Let’s talk about wedding shows.
You know the ones: big energy, big booths, big expectations, and that little voice in your head whispering, “If I don’t book at least three clients today, what was the point?” And lots of white and pink draped booths.
…So many white and pink booths.
For the most recent Seattle Wedding Show, my colleague Hannah from Dress Up Box and I decided we weren’t playing into that pressure. We wanted to do things on our own terms.
Early in the planning stages, we had a very honest conversation: what if this wasn’t a sales event for us, but rather a publicity event?
What if the ROI wasn’t measured in consults booked by the end of the day, but in attention captured, content created, and long-term visibility built?
Once we made the decision to reframe our expectations and redefined what success meant to us, everything got lighter and way more fun!
Instead of asking, “How do we convert every couple who walks by?” we asked, “How do we make this booth impossible to ignore?”
We wanted to give performance art and spectacle. We wanted people to stop mid-sentence and say, “Wait, what is happening over there?”
So we built something immersive! Not just a table with brochures and a cute backdrop, but an environment that felt intentional, styled, and very us.
It was important to use that we didn’t walk away from the show wishing we’d done more, or different.
A key component of our plan that really shifted it from “vendor booth” to “publicity stunt”: we made very intentional plans to document our work!
We hired a content creator. We scheduled a styled shoot. We captured behind-the-scenes progress photos of the build out. We shot detail photos, wide shots, video clips, interaction moments… all of it.
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That means instead of walking away with a stack of inquiry forms and tired feet, we walked away with:
- Months of social content
- Elevated portfolio imagery
- Reels that show our work in motion
- Behind-the-scenes storytelling
- Brand assets that showcase we’re excited about and what to do more of!
We focused on being the booth people talked about later: The ones other vendors wanted to collaborate with. The ones who looked cohesive, intentional, and theatrical. The ones who stood out in a convention center filled with pink and white and pale seafoam. We wanted to be the ones who clearly had a point of view.
That’s a different kind of ROI.
If you’re signing up for a wedding show this year and feeling the pressure creeping in, I’m offering this reframe: you get to decide what success looks like.
It doesn’t have to be immediate bookings! It can be visibility or positioning. It can be showing the industry what you’re capable of when you treat even a “sales event” like a stage.
I'm not saying you need to build a booth that looks anything like ours… just that you think of your booth less as a sales opportunity and more as a conversation starter. Not everyone loved our deep red aesthetic — but everyone noticed, and we were having conversations with folks about it all day long!
When you build something bold, document it well, and let it ripple outward? That’s not just participating in the market, that’s playing the long game… AND you get to have a good time and build something you’re really proud of while doing it!
VENDOR CREDITS
- Design + Planning: Functions & Gatherings / @functionsandgatherings
- Design + Production, Drape Styling: Dress Up Box / @dressupbox
- Florals: Bivins Events / @bivins_events
- Drape Rentals: Linen Sensation / @linensensation
- Rentals: Cort Party Rental / @cortpartyrental
- Content Creator: Universe Imagery / @universeimagery
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