Maximising Wedding Fair attendance

Jan 16
In a previous blog post we investigated the two different types of wedding fairs:
1) General Wedding Fairs and
2) Venue Wedding Fairs. 

Have a read of this previous blog to learn in detail why for celebrants, general wedding fairs are usually not very cost-effective whereas venue wedding fairs can be more effective. 

Here we shall investigate how to get the most out of attending a venue's wedding fair. 
The best wedding fair at a venue to attend is one where the wedding co-ordinator has invited you and they are not going to charge you for attendance. Instead, they would love you to attend in service to their potential and already booked couples. 

Be careful of those venues that are wanting to charge you for a space at their venue's wedding fair and you have never previously worked there.

Some wedding venues hold a wedding fair as an opportunity to raise more revenue, not just to get more bookings for their own venue.

Consequently, it might be quite a small wedding venue only doing about 30 weddings in the year. They may only be expecting 100 couples during the day at their wedding fair. Given that on current statistics, only between 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 couples will want to have a celebrant-led ceremony, you need to decide if it is worth all your time to potentially only speak to 15-20 couples seriously interested in a celebrant. If the venue has also got 2 or 3 other celebrants also paying to be at their wedding fair, you can see how the event is potentially being run more for their benefit rather than yours. 

Things to have & do as a celebrant attending a local venue's wedding fair

The questions you will get asked most at a wedding fair will be:
  • What's a wedding celebrant?
  • How are you different from a registrar?
  • Are your weddings legal?


Consequently, either be prepared to answer these questions about 100 times during the day or alternative equip yourself with a banner, a display and/or leaflets to answer these for you.

Couples visiting a wedding fair are likely to do a number of visits around all suppliers whilst they are there and so consequently, if they genuinely do want a celebrant, they will engage with you in a conversation at a later stage. 

The best venues will have a registration desk where couples will be given a distinguishably different gift bag for those that have already booked their venue and those who are yet to book a venue. 

The reason why the venue do this is because their sales people will target those couples who have the "not booked their venue" bag. As a celebrant, however, you want to give these couples a leaflet about what you do...they may not be ready for the details of an in-depth conversation. Alternatively, instead, you want to deeply engage those couples who have already booked the venue. You then need to ask them: "Have you booked your ceremony yet?"

As well as photos displays, a display banner and a ceremony arch you can adorn your display table with the following to look visual and interesting:
  • Personal vows booklets
  • Wedding poem booklets
  • Ring-warming box
  • Confetti pouches
  • Hand-fasting cords
  • Unity candle set
  • Sand ceremony set

Have a QR code on your banner, on your table display and as part of your leaflet to quickly get couples to your website where you can then get them to register their email. You can then follow them up by emailing them with regular newsletter or making a follow-up phone call. 

As a first-time wedding celebrant you wont have photos from your own ceremonies or testimonials but you can use stock photos  and un-attributed quotes from couples who have had a celebrant-led ceremonies:

E.g. "I loved how personal & meaningful the ceremony was"

"All our guests told us how amazing, beautiful and unique the ceremony was". 

"Our personal wedding ceremony helped make our day so memorable and amazing".


Lastly, make sure you take plenty of business cards and take time to visit all the other wedding suppliers during the day. Some of the most effective work to be done at a wedding fair can be simply networking with other local wedding suppliers. Exchange social media details and actively engage with them after the event as this will help build your community of wedding supplier allies. About 25% of all my bookings come from referrals from other wedding suppliers, many of whom I have never previously worked with but who know me through active social media. 

Good luck!
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