The majority of last week was spent getting ready for the two-day Perfect Wedding Guide Bridal Show at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, and the past few days were spent basically recovering from the show. In the middle of all that showmanship, I was also scheduled to videotape a wedding on Saturday evening, which certainly made for one hectic but fun weekend.
Sara & Alex’s wedding and reception took place at the luxurious Conrad Hotel downtown, which was already abuzz from the Colts playoff game that was happening at the same time. (Needless to say, I had to scalp my ticket.) Rebecca Raymond of Event Fantastic, who referred the couple to me (thanks, Rebecca!), was given what every consultant dreams of – the green light to do whatever she wanted. The result was a fantastic winter wonderland theme involving white petals, street lamps, bare trees, and her signature self-serve (white) candy station. Kevin and Alicia Monahan of Kevin Monahan Photography took the couple to the neighboring Artsgarden after the ceremony for some fun shots, one of which I’ll post below, and they were a joy to work beside the entire night. The reception was turned into a nonstop R&B and disco rave-up courtesy of the band Zannadoo, who have quickly become one of my favorite bands. This was actually the first time that I saw Zanna fronting the band, and boy could she belt!
I’ve never been a big fan of doing bridal shows, largely because of the cost and the pain of transporting my plasma screen to and from the shows. But the new two-day format of this particular show was a stroke of genius on the part of the PWG folks, as it allowed us to mingle with almost twice as many brides as usual, and it divided all the moving hassles over two days. (It was nice to just walk leisurely into the Scottish Rite on Sunday morning and have everything already set up from Saturday.) I had a fun time at the show meeting with current clients who came by to say “hi,” answering questions for prospective clients, and networking with my friends in the vendor community, several of whom were displaying our work at their own booths. This was the first time that I was honestly happy with the presentation of my own booth, as I finally updated my flyers to work together visually and found a layout for our materials and equipment that was appealing yet practical. This was also the first time that I played our video clips off of a PC instead of a DVD, which was great because it allowed me to show off some of our high-definition footage, and it allowed me to easily stop the presentation in order to show certain brides clips from specific venues. My only regret was that I didn’t have more down time to walk around and chat with other vendors there, but I guess that’s the sign of a successful bridal show.
