Rochester Indie Weddings Bridal Show

Rochester Indie Weddings Bridal Show at The Arbor Loft

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of vending at the Rochester Indie Weddings Fall Bridal Show at a hot new venue in Rochester called The Arbor Loft.  This was my first venture into the land of bridal shows as a vendor and I was SO excited to share my fun paper things with all the eager couples.  The venue was so gorgeous inside and had great lighting! Everyone's booth set up looked so fresh and fun. It was great to see all the creative ways everyone displays their trades. (You can check out the gallery of all the other vendor booths here!)

There were a few hiccups getting the booth all set up (forgot the stepstool so reaching the top of my display was tricky!), but thanks to my awesome friend, fellow artist and show helper, Amy Duengfelder, we got everything looking fantastic before the doors opened.  Just before the show began, photographer and fellow member of Buffalo and Rochester Indie Weddings, Megan Dailor, came around to all the booths to take some awesome promo pictures. All the pics in this post are her work so if you need some great photos taken, check out her website

My booth at the FABULOUS Rochester Indie Weddings Bridal Show at The Arbor Loft! Photo by Megan Dailor Photography.

A Map of My Wedding Vendor Booth

After a lot of Pinterest research (check out my Craft Show Booth Ideas board here), I finally figured out how best to show off what I can do for my wedding & special event clients.  I knew that I wanted to have some things that were pre-made for sale at the show, but that the bulk of my business would be from custom orders. I needed a great way to show off my samples to let the couples get an idea of all the things I can make.

The first thing I tackled was how to display samples of my custom invitations in a way that was attractive but functional. Since I specialize in handmade papers where everything is very tactile, I didn't want to put them into a book where people couldn't handle them...to see how they feel.  I also didn't just want to spread them out on a table where people walking by wouldn't really notice them (plus they would take up a lot of precious real estate in a 10x10 booth space).  So I decided that putting them up on a display board with magnets would work best...but how to get a magnetic board that would stand up on a table and not take up a ton of room and also be easy to cart around in my hatchback??

Enter my extremely handy husband. He got a piece of powder-coated steel and had his metal-worker buddy at his job bend the sides back at an angle so it would stand up easily! And since it was coated, it was already white (score!).  I spray painted it with diamond dust glitter to make it shimmer and then added a strip of adhesive pearls to the top along with a little string of colored paper circles.  Then, by picking through my inspirational magnets in my studio, I got the right letters to spell out "INVITES" across the top.  Next up were the magnets themselves. I didn't want those plain black disc magnets to distract from the work so I hot glued these little mother-of-pearl discs to them and colored the sides of the magnets with silver Sharpie so they would look like one piece.  They worked out perfectly and it looked really nice and classy! 

Also on the sample table were a few of the custom scrapbooks and photo albums that I make.  One of my customers was even so kind as to loan me her precious album so I could show it off to other people, even before she had even seen it herself! Thanks Kari Jo! 

There were some sample paper flower bouquets around the booth as well.

One of my paper flower bouquets! I filled the vase with battery-powered tea lights to add to the sparkle of my booth.

One of my paper flower bouquets! I filled the vase with battery-powered tea lights to add to the sparkle of my booth.

Pre-made items for sale!

There were tons of pre-made wedding books and journals on the big table across the back as well as my giant rack of handmade papers. Included in this photo were my denim blue jean papers, assorted beer papers, rainbow recycled papers and more! I also had a variety of plantable seed papers and seed bomb favors. Oh yeah...and packaged stationery and thank you cards! 

My little Daydream Reminders...reminding the brides-to-be that wedding planning should be FUN! 

My little Daydream Reminders...reminding the brides-to-be that wedding planning should be FUN! 

We also held a raffle for a $50 Gift Certificate for one lucky Wifey-to-Be! Our lucky winner was Paige! Can't wait to work with her for her special day.

All in all, it was a great show! I met a ton of new people, got a bunch of new vendor contacts and hopefully a few new clients. Already looking forward to the Spring show in Buffalo!