My First Wedding Fair

A couple of weeks ago I was sent a text by a friend & client who had to drop out of a wedding fair at The Haynes Motor Museum and asked if I would be interested in taking her place.   I had planned to do a wedding fair this year but due to a lot of family stuff going on earlier in the year had not got round to researching and planning dates, so it was serendipitous that I was given this opportunity out of the blue.  The company that ran it is The Wedding Emporium, which I had heard of a couple of times.  The lovely staff there were amazing to organise everything for me so swiftly – even when I text them late Saturday night because I had forgotten to mention my clothes rail and they simply and calmly re-shuffled things around to accommodate it.

On arrival I was delighted to be shown to a huge plot where I could really make a splash with all my goodies.

Here I am after setting up with a couple of my dresses on their mannequins

And this is the full stand

My aim was to create a kind of ‘wall of sound’ in colour, to be as attractive and inviting as possible to draw in brides and their families, given that my business focus is much wider than wedding attire alone.  I had a bit of a helping hand from my sister Tamsin who is the manager at the Sturminster Newton branch of WessexPhotographic, she printed two lovely canvases for me on Saturday ready for Sunday which were very helpful to point out to prospective clients.  Now that I have the measure of what I need for wedding fairs I will get lots of prints of wedding related things that I have done over the last few years to create some new photo books, with separate ones for bespoke Wedding Dresses, Altered Wedding Dresses, Bridesmaids Alterations, Mother of the Brides outfits and Gents alterations and specialist suits.

Dresses and suits to suit all tastes

There were two other stands with a focus on wedding attire, as you can see there were lots of dresses to inspire and I really liked the suit hire stand where the gentleman running it wore a great morning suit with a beautiful pink cravat, although I did not get a chance to talk to him unfortunately.

Lots of gorgeous cakes to taste and see

There were three cake specialists who all had amazing cakes on display and to sample, each took a different approach to the sample tasters, Plan It Cakes who displayed mega opulent cakes is highlighted in the photo, made lots of mini frosted cakes; and Mummy’s Little Cakery offered sample cakes with a choice of frostings for folk to apply with a spatula to their favoured cake sample.  My stand was close to The Art of Cake  made by Tanya Martin, her cakes had an elegance and simplicity that I found very refreshing and she is rather lovely to talk to – I would recommend her to any of my brides.

Floral design that caused a real stir

The stand on the far left of this photo was created by Julia Moore Floral Design and there were lots of people gathered around it pretty much all the time, her flowers were stunning and her approach was incredibly professional.

Either side of me were two of my favourite stands of the day.  Somerset Wedding Campervans had two vintage VW campervans outside that were completely gorgeous – there is a pretty ivory coloured one that Jo and her husband call Lily which is utterly charming inside and out.  Natasha of The Little Photo Company had an amazing stand that included lots of marvellous printed photobooks with many genres of photo styles which were a real delight, Tash is lovely and very approachable and creative in her outlook to her work which is totally fabulous.

A fabulous day all round

I really enjoyed the whole experience and learned a great deal to make future events much more focused and hopefully very successful, and would like to thank the lovely ladies at The Wedding Emporium, especially Meghan who got my slot organised at VERY short notice and gave me some delightful feedback about my work after viewing my website and blog before we even met on Sunday morning.  It was also lovely to meet lots of new suppliers of services and makers of beautiful cakes, there was a surprisingly similar feel to many of the craft fairs that I attend and the venue at The Haynes Motor Museum is wonderful, well lit, lots of facilities and friendly staff.  I will post future dates as soon as I have confirmed them so will keep you all posted about next year.

To all the Brides and their relatives that I spoke to, it was lovely to meet you all and whether or not I hear from you in the future I wish you all the very best for your wedding days and a wonderful future in your married lives.