Big wedding fairs?

pauldavis123

Is there a list of the big wedding shows anywhere?

All I can find is hotels having their own show.

I'm talking about RDS etc.

Thanks in advance

clint_silver

pauldavis123 wrote: »

Is there a list of the big wedding shows anywhere?

All I can find is hotels having their own show.

I'm talking about RDS etc.

Thanks in advance

http://www.weddingdates.ie/wedding-fair-timetable/
https://www.weddingsonline.ie/events
http://www.hitched.ie/wedding-fairs/ireland.htm?eventtype=0

pauldavis123

They are all small hotels promoting their own premises.

Looking for the big shows!

RuckingSwimmer

pauldavis123 wrote: »

They are all small hotels promoting their own premises.

Looking for the big shows!

A quick google search gives you these - http://www.brideoftheyearshow.ie/

http://www.mrs2be.ie/wedding-events/

http://weddingjournalonline.com/the-wedding-journal-show/

clint_silver

Theres the rds and citywest. Theyre the 2 big ones in the wedding fair calendar. What youll see at those are more of the ones youll see in your local ones. Google for them.

Theyre also the most expensive for a vendor to be at. Remember that when getting prices.

mcgiggles

Are you near the NW at all? There's a big wedding Expo in the IT in Sligo sometime in the new year! I was at it last year and it was fab! But mostly NW based suppliers!

pauldavis123

Weird that RDS, Citywest Sligo and Belfast are all over 4 consecutive weekends in January/February!

clint_silver

pauldavis123 wrote: »

Weird that RDS, Citywest Sligo and Belfast are all over 4 consecutive weekends in January/February!

Christmas is most popular time of year for couples to get engaged so jan/feb the time for providors to display to biggest market.

shellycub

Hi,

Just wondering if people think it's worth going to these big shows? I probably won't be booking anything a it's not local but thought it would be good to get ideas?

Thanks

baby and crumble

We didn't go to any of the big ones but going to a couple of more focused ones has been great- we went to an LGBT specific and a vintage specific one, and both were great- we actually found a couple of vendors at them! The LGBT one was really useful because if nothing else we knew that anyone at it was actively looking for our business and wouldn't bat an eyelid or ask "so, which one of you is the bride!!!"

What I found useful was a chance to meet with vendors that were on our shortlists and you can quickly get a sens of personalities, etc- we met our photographer that way and had a chat and ended up winning our engagement shoot with her- and now I am super confident that our photos will look awesome so I can just forget about it on the day.

I will say though, before you go set up a wedding specific email address to use for contacts and competitions. Otherwise you'll get spammed to the hilt afterwards!

And be prepared to see many many of the same thing repeated. So many photographers all have the exact same product- and I was surprised just how many hadn't really changed with styles and tastes! Loads of the older photographers were there with their very staged, soft-focus photos and massive leather bound books with tissue paper leaves in between the pages. So few people want that these days.

And don't discount the smaller venue specific shows. It'll give you an idea of vendors that know the venue and work well there.

shellycub

Great idea re email, thanks!!

Know I'll probably book mostly local vendors so that's why I'm wondering is it worth going to wedding journal etc when the local venue shows will have more vendors I'd be interested in.

Thanks

baby and crumble

It's probably no harm for ideas but I really wouldn't be spending the admission money on the big shows, personally. That's just me though!

mcgiggles

I would tend to agree with baby and crumble, and a lot of the very big shows, smaller vendors may not want to pay the big fee to have a stall at it, so if you are going with local vendors I would say to try out the smaller shows. Its nice to meet people face to face and get a feeling for them

clint_silver

mcgiggles wrote: »

I would tend to agree with baby and crumble, and a lot of the very big shows, smaller vendors may not want to pay the big fee to have a stall at it, so if you are going with local vendors I would say to try out the smaller shows. Its nice to meet people face to face and get a feeling for them

As a smaller vendor myself who has done a couple of the big shows, I wouldn't do them again at the price they charge.

For larger vendors, they're nearly a necessity.

shellycub

Thanks for replies :-)

Atomic Pineapple

If you know what you want then there's no real point in going to the large showcases but if you're not sure then I have to say we found going to the RDS show very valuable in helping narrow down what we wanted to go for.

shellycub

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

If you know what you want then there's no real point in going to the large showcases but if you're not sure then I have to say we found going to the RDS show very valuable in helping narrow down what we wanted to go for.

Thanks, have my venue but that's about it....have no idea what style of anything I want so would be interested to see what's around

baby and crumble

shellycub wrote: »

Thanks, have my venue but that's about it....have no idea what style of anything I want so would be interested to see what's around

I'll be honest with you, I think you'd be better off looking at real life weddings on various blogs, and just mooching around Pinterest for ideas. A lot of the stuff at wedding fairs blends together, especially since you'll be overloaded with information. After about 2 hours, in my experience, everything just looks like tiny variations on the same thing.

KatherineDo

I agree that the larger shows are necessary for larger vendors, when loads of your competitors are there you do need to keep up!

Atomic Pineapple

shellycub wrote: »

Thanks, have my venue but that's about it....have no idea what style of anything I want so would be interested to see what's around

If you have your venue then the venues wedding fair if they have one coming up relatively soon would be the best place to start. To be clear we found the RDS show very helpful for venues, there was a decent selection of other stalls there including cars, suits/dresses, cakes and photographers but we were focused on the venues at the time and though it was worthwhile for getting venue ideas.