotes that they have won an award, do ask them about it.  There are several awards that a company can essentially buy, there are awards that are simply a way of make money for the organisers.   Find out what they had to do to win the award, you’ll be surprised at how much time and effort that goes into winning a proper award!

10. And above all HAVE FUN! 
Enjoy the atmosphere, wonder at all the different products and services that are available.    

We all want to help you have an amazing wedding day!