Are Bridal Shows Worth It?

By Rachel Evans Heath

Entrance into the Bridal Show by Trill Flora (me!)

We’re just winding our way out of bridal-show season and a question I often hear designers asking one another is, “Do you think bridal shows are worth it?”

I participated in a bridal-show-like event a couple months ago and there is always a feeling of uncertainty before, during, and even, immediately after. But every business is different and nees different things. So let’s weigh the pro’s and con’s of bridal shows and see what answers I can help you come up with for your floral business.

CON: THEY ARE EXPENSIVE

1. Bridal show fees can be expensive. Just to have a booth or be a participating vendor usually means paying a registration fee of some kind. And if it doesn’t have a registration fee, there’s a good chance it’s not a very established show—which in some ways can be great, and even better than a convention-center-like exhibit. But you also run the risk of not getting a guaranteed turnout to that event, or it not drawing a crowd of your ideal clients.
2. Perishable product is expensive. And since you’re wanting to make the biggest, most lasting impression on these potential clients as you possibly can, (right?), that usually means forking over a load of cash to buy the amount of product you want to use.
3. Marketing materials to hand out are expensive. Business cards, printed brochures, postcards or, as I saw recently, a tied boutonniere for all 700 participants who walk past your booth, adds up! And that’s not something you want to skip bringing with you and to stock your booth with. It’s important those clients have as little work to find you afterward as possible. So those babies are pretty important!
4. Hiring staff is expensive. Getting your awe-inspiring floral decors unloaded, installed, placed, and ready to go needs more than your own two hands. And if you’re planning to explore the event at all while you’re there, you need someone manning your booth and collecting names and answering questions. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can do this thing on your own. And the best person to answer questions is likely someone who’s worked with you and will need to be paid.
5. They’re time consuming. And as business owners we have to remember that time really is money. Hopefully the time spent on this show leads to lots of great weddings on your books, but just like all other expenses, this investment is one you are doing with the hope that you’ll get a nice return on your investment. Between planning your space, ordering, designing, setting up, manning your booth through the event, then cleaning up at the end of the night and, let’s be honest, in your shop or studio all of the next day, that time really adds up. And you have to ask yourself, “is this the most productive use of my time?”

PRO: THEY GET YOUR COMPANY’S NAME “OUT THERE”

1. They give you facetime with potential couples. It’s helpful in securing new clients to actually put yourself in front of them, so they can see your company, see your work, learn your name, see your face and maybe come away impressed or charmed by your personality and expansive floral knowledge
2. Bridal shows are also a great place to network with vendors. Vendor relations are a big deal. I’d argue that connecting with vendors at a bridal show is equally, if not more, important than connecting with future brides. Why? Because vendors will bring you referrals time and time again, and that bride or groom will (ideally) only be getting married once.
3. They help you stay relevant to the bridal industry. Even if you’re a veteran in the world of weddings, it’s important to stay relevant and remind everyone that you’re still here and rocking the industry with your expertise and decades of experience.

It’s important at this point to recognize that every bridal show is different and some are far more beneficial than others. So in this journey through qualifying a show together, let’s now review some of the things you should be first asking yourself each time you’re considering participation.

THINGS TO ASK WHEN QUALIFYING A SHOW?

WHAT SORT OF BRIDAL SHOW IS IT?
There are all sorts of different bridal show opportunities out there. We all know of the big convention center shows with a small booth per vendor—you know, the ones that give us a deja vu feeling of being back at the 7^th grade science fair… But plenty of planners and venues will often plan or host their own and have a few, select, participating vendors. So when investigating the sort of event it will be, remember to qualify the following questions:

• Will you get direct exposure to potential clients?
• How many other wedding florists will be featured at this event?
• How much physical space will you have to design in and wow guests with?
• Do you know anyone who has done this show before and you can ask for their review or recommendation on it?
• Have you ever attended this show before and seen how it runs, first hand?
• Will you get pictures of your work at the show from a professional photographer afterward?

HOW MUCH WOULD THIS SHOW COST YOU, AND DO YOU HAVE THE BUDGET?
Remember to include all of the expense factors listed in our “con list” above. Including your time. Get a clear picture of exactly how much this show will set you back, then double check that you have enough in your marketing budget to invest in it.

HOW MANY WEDDINGS WILL YOU HAVE TO BOOK TO PAY OFF YOUR TOTAL EXPENSES?
I think this is key. Will this event likely bring in enough weddings to pay off what you put into it? And remember, the total wedding budget a client spends with you is not the dollar amount your business will earn from that wedding. You have to subtract payroll, cost of goods, etc. Business earnings alone should be counted when estimating your profit vs. expenses.

HOW MANY POTENTIAL CLIENTS ARE EXPECTED TO ATTEND? AND ARE THEY YOUR IDEAL CLIENT?
An estimated attendance of 1,300 sounds wonderful, but what sort of brides are they? If most of them are just coming to get ideas on what they’ll do when they DIY their own flowers, you can plan on getting very few inquiries afterward. Make sure the type of clients attending have the budget to hire you.

Hopefully by now you feel like you have the tools to assess for yourself which shows to do and which not to do. It’s a tricky thing to navigate. And maybe now that the bridal show season is over you can be thinking ahead to next year and sizing up the various shows in your own area, getting an idea of which you want to do next year and planning your budget ahead of time, so you have it ready by next winter.

Two final tips before I sign off here…

1. If you think there is a show in your area that may be perfect for you, try to attend it in advance and see for yourself what vendors are doing and which ones look to be doing well there.
2. If you do decide to do a bridal show next year, and it’s your very first one, don’t forget to bring a notebook or clipboard to collect client information in. The follow-up with potential clients after each show is huge, and the more I talk to people, the more I hear stories of not having done this at their very first event and quickly regretting it.

Any other pieces of advice I missed? Feel free to leave a brief comment below and share some of your own experiences of things you wish you’d done or something that’s worked well for you.

Good luck to you all!