My thoughts on the UK Wedding Show in Coventry

So 2 weekends ago saw me exhibiting at the UK Wedding Show in Coventry on both the Saturday and the Sunday. To say it was a true revelation to me would be an understatement. It was the first time that I've exhibited on this scale, as previously I've only ever done the "local hotel with a six foot table and 2 chairs" wedding fairs.

In January 2010 I grabbed at the opportunity to have a stand at the UK Wedding show in Coventry, mostly because I needed to push the boat out a little further and leave my comfort zone behind. Spaces (for photographers) to exhibit at these shows don't come up very often, as the organisers limit the number of photographers that they have at each show. It makes perfect sense, as no bride would want to be confronted with 80 photographers, 5 dress shops, 2 cake people and a car company.

I booked a 3x3 metre corner stand at the Ricoh Arena way back in January, even before I knew that we would be moving into the area in the summer.

I have been to a couple of these shows, and most people's stands are a complete shambles and they don't make enough of this opportunity by putting in the effort and planning before hand.

I started my preparations by re-reading my friend Fiona Humberstone's book - Exhibit (available on Amazon). Utterly brilliant, and a real lifesaver. A must read for anybody going to an exhibition.

I also volunteered to assist my friend Gill Taylor on her stand at the National Wedding Show in October, sort of a dry run for my stand in January. An invaluable experience that I'm truly grateful to Gill for.

So along came October, and my mind turned to what am I going to put in a 3x3 metre space, because when you start to think about it, it really is alot of space to fill. Not even considering that I wanted to do it properly.

Everything from furniture, wallpaper, vases and flowers, display materials, frames with images to go on the walls and also a super duper Show Offer had to be thought up or sourced. Countless hours was spent trawling the internet, and asking advice from anybody that would listen (sorry you guys, you know who you are!)

Delivery vans started arriving and the house started to resemble a warehouse with boxes everywhere. And then the time arrived for Adam and I to start making the walls. Neither of us have ever wallpapered a thing never mind REALLY LARGE, VERY BENDY boards. With some good advice from my friend Matt Pereira (who has done all of this before) I felt armed with at least half a clue of what we were about to try.

I designed 4 new albums and had them made up over Christmas. I had loads of thank you cards, price lists, show offer cards and other bits printed, and also printed loads of things myself, and still the boxes kept coming in.

All in all, the level of effort involved and the difficulty was so much more than I ever thought it would be. And the question remains "Would I have gone ahead with it if I ever knew??" I don't know, but at least now it is all done and I have everything for the next show.

Of course there are a few bits I can do better next time, and some lessons I learned from this show that I will take with me to the next one, but that's how it's supposed to be, isn't it?

On to the show itself...

The response I got at the show was OVERWHELMING!! Everybody LOVED IT!

The exhibitors all came round and commented on how nice it looked. One lady asked if she could take a photo, because she wanted to go and decorate her living room exactly the same. The organisers came by and said that they were really impressed with my stand and wished that everybody had put in that much effort.

But most importantly, the brides LOVED IT TOO! Every bride that I spoke to had something nice to say. One girl came up to me and said that unfortunately she had already booked a photographer, but she now wishes that she hadn't because she wanted to come and sit down, have a chat and book me. Even after the show, as I've been speaking to different brides over the last week, they have all said how lovely my stand was, and they just wanted to come and sit down as it looked so welcoming.

So was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY.

All the lovely comments, compliments and bookings I received made all the hard work over the last few months utterly and completely worth it!

(Sorry that this post has turned into a bit of an epic, but it just shows how much I've enjoyed and learned from it.)

Here are a few images of the stand, please let me know what you think.











Midlands Wedding Photographer