Wedding Expo Tips

Walk into a wedding expo and your senses are immediately bombarded with sights, sounds and scents! It's exciting, but a little overwhelming at the same time. If you're not careful, you'll get sucked into one vendor's sale pitch and lose valuable time better spent browsing everything else on offer. Making the most of a wedding expo is a matter of formulating concrete goals before the event and pacing yourself once you're inside.

Prior to the expo:

• Prepare your tools for the expo on the night before so you can maintain your focus on the day of the event
• If the expo has a website, take a look at the vendors who will be exhibiting.
• Create a list prioritizing the categories you wish to gather information about
• Label folders according to each category of products and services you wish to gather
• Use standard letter envelopes to hold business cards for each category. Mark the front of each accordingly
• Use a compact notebook, pen and yellow highlighter
• Pack a tote bag with your supplies and personal essentials in place of your purse

At the expo:

• Upon entering the show, immediately locate a program listing exhibitors
• Step aside from the crowd and find a space where you can review the program
• Scan the list to find those exhibitors who match your high priority categories
• Make a list of their booth numbers. If possible organize the list in numerical order
• Next, familiarize yourself with the space's layout and arrangement of booths
• Use your list of booth numbers to determine your first stop
• Head straight for the booths for your top priority vendors

After the expo:

• Give yourself ample time to decompress, even if it is several days
• Review the materials you have collected at the show only when you feel refreshed and enthusiastic
• Sort through the materials on a category by category basis rather than all at once
• Do not throw away any business cards until you have hired a vendor in case you need to revisit the selection process

Do all this, and you're guaranteed to get something out of the expos you attend. But here's one more tip: Create a wedding specific e-mail address where you can centralize all of your vendor communications. Once the wedding is over, you don't have to worry about year's worth of weddingy e-mails!

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