Hey, wedding photographers, are you ready for bridal show season? My name is Sal Cincotta. I’m a wedding and portrait photographer in O’Fallon, Illinois, and this is what I do for a living.
The number one month for engagements historically is the month of December. It’s Christmas. So you’ll notice in your local market that almost every bridal show is happening in that January, February, even March, which is on the tail end of its timeframe. And that’s the reason why, they’re doing it because, well, they know all these brides got engaged and they’re excited and they want to start booking vendors and meeting with vendors.
So how do you as a wedding photographer capitalize on this? Now, like I said, I’ve been doing this for 15 years now, and in the very beginning when I would go to bridal shows, I didn’t quite understand what I was supposed to do there. I had the mindset of, hey, it’s a bridal show, there’s brides, I’m a photographer, let’s talk. But there’s so much more going on.
Now you go to these shows, you show up, you do the dog and pony show, and a lot of photographers are turned off by that. But at the end of the day, we can’t miss the basics. It’s a bridal show. There’s people who are getting married there. That is your client. Where else would you rather be than in a room filled with people getting married? Now granted, not every single bride in that room is yours, but aren’t two or three of those brides your bride? Absolutely. And so this is why I want you to consider bridal shows if you’ve never done them before.
Be engaging
We do two to three wedding shows a year, usually on the front side of the year. I think that’s the right time to do it. And I think you have to go in there with the right mindset, meaning don’t just go in there and show pictures. Go in there with a game plan. Go in there with a goal of conversion. Go in there with a goal of collecting names.
I was actually at a bridal show one time and I swear to you, I saw a DJ, tuxedo and all, sleeping in his booth. So think about this.
I’m not making this up. You are walking through and you see your potential vendor sleeping at a bridal show and you think he’s going to deliver for you on the wedding day? Of course not.
Now, this is not a made up story as hard as it is to believe, but those are the polarizing scenarios. Some people are super engaging. Like myself, I engage with my brides, I talk to them. Some people are very introverted. Nothing wrong with that. But you’ve got to understand that you are showcasing your business, yourself, your personality, and you’re trying to stand out among 15, 20 other photographers.
Dress for success
Booth presence is crucial. This is like your website. If you have a sucky website, people aren’t going to want to give you their business because it looks like you might go out of business before their wedding. Well, the same is going to hold true in your booth.
Think about what your booth should represent. People are judging you in the first two to three seconds as they’re walking by your booth. I mean, if it looks like you showed up and you got a bunch of eight by tens and frames up and it just doesn’t look modern like what today’s bride is looking for, they’re not going to even want to talk to you and you’re going to feel like, well, the show wasn’t worth it. It’s not the show that’s the problem. You are the problem. Your approach to it is the problem.
Now, we do not go to bridal shows in tuxedos or suits, right? Those days are long gone. Again, you might think as a wedding photographer, like you showing up in a tuxedo, you might think to yourself, oh, well I’m standing out from the crowd. No, no, you’re just confirming that the bride wants nothing to do with you.
So I’m telling you, you’ve got to trust me on this. Nice pair of jeans, nice pair of shoes, a nice dress shirt, like you’re going out to a nice dinner on Friday or Saturday kind of outfit.
Booth design
You are photographers, you are not carpenters. I go to bridal shows sometimes and we show up, it’ll be a Saturday Sunday show and you set up Friday night and I see other creatives in there. I mean, there’s hammers, drills and they’re building benches and wood walls. What are you selling, man? Are you selling your carpentry skills or are you selling pictures?
And so you’ll see from the pictures of our booth, it’s more of like an image gallery, an art installation. We want to showcase pictures. That’s what people are coming to us for, right?
They’re not coming to us because we’re handymen. I don’t want couches in my booth. Why are you sitting on a couch? I don’t want an espresso machine in my booth. You should be in there looking to learn about what products and services I offer.
Prints
One of the things that we have to do is showcase prints in the booth. That’s obviously crucial. I like to show, I’m trying to think, nine to 12 prints. I usually get a double booth in my local market. I like to show nine to 12 prints in that booth. And they are significant in size. No eight by tens, 11 by 16s, even 20 by 30 can be too small. So we showcase 24 by 36, and these are part of that kit.
Now, the reason we like to do it on styrene is it’s durable. It’s going to last, right? It’s going to hold its form. It’s not going to get wavy.
And then one thing I think you can see here is the lack of shine on this. That’s because this is deep matte that this comes in. This is really important.
This is one of those tips that you learn as a bridal show veteran I think. Most bridal shows are at convention centers. And convention centers have crappy overhead light. And in the beginning I would go to bridal shows with glossy prints because, wow, they look really, really cool, well when they don’t look cool is when you get into a convention center, and it really does look bad.
Don’t show up with prints that are just beat to shit, corners, they’re ripped, right? They’re shredded, they’ve gotten damaged in shipping. Order new ones. You have to put your best foot forward when it comes to all that.
Size, of course, always matters. And with size, I want to see large prints, 24 by 36.
Remember, you’re usually in this huge space and nothing looks worse than an 11 by 16 or 20 by 30 because you’re being a cheap-ass sitting on an easel on a table that nobody can really see from any distance. You’re not making an impact. It’s like putting an eight by 10 on a 15-foot wall. It looks absurd. And as you’re seeing in the pictures of our own booth, this is what gets people to stop dead in their tracks, to sit there and look at those images while they’re walking by.
Pick the right images
I want you to pick your top five, six, seven images that are going to showcase your work. What do I mean by that? Think about what you’re trying to sell to the client to put in their home large. That’s what I like to show at bridal shows. Large impact images, or wow images.
If you’re a photojournalist, showcase photojournalistic images, all of them should be the same. If you’re like me, which I like to show more images that are architectural in nature, big and dramatic portraits, that’s all I’m going to show. I’m not going to mix and match my big dramatic images with photojournalistic images. They don’t go together and it sends a confusing message to the bride.
I think it’s very important for you to be on point with your messaging and well, your images are part of messaging, so make sure that you choose wisely.
Show sample albums
Sample albums. I think it’s, again, crucial to offer sample albums. So these are sample albums that we have in our booth. This is 10 by 10. It’s an acrylic cover.
This is the kind of stuff that gets brides to go, “I’ve never seen anything like that.” And the more you can get a couple to say, “I’ve never seen anything like that.” The more you’re going to be able to charge for those services.
Branding
Branding, I can’t stress this enough. When you go to any kind of trade show, right on the wall behind you, they’ve got those little white cards that are about this big, and then it says S Cincotta LLC, or whatever the name of your business is. First thing I do is rip that shit down. I’ve got X banners on the side of my booth.
One of your banners are going to showcase your special and the other is your logo and brand.
You should have business cards, right? I usually have them laid out all over the table for people to grab. You’ve got to remember something, when brides are walking through a show, they’re predictable. They have a tote bag and they’re just shoving everything in there that they get. So you’ve got to hope they remember you two days from now when they finally go through all that crap. So I try to make sure as a strategy, we’re putting unique pieces.
We also have these eight page booklets, super simple inside. It’s for them. Remember what I told you? They’re going to have these bags and they’re just going to throw everything in the bag. So if you just have these cheap-ass four by six or five by seven cards, they’re throwing them in the bag, they’re going to get mixed in with everybody else. But see how this is a larger piece? It’s going to stand out from what everybody else is doing.
I like a clean design, not a whole lot of words. Why? Because I’m not a carpenter. I’m not a wordsmith. I am a photographer. So I want to show my work in here. In here, I’ve got some, just a little bit of text. I usually hold these in my hand. I don’t just put them on the table. I don’t want drive-bys.
Show special & conversion strategy
Then I have my show special, which is the next thing I want to talk to you about. And really the final thing I want to talk to you about is how to maximize the show. Remember earlier on in the video I said to you, you can’t just show up and hope for the best. There’s got to be a strategy. I want to collect names, I want to email them, follow up, and if I can book them at the show, I’m going to try and book them at the show. So we produce these, you can go anywhere to get these, right? Any office supply store, or if you have a printer, do it. But I do like it being two-sided, right? I know it’s kind of blown out there, but the show special is the thing to focus on.
I’ll read it to you: book today and get 10% off any package, plus one free upgrade, your choice, of an engagement guest book or one extra hour of coverage. So why am I doing that? I’m trying to incentivize them to book now. If you know you want to work with me, you like my work, let’s get this done, put a bow on it. Let’s book today. We can pick your package later, but let’s get your deposit and book today. So at a bridal show, I’ve got contracts with me and I’m trying to book. A typical bridal show, I will book two to four weddings the show. Now, that being said, like I said, we sit there and we load this page in to the book.
The reason we do this is because let’s say I go to another bridal show next month and I want to change the show special. I don’t want to print it in the booklet pro-tip because then I got to throw out all these booklets or I don’t want to throw them out. I don’t want to waste money. And then I’m stuck with a show special that maybe didn’t work. So I print it on this paper, paper gets inserted. It’s a good tip, right? Paper gets inserted and we have a stack of these in our arm. And as we’re talking to brides, when I hand this to them, I don’t just hand it to them and let them throw it in their bag. I say, let me walk you through the show specials and then this is yours to keep. If you decide to book us today, you’re going to get the best deal, you’ll save 10% on any package, plus get a free upgrade. And I’m walking you through this.
And then what I do is I say, “I don’t know if you have a few minutes, let me show you some of our wedding albums that are included in all our packages.” And then I grab a wedding album and I start walking them, showing them a wedding album, showing them a complete album. What do you think’s happening then? I’m developing a rapport with them. I’m not allowing them to do a drive-by, right? So I get it. Some of you are introverted and you’re like, “Ah, I don’t want to talk to people.” Well, then you shouldn’t be a wedding photographer unless you’re a photojournalist. Then you just go sit in a corner and you don’t want to talk to people. But that’s not my personality. My personality is I want to talk, I want to engage. I want to be part of the event. If you’re more of an introvert, hire somebody to be with you in that booth who can be a little more extroverted on your behalf, who can do the talking and maybe try and close some business.
But if you do this and put into practice these things I’m showing you, I promise you, you are going to have massive success at bridal shows.
Go in with a strategy, put together ideas and concepts to collect names and make this year your breakout year. You can do it.
Need product samples or material for your booth? Consider ordering a Bridal Show Sample Kit to ensure you have everything you need to make a lasting impression.