Let's get started this week with a recap of The Great Bridal Expo Boston 2013, which I participated in this past weekend. Folks, I'm still recovering. It was bananas. No, correction: it was a banana shake with tabasco sauce and paprika.
Since I've never done the Expo before, Mike and I decided to get there a bit earlier than usual - even though we have my booth set up down to a science by now. Boom - half an hour - we're done. As soon as we arrived at the Boston Park Plaza I was infinitely grateful we got there ahead of schedule. Turns out the freight elevator was broken and we'd have carry the booth up the grand, twisting staircase in the Imperial Ballroom. Thankfully, the booth panels can be carried by one person (well, any person who's not me, apparently) - but the super helpful staff lent a hand and it was up the stairs in a jiff. They let us take our cart of booth materials through the main elevators, so really it was a crisis averted.
However, when I got to my booth space (PRIME location, peeps - I was in this neat little enclave right near the stairs and across from the David's Bridal booth - which is a HUGE draw), we realized electrical hadn't been run yet. Thankfully (again) there was a plug nearby and (again) the staff made sure power was run to my booth quickly. All this meant that we were a bit behind in our set up - but once we got rolling it was quick work.
My brother Andy was in for the assist on this one since I knew the show would be too big to handle all my own. And for once, I was right.
Things started slowly - a few people filtered in, no one really made their way to us yet. I gave Andy an "uh-oh" look, thinking I may have just wasted a lot of money and a lot of time, but it was only for a second because then I got a text from my friend and calligrapher Alyssa who said her cousin was in line to get in... down the block!
Yes, there were so many people waiting to get in, they were stretched down the street in line! I wish I could've seen it - I wanted to snap several photos of the day, but only managed to get the one above before all hell broke loose.
Brides flooded into the ballroom and it wasn't long until Andy and I were kicked out of our own booth! So many people crowded our space that several times all Andy I could do was stand there, deer-in-the-headlights-like, and hand out show specials and say "hi." The shock wore off quickly though, and we launched into crowd management.
It was awesome. I can't really describe it unless you've either been as an attendee or an exhibitor. People were actually standing in line to get into my booth and to talk to me. I wish I could've talked to hundreds more people than I did but there just wasn't enough of us to go around. Finally, when the fashion show started, we got a bit of a break and things started to slow down. I loved that time because I got to spend a lot more one-on-one time with people which is always nice. My favorite part of the day was when girls who had messaged me on Etsy or already dropped me an inquiry stopped by to meet me and see my invitations in person.
By the end of the day, Andy and I were ready to drop. We made quick work of the booth breakdown and Mike came to collect us. I was exhausted - even crashed on the couch right after Mike got me to eat something.
I'm on the fence right now whether I'll do another show or not. Have to see if any work comes in to justify the costs (although my other favorite part of these events is meeting the other exhibitors and making wedding friends), but it was an amazing experience, and I'm so glad I decided to jump in and do a big Expo.
Did any of you get a chance to attend? I'll be back tomorrow with another beautiful real wedding - stay tuned!
That sounds like so much work, but also pretty awesomely exciting. Must be cool to have so many people clambering to see your beautiful designs.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, it is good for ones ego to have a bunch of people think you're stuff is pretty. Especially after feeling like a lonely, smelly loser on the internet, ha!
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