I’m not kidding. You’ll need one. You have literally days left to get your Advance Tickets to The Wedding Fair (where you save $5 per ticket, which is either a latte before the show or a drink after) and if you haven’t started strategy building, it’s time.
You are going to come home from the show, and you’ll have easily walked 10,000 steps that day and you’ll be tired. I put together this list so that you could feel a little less tired on Sunday night and you wouldn’t stare at the piles of materials and have the urge to start drinking wine straight from the bottle. Take a deep breath, turn on Pretty Little Liars and follow these steps.
1. Start Sorting
There’s a reason you get that cute pink tote bag when you walk into The Wedding Fair – you are going to get a ton of information. Brochures, postcards, takeaways, candies, and plenty of swag. Hopefully, you will have a little help keeping all the information sorted from the get-go (check out our Wedding Fair prep posts) and the sorting won’t start totally from scratch. Now you’ll want to organize all the information into categories – planners, cake designers, stationery, etc. Make a few nice neat piles and tuck all the materials away in categorized zip lock bags (because they can be recycled!)
2. Start Following
Now that you know who’s who in the zoo and you can see things a little more clearly, it’s time to start following all the exhibitors you’re interested in on social media. Why? Because social media is a powerful way to get a behind-the-scenes look and understanding of who they are and the types of weddings they work on. Pro Tip: actually read their captions and the text of their photo posts. It gives you a ton of insight into what working with them will be like (are they formal and professional or casual and chatty?)
3. Make Follow Up Lists
Every bride likes a list, right? Ok, not every bride, but this is a time when a list can come in handy. With your categories, all sorted out, make a list of all the vendors you want to connect with via email. Then make 3columsn – one for Emailed, one for Response Received and one for Search Name. An easy-peasy little list to help you keep track of who you’ve connected with. Once you’ve heard back from each vendor, write down how their name appears in your Inbox so if you need to do a quick search to find the previous emails, you know exactly what to type in.
