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wedding fayres

hi all

i'm hoping to get back into the wedding scene again this year as really need to get out there and let brides know we exsist!!

Do you attend wedding fayres in edinburgh, Borders, Lothians or Glasgow and if so are they any good?? Just wondering what ones are the best out there.

Many thanks
Vicky
Eternal Flame Candles
 
Adventurelife

Adventurelife

New Member
Hi Vicky

If you do get back into the wedding business, I also chase that market space for stag and hen groups.

I pay 20% commission and most groups spend over £1k with us so decent earner for those in touch with people getting married

Regards

Peter
 
hi peter

many thanks for your reply.

i have some wedding favours on my website as we specialise in personalised wedding favours, wedding candles, hen night stuff and unity candle sets.

If its ok, could i maybe send you some samples or some flyers that you could maybe give to brides etc.

Many thanks
Vicky
 
Adventurelife

Adventurelife

New Member
hi peter

many thanks for your reply.

i have some wedding favours on my website as we specialise in personalised wedding favours, wedding candles, hen night stuff and unity candle sets.

If its ok, could i maybe send you some samples or some flyers that you could maybe give to brides etc.

Many thanks
Vicky

Sure

Our split ranges is normally 75% stag groups and 25% hen groups due to what we offer. The hen groups tend to be with us around 4-6 weeks prior to the wedding.

I wish we did a lot more hen groups as they are so much more organised than the stag groups and book well in advance, instead of the week before call from the best man saying I have 26 on a stag group this weekend and have no where to stay!

Peter
 
Scottish Business Owner

Scottish Business Owner

New Member
Hi Vicky,

There's a member on here called dizzydiza. I've purchased jewellery from Diana for my wife which she really loves. I'm sure Diana also does bespoke wedding tiaras so I definately think there may be some scope for you both to collaborate. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you sent her a pm :)

Also check the SBF Business Directory to see if there are any other businesses you think may work in the same markets. In the current climate businesses need to stick together :)
 
D

Dizzydiza

New Member
Hi Vicky
I find that wedding fayres are the best way to get directly to my customers. I prefer to stick to the local hotels mainly because they are affordable. The big fayres at the SECC and Edinburgh Corn Exchange are very expensive. You can spend anything from £250 up to £500 but they are usually over 2 days and you will meet literally thousands of brides but you have to have the money to afford these wedding fayres in the first place and have enough staff with you to cope with the number of enquiries. I can pay anything from £80 up to £125 for a wedding fayre at a hotel and I will give out anything from 20 business card up to 80 at them depending on how much advertising the hotel has done. Because I can actually spend some time speaking to brides at these quieter affairs, I can usually get a few of them coming back to me and I can do the wedding fayres on my own but quite often my niece will help me.

I am delighted to hear that your wife loves her jewellery :)
Diana
 
Last edited by a moderator:
hi Diana

many thanks for your reply, which I found very interesting.

I don't think I am quite ready for the huge big wedding fayres and to be honest, don't think I would ever do them as they are so costly and not really suited to what I do. I think they are ok if you are a large company and have the money to spend.

The only thing that bothers me is and is probably the reason why I stopped doing the fayres in the first place is that when people see my favours, they always say "oh I could do that myself" or "aunty such and such could do that" Its never the price of my candles just that the fact that people can do what i do themselves, well apart from the personalised stuff.

Can I ask, do you ask brides for contact details if they express an interest or do you just wait to hear from them??

Thanks
Vicky
 
D

Dizzydiza

New Member
Hi Vicky
I think wedding favours are the hardest thing to sell a bride simply for the reason you stated.
Here is a little known fact....well it may not be fact but there is a good possibility that this statement is true. The new bonbonieres that have taken over from the old traditional plastic cake favours may have been started by my family here in Scotland almost 34 years ago. My family is half Italian half Polish. Thirty four years ago my sister got married. Back then you could not get anything other than the small plastic horse shoes and wedding bells that were put onto the wedding cakes as favours to give to your guests. So we purchased a length of material, sugar almond sweets and some blue ribbon. We cut out circles using dinner plates, placed the almonds in the centre and secured them with ribbons which we tied into bows. Needless to say the guests were confused as to what they were supposed to do with them. But we also gave them the little plastic favours as well.
I did make favours for a while but the amount of work involved was too great and people didnt appreciate this they just couldnt understand why it was so expensive.
Anyway back to your original question. If I had the time I would make a point of organising a raffle. To win this raffle I would get any potential enquirer to give me their details eg name address & wedding date so that I could contact them in the future to remind them that I am there....but so far I haven't done this. More fool me! So yes...normally I just wait to see if they get back to me
Note to oneself....stop giving good advice and go organise yourself for next weeks wedding fayre
 
D

davidc

New Member
Why don't you all collaborate, and band together to appear at a couple of big events. That way you can split the cost and increase the staffing levels to deal with the level of enquiries. Just a thought....
 
G

GC001

New Member
Hi

As a divsion of Spotlight Television I am launching in March the Scottish Wedding Channel.

The channel will be accessed online and will be presenter based. We will be broadcasting programs on all matters wedding related in Scotland and will also offer the bride and groom their own channel to tell their story, broadcast their news and utlimately their wedding video.

We have also broken Scotland down into small geographic areas in which we will host localised wedding fayres. Those involved can have a static advert, static advert with voice over and music or they can have a TV styled advert that will broadcast for 30 -45 seconds. The same advert will then be given to the advertiser for use on their own website and supplied on DVD with their graphics for distribution.

In each area we are restricting the number of each type of business within a sector to 9 so not to over populate. Therefore in the EH postcode area there will be only 9 venues able to participate at any one time. So on and so on for other supplier categories and postcode areas.

We are in the final stages of building the set for the broadcasts and first series of features. We have 2 in studio presenters and 2 roving.

If you would like more details send me a PM and I will be happy to send on to you.

rgds

Gav
 
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