I Do Bridal Soiree Is An I Don’t.

Warning: this is a very, very long post. But worth the read because I rock.

Today Mikey, Sarah (my sister and my matron of honor) and myself ventured out to the fabulous Houstonian Hotel for a bridal “soiree” (read: bridal show) put on by Weddings In Houston. I did meet a couple of great vendors, eat yummy food and enjoy a few glasses of wine, but overall I wouldn’t recommended this to most brides who are planning a wedding.

Now, before I launch into why I wouldn’t recommend it, lets understand “me” a bit to see where I’m coming from.

1. I’m a technology junkie who has been working in interactive marketing for the last 3 years specializing in email marketing.
2. I’ve planned tons of events.
3. I’ve attended other bridal shows in the past.
4. I’m a picky biotch.

Number 4 probably being the most glaringly obvious and the biggest influencer for my review, but hey- at least I know myself.

I also want to point out that I think Weddings in Houston is the most comprehensive site for wedding info in this area. It’s got more vendors than The Knot and it’s easy to use. I have an account there which is why I started getting emails about the bridal soiree… and that leads to this.

Marketing.

(This is technical marketing-nerd stuff. Feel free to skip.)

The majority of the marketing that I saw for the event was via email and social media, which is great. However, execution is important. The emails… OH, the emails.

• Never, ever send out an email that is solely a graphic. Images are important to enhance the email, however a lot of people turn off images or only download them from certain senders. Others read them on mobile devices that might not support images and html such as Blackberry. So, here you are, sending out a really pretty email that is entirely one graphic. Those people will get an empty email and obviously not be able to read your message.  All important content should be text outside of an image.
• Never email me more than 1-2 times per week unless you explicitly say you will and I agree to it when signing up for email from you. In the days leading up to the event, I was sent a daily email. The same exact email every day with the same exact single graphic as content.
• I registered online about 2 weeks before the event. Once I did that, you should not be sending me email asking me to attend it. I should have been put on a separate list that is automatically suppressed from the list you are blasting to advertise the event. The attendee list should have been hit with 1-2 reminders of the event and that’s it. All email service providers have capabilities to easily do this.

I’m going to make a supposition that they got more than a few unsubscribes after this little foray which may hurt their ability to market other events in the near future.

Registration At The Event.

What a freakin’ cluster of stupid happening there. First of all, I registered online, right? I’m going to assume that most people attending did the same since I saw no other way to purchase tickets in advance. During that registration they asked all the pertinent questions of me to find out all about my wedding needs. My contact info, groom’s name, date, and things we were interested in. So why were there 3 different stations that I had to visit in order for you to collect the same info?

When we arrived, we had to line up. In a long, annoying, line. Then we walked up to the first table where they found my name on a list and saw I ‘d purchased 3 tickets. They gave me a special band and name tag then gave Mike and Sarah another band because they were just deemed as “support”. (We’ll get to that bit of fuckery in a sec.) They then sent me to another table and had Sarah and Mike move down and stand in the cattle line waiting for me to finish.

Finish what, you ask? OH just inputing my same freakin’ information that I put in when I registered online on a tiny netbook. I mean, what the french, people?

Then I had to move on to another table (Sarah and Mike still being scooted off with the cattle) to receive my goodie bag.

All of that ridiculousness could have been avoided by having those netbooks available to the people checking us in. They call up my record in the database, check off a box that says I’ve arrived, give me the bands and the bag and then we move along on our merry way. What they did instead was complete stupidity and a waste of time.

Support Team.

This is honestly my biggest complaint. I realize that the bride is usually the one doing most of the planning and some bridezilla bitches actually think that this day is just for them. I, however, do not think that way. I like including Mike in all the planning. I want to make sure that the day is awesome for not only me, but for Mike,  the bridal party and everyone else attending. The people who are helping me plan this as I go are just as important as me because they are giving their opinions. And Mike? He’s the FREAKIN’ groom. He’s not ‘support’. It’s his day, too. I found it all very insulting. Like no one but the bride is important. I’m not marrying myself, ya know?

The Event.

Once we got through with the bowl of stupid that was registration, we were guided into the event. It was held in several event rooms. Several small event rooms. Totally overcrowded. They even had vendors in the hall way. It was a body-to-body “excuse me, pardon me, can I get past you?” clusterfuck. All of the vendors were set up on top of each other and you really didn’t have the ability to get any one-on-one with the ones you may have been interested in. Mostly because you had someone stepping on you or some shit.

Also, I realize the Houstonian was a primary sponsor and pimping itself as a wedding venue. However, that shouldn’t have given them exclusivity in that category. I have a venue (obviously) but what about a bride whose just started planning and has no clue what’s available?   Lord knows she probably can’t afford the Houstonian.

Now, they had everything sort of planned out. Vendor viewing from 1-3, cocktail reception from 3-4, Tablescapes from 4-430 and the fashion show from 430-530.

Sounds ok, right? Maybe if you didn’t have a thousand people trying to get through 70 vendors in 2 hours. Then those thousands of people downstairs going to the two buffet lines getting food and having no place to sit to eat it. And having, like, 5 waiters walking around with drinks instead of a bar.

We got our food (which was great, btw) and found a table out in the hotel to set it on – no chairs, though. We ate and at that point we were just over it all. We didn’t stay for the rest of the events.

Let’s Break It Down, Shall We?

The location for the event says it all. It was at the Houstonian. Shi-shi of  the shi-shi. Totally exclusive. A combination hotel, spa and country club.  I was expecting service on par with the location, not a full-body contact sport of an event with little refreshments and no place to take a breather.

Had I planned this, that cocktail reception would have been available the entire time. The vendors would have been open the entire time with a set time only for the shows. There would have also been plenty of bottled water and sodas to go around. And chairs. Many places to sit down and rest and go through all of the information you were collecting. I mean, 3 hours on my feet shoved up against people I didn’t know? I was so ready to cut a bitch.

Also, since most people registered ahead of time, they should have printed labels for each bride to give their contact information to vendors for prizes and what not. Because standing there, filling out my name, email address and phone number 70 times was. Awesome.

AND I’d have nice goody bags for bridesmaids, do something nice for the grooms attending and, ya know, treat everyone as though they were important. I know, weird, right?

I’ve been to other bridal shows in generic ball rooms or big convention halls that paid much more attention to details and made everyone in attendance feel important. Name tags for the groom, vendors that included things for the groom and bridesmaids, giveaways and gift bags for people attending who weren’t brides.

All in all, it was a disappointment. I get what they were trying to achieve, but poor planning and execution really made the event less of a soiree and more of a dysfunctional party with a wedding theme and a thousand people you don’t know.

-Ali

Also, PS:
If I were them, I’d hire me as a consultant to help them with the marketing and execution. Because they obviously need me and I’m fucking fabulous.