A guide for couples and suppliers, and why we love wedding fairs so much!

Wedding fairs (also known as wedding fayres) are an amazing experience for suppliers and couples looking to get married soon. If you are nervous about planning your wedding, even a small wedding fair is the perfect thing for you! At these events you can find everything you’ll need all in one place and can start choosing your new favourite suppliers.

If you see us at a fair, come say hi!

What to Expect at Wedding Fairs

Wedding fairs are a fantastic opportunity for couples to find suppliers and get some ideas for their wedding. Although, if you haven’t been to one before, it might not be exactly what you expected.

First of all, it’s not a trade or craft fair. Suppliers are there to find potential clients and customers, as well as network and have good conversation with couples. You shouldn’t expect free samples at every stall. They might have something to hand out (even a discount code!) but don’t be running off with their products without permission! Instead take a flyer or card and dive into their websites later on.

‘The most important thing is to have fun!’

Don’t be afraid to leave your details if you like what you see. Most wedding suppliers are small businesses, so you’re likely to get a lovely, personalised email thanking you instead of a mountain of spam calls and messages. Take the supplier’s details too, there’s no better feeling than when we get a nice email from someone we met at an event.

The most important thing is to have fun! Chatting with other couples and the delightful people running stalls is the best part of a wedding fair. Of course, you’ll get the usual hard sellers but they’re easy enough to avoid.

Why are Wedding Fairs so Good for Suppliers?

We love wedding fairs! Being an online supplier means we don’t get to meet many of our customers face to face so attending a fair not only helps our business but gives us a chance to chat to couples about their wedding plans.

By having a display, couples get to really feel the quality of the stationery we create. A picture may paint a thousand words but picking a design up and holding it does so much more. Our displays show off a wide range of designs, giving couples a taste of everything we provide all in one place.

Nothing beats our delicious sweets!

Wedding fairs also give us a great opportunity to network with other businesses. Some events can feel competitive, but most are full of small business owners who are happy to chat about their experiences. If you make a good impression to them, they will remember you as much as any potential customer and will refer you in the future.

‘Wedding fairs are a great opportunity to network!’

We had the pleasure of attending a Gay Wedding Fair recently, which was an incredible experience. So much colour and style everywhere we looked! To stand out we put together a gorgeous display, complete with our very popular ‘Love is Love’ sweets!

How to Create a Wedding Fair Display

When we are planning our stall for an event, we make sure that every inch of our table is covered in gorgeous designs. Everything we create is quality, so we want to show off the quantity we produce!

Here’s one of our displays!

Here are the invitation styles we never go to a wedding fair without:

And to show that we create more than just invitations we also take:

If there’s any room left, we take a few save the date and change of date cards too!

Some suppliers don’t like taking too much stationery and want their displays to be more minimalist. We decide to show off a wide variety of designs to show that we create everything a couple needs for their wedding.

We also think about trending themes that will catch peoples’ eyes. Depending on the time of year, we can make our displays match the season or have some of our special festive designs when Christmas is on the horizon.

When we go to a Gay Wedding Fair, we make our display as colourful as possible, showing off our rainbow designs and stationery we have created for LGBT+ couples in the past.

How to Sell at Wedding Fairs

If you are planning on selling at a wedding fair for the first time, there are some easy traps to fall into. The main one is ‘the hard sell.’ Very few people like to be sold at and there is a difference between encouraging them to check out your display and putting pressure on them. Remember, planning a wedding is very stressful, so gentle guidance and encouragement is the way to go.

A picture doesn’t do our wedding invitations justice!

When a couple approach our wedding fair displays, we allow them to browse first. There’s a lot to see and we don’t want them to miss anything! If they’re not in a rush we chat to them about their wedding plans, what kind of wedding they are putting together, where they want it to be and if they have a venue booked etc. Throwing a flyer at them and moving on to the next person is rude and won’t help your business. Get to know your customers!

If a couple is interested in our designs, we always encourage them to pick them up and feel the quality of the materials. It’s what makes our stationery stand out after all!

When talking to couples, we tell them all about our bespoke design service. We can create anything you can imagine so it’s something worth shouting from the rooftops! We also talk about our design process, what accessories we can add and, of course, that we always try to match budgets.

This way couples leave our stall knowing everything we can do for them, and we swap details if their mind is already made up. We give out a discount code to any visitors too to give them one more reason to choose us.

We also offer each of our customers one free personalised sample, so whatever your unique selling point is – be sure to tell everyone about it!

How to Sign up for a Wedding Fayre

If you are looking to sell your wares at a wedding fair, there are plenty of ways to find them. Websites such as weddingfairs.com and chosenweddings.com have lists of venues with future fairs, giving you plenty of time to get signed up and plan around them. They are an investment so having the money to pay for the space and order everything you need for your designs is a must.

Some venues appreciate when suppliers promote the event on social media for them. We always make a post on our Facebook page at the very least to help boost attendance. A higher attendance means more potential customers so it’s always beneficial.

Wedding Fairs – Amazing for Couples and Suppliers!

Whether you are a wedding supplier, a couple with wedding plans or if you just want some ideas for the future, going to wedding fairs are a perfect day out. When you’re there, keep an eye out for Idodesigns and stop by for a chat!

In the meantime, if you have any questions about what we create, please get in touch for a chat today! We’d love to hear from you!