If you haven’t read part one of Making the Perfect Maui Wedding Expo Photography Booth, head on over there to see how I made the pallet walls! This post is all about the details and is mostly aimed at other photographers who are preparing to do their first wedding expo and need some ideas!
I knew that I wanted my booth to be open and welcoming to all brides. To do this I knew I needed…
1) Images to showcase my work
2) A sample album for brides to flip through
3) A give-away–because who doesn’t like free stuff?
4) Flowers!
I’m lucky enough to know Lisa from Blossoms Hawaii. I chatted with her about my aesthetic and the types of photos I was using in my booth. She took the idea and ran with it. The result was a very organic, warm, and earthy assembly of arrangements that were absolutely perfect for my booth. Mahalo Lisa for taking my discombobbled ideas and making them into floral magic!
In preparation for the wedding show I made an extra large order of business cards. Turns out I had just enough. I literally left the wedding expo with 4 cards. FOUR.
So I had my business cards but needed a great way to display them. I went to Ben Franklin Crafts, our local crafting store, and picked up this basket for $3.00. Then, once at the wedding show, I made my dear husband go get some sand for me from the beach.
Now…I tell you this with a bit of hesitation. Every person who lives in Hawaii knows it’s really bad juju to take the land and move it. In fact, hotels receive loads of sand every year from tourists who have taken it and had bad luck ever since. This is the real deal, folks. I made sure that I returned the sand exactly where I found it and thanked the aina (land) for allowing me to borrow it for a few short hours.
That brings me to the album. I am over-the-moon in love with these albums. I use Miller’s Lab–a lab that is only available to professional photographers. I also use the Fuji Pearl Paper–which really makes the colors POP!
The pages are thick and durable. Even if this album were to fall into little toddler hands, it would be just fine.
All of my wedding collections come with a custom designed 10×10 10 page/20 spread album. Why? Because at the end of the day your album will outlast any sort of digital storage device man can make. I’ll be writing another post on this shortly.
WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS: If you are showing at a wedding expo, be sure to bring your camera and calibrate it for the lighting (which I didn’t have quite enough time to do).
I was chatting with one of my friends who had come to visit me at my booth when Kale, that handsome dancer who is down on one knee, began to make a speech after his dance.
I turned to my friend and said “Wait, is this really happening right now?!”
Indeed it was! I grabbed my camera as quickly as I could and began snapping away. You never know what can happen at a wedding show!
Kale and Kyra dance together with Manutea Nui E, a dance company that specializes in Tahitian dancing for wedding entertainment. They dance a little duet together before he proposed–what a perfect set up for a proposal! Congrats you two!
Overall, the wedding show was a huge success. I met many of the amazing vendors we have here on Maui as well as man 2014 and 2015 brides.
Mahalo nui to the Maui Wedding Association and the Sheraton Maui for hosting this year’s Wedding Expo!
Looking for Part 1? Here it is!
