Back in 2015 I approached my favorite florist Country Bouquets Floral, and rental company Skagit Valley Wedding Rentals about an idea I had for an intimate bridal event that was a combination of a wedding show but with an educational/planning assistance piece. We were all established business owners and saw it as a great way to meet more potential clients and boost our bookings. We named the event The Wedding Workshop and got to work planning.

This concept has been transformational in our businesses and it is easily replicated!

Laura Nichols Photography

Here is what we did to make the Wedding Workshop successful:

The Beginning

Our vision for the Wedding Workshop was an event where couples could view inspirational event design, hear talks about how to plan a wedding from industry professionals, and just have fun planning. In the beginning, we planned to charge for tickets and settled on what we thought was a decent price of $30 per ticket.

We held our first event in the fall of 2014 at a local golf club and marketed the event through social media. Our first workshop was beautiful, full of information, and attended by only 6 people. To say we were disheartened would be accurate. We had a great event and we knew it would be beneficial if we could get it to a bigger audience. So, back to the drawing board.

Our First Big Success

We decided to give it another shot in the spring of 2015. We approached a very popular wedding venue in our area and created the second Wedding Workshop. This venue does a huge number of weddings every year and has a large following. We also created an area called Bring Your Pinterest Board to Life (we have since renamed it the Tabletop Design Center). This space allowed the rental company to showcase their offerings but it also let couples really see if what they were envisioning would work.

We also created an inspirational guest table, a ceremony space, and a lounge area. People loved it and really spent time exploring everything. Our final piece was the educational talks from the participating wedding professionals. This went well and it showcased people’s expertise, but it did sort of slow things down.

The Evolution

After our first successful workshop, we surveyed the attendees and found out that the things they loved were the tabletop design center and just relaxing and talking to wedding professionals in a more conversational way. So, we decided to get rid of the educational speeches.

Since the most popular piece is the tabletop design center, we strive to figure out ways for more wedding professionals to be involved. We have a variety of linens they can play with but also have florals, favors, paper goods, other wedding design and decor items. This gives many wedding professionals opportunities to interact in this space.

Since the spring of 2015, we have also added categories like dress shops, invitations and paper goods, and local wedding favors. This was in direct response to what attendees told us they would like to see. We want to meet their needs and keep evolving this event.

Jeff + Rebecca Photography

Lessons Learned

• The venue needs to be popular and have a large number of booked clients that they can invite. This was a game changer for us.
• Our three businesses are the core of the wedding workshop, but we invite people we want to network with and who have large followings. They need to be committed to promoting the event through their social media, email marketing lists, and to their clients.
• We do not charge for tickets. The value of creating this workshop is not in making money through ticket sales. It is the connections to the other wedding professionals and getting in front of engaged couples.
• We charge a small fee to the wedding professionals who participate. This gives us a marketing budget for Facebook Ads, printed material, etc.
• This is an intimate event and should be billed as such. We make sure that everyone involved understands our attendance expectations. We are not on the same level as a big bridal show. We consider it a huge success to have 100 people attend. It is about quality, not quantity.
• We have an application process for the venue and the wedding professionals who want to participate. With the application, we can outline our expectations and find out about their level of activity on social media, how many booked weddings they have, etc.
• We only invite one vendor from each category. We do not want the participating wedding pros to feel like they are competing with another vendor.
• We specifically address expectations that we have for each participant. For example, we expect the photographers to photograph the décor. It is essentially a styled photo shoot and we need to document it for future marketing.
• If we ask certain vendors to do more, we often waive their fee. Their time is valuable and we respect that.
• Even though the event is free, we make guests register. This allows us to collect contact information for follow-up.

Laura Nichols Photography

Marketing the Wedding Workshop

Our primary way to market the Wedding Workshop is through email marketing. We provide templates to all the wedding professionals who are participating and ask them to send the information to their email lists. This is by far the biggest way we gain attendance.

We also ask all participants to share on their social media a set number of times. This ranges from standard posts to Facebook Live videos (which help a lot). The three of us do 5-10 Facebook live videos throughout the month leading up to the event. The videos increase engagement with the Wedding Workshop Facebook page.

We do a small amount of paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram. We target local engaged couples. We do have traffic from the ads, but by far the biggest ROI is from the time the wedding professionals put into marketing to their lists and social media followers.

How Our Businesses Benefit

As the organizers, we get to plan the entire thing from inviting wedding professionals to creating the theme and design. This helps build relationships with everyone involved and showcases our talents and abilities. During the event we are interacting with all the attendees just like everyone else, so we also have the added benefit of being front and center as trusted wedding professionals at the event.

Jeff + Rebecca Photography

What We Do After the Wedding Workshop

After the workshop is over we survey the attendees and wedding professionals to see what they liked and did not like. We also ask for their input about how we could improve the Wedding Workshop.

We also send all attendee contact info to the participating wedding professionals asap. When an engaged couple reserve tickets, they opt-in to receive more information.

The Wedding Workshop has been a game changer for us. We are able to connect with other wedding professionals and get in front of engaged couples who are looking to book. I highly recommend creating something similar in your area to boost your bookings!

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This is a guest post from Amber Peterson. Amber is the owner of  Cheers Consulting Group and Cheers Wedding Planning & Design in western Washington. She has a Masters Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications and consults with wedding professionals about their marketing and business challenges. Amber is also the co-founder of the Skagit Wedding Society.