Wedding Shows | Expos: As irrelevant as the mall
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Do you know what time it is?
It’s wedding showtime!
Time to load up mom and the reluctant beau, who wants to watch the Chiefs-Bills playoff game, and head to The Mall of Wedding Planning…a wedding show.
You think it’s going to be great and very productive! After all, when mom heard about it, she couldn’t wait to tell you how it helped her find her wedding vendors.
Of course, portable phones were the size of a brick back then, the internet was dial-up, and “to Google,” a business, meant that you would read their ad in the phone book. Who can argue? After all, your mom has planned at least one more wedding than you have at this point.
Free Stuff & Discounts
“Great Deals & Incredible Prizes!” a million vendors under one roof, and the opportunity to get the best deals and vendors; and have a fantastic time.
It sounds great.
Of course, you’ll want your partner there with you. Mom said it was very beneficial to have both decision-makers there when she went to the wedding show.
So with a bit of prodding and the added assurance of “We will make it home in time for the late game!” your partner skips chillaxing with friends to spend one day in the mall of all things wedding.
You both leave the house feeling great about giving up this one Sunday to get most of your vendor decisions narrowed down.
The Mall Has Changed Since Mama Got Married!
Before you skip out on the NFL Playoff or a fun weekend with friends to find great deals and meet all the great wedding vendors under one roof, here is some information you should know.
What kind of show (mall) is this?
You will see you are for two shows: boutique and industry.
Boutique Wedding Show | The “Strip Mall” of Wedding Shows
Location: The show is held at a specific wedding venue in an attempt to book events for that venue. This is the equivalent of shopping at a strip mall.
Vendors: A handful of each type: photographer, catering, DJ, videography, etc.
At first glance, it looks like a perfect match. You see the venue you are interested in and meet vendors who serve the market and are familiar with the platform.
Here is what you don’t know.
Who is sponsoring the wedding show?
In many cases, it isn’t the venue that sponsors the show; another vendor is.
Could this have an impact on who is represented at the show?
Maybe, maybe not.
Many of the boutique shows hosted in my local are produced hosted by a DJ Company. This company is there to book weddings and not to fill my DJ calendar or that of any other DJs who might be represented.
There is nothing nefarious about it. It is a business decision that they and a couple of other DJ companies I could name have taken to advertise and build their brand.
We perform at many events in the venues where these shows are held. Not only are we not represented at the show, but neither are the majority of vendors providing the services you need.
So, like a strip mall that allows only one or two of each type of business, your selection is severely by design.
This type of show is designed to encourage you to book this venue and choose from a limited selection of vendors. Depending on who produces the show, the choice of vendors may be further limited due to a particular type of vendor having a vested interest in making the show.
What is the vendor | venue relationship?
Is the venue receiving a kickback from the vendor for booking them at that venue?
Yes, that is a thing.
It sounds as if “pay-to-play” is becoming more common. I’ve also seen an uptick in venues charging couples a “fee” if a team doesn’t use one of the preferred vendors on their list.
If a venue told me that, I would assume it is a complete pay-to-play system, and the person who ultimately pays is YOU.
Did the vendors pay for the space, or were they invited?
Unless you know who produced the show, you don’t see how the vendors were vetted. As a business owner solicited to attend many fronts, the vetting is not more than proof of a website and a check that doesn’t bounce.
If the venue owner is producing the show, there is a greater likelihood that the venue is much more involved in selecting vendors.
If another vendor produces the show, the process is as follows: they advertise the show details and the costs, vendors select the size of the space, complete an application and submit the fee.
The show's producer will cull thru the list and select those they want to admit. What combination will return the most bookings for the venue and the show's producer? This curated selection of vendors is simply a matter of return on investment for them.
Regional Wedding Shows | The “Mall of America” of Wedding Shows
Usually, they’re giving away a honeymoon, a free wedding gown, and promising tons of quality vendors under one roof, with most offering amazing deals!
These shows may even charge an entry fee and deliver a “goody bag.”
Location: These are held in larger spaces such as convention halls and hotels and always in larger towns and cities.
Vendors: These shows are held in large spaces, so the promoters are looking to sell as many booth spaces as possible. There is no vetting other than having a website, an email address, and the cash to rent the space.
Beyond the booth cost, there is a pay-to-play at most, if not all.
Like the mall, not all booth selections are as good as others. Whether it’s relationships built between the vendor and the show’s producer or cold, hard cash, the makeup and layout of the show are designed to put your money into the pockets of the vendors who are most likely to buy a booth at the next show they have.
The success of your event doesn’t even make their priority list, much less be put near the top of it.
What Happens At The Wedding Show, Doesn’t Stay!
This is a cattle call scene with brides, their moms, and sad-faced grooms trudging behind, scanning their cell phones as vendors spit out a 45-second pitch and stuff a brochure in your bag. You continue the circuit for a few more excruciating hours, trying to convince yourself that you are accomplishing something.
You return home exhausted and flop down on the couch and flip on the final NFL playoff game of the day. Unfortunately, it’s already well into the third quarter.
“Might as well sort this stuff out while it’s still fresh in our mind,” you say as you dump 127 pieces of paper and business cards on the coffee table.
In an instant, it hits you. You have no more clue who most of these people are than you did before you went!
Disgusted, you bag everything back up and assure your partner that this was not a wasted day; you need to unwind, and you’ll sort it all out tomorrow.
Wait, tomorrow is Monday!
Tomorrow is a work day.
While you’re waiting to get home from work to sort thru that bag of vendors, your partner has blown up your phone all day about missing the Bills-Chiefs classic.
Meanwhile, your email inbox has now been flooded with 127 emails from the 127 vendors you “met” yesterday. Their job currently consists of continually reaching out to you to recoup the money they spent for the booth at the show.
When you get home from work, instead of dealing with the bag of media, you are now dealing with emails and not feeling one bit better about the planning.
Wedding shows are to weddings what the mall and Bed, Bath & Beyond are to retail. Large spaces with a dwindling assortment of both product and customer traffic. The decline of each results in causing the fall of the other.
The reason? They are no longer relevant.
In an era where you can buy a car and have it delivered to your driveway using a phone, shopping for vendors at a show is akin to limiting your wedding dress selection to only what’s in stock at your local mall.
Next week, look for a follow-up article filled with great tips on shopping for wedding vendors and for services you’ve never needed before your engagement.