stinkerpants design

Recently I’ve been working a bit more on marketing–or at least thinking about it.  A lot of the blogs I follow are of fellow crafters and stationery designers.  Recently there’s been a lot of coverage of the National Stationery Show, and people are now talking about the Renegade Craft Fair, which was this past weekend in Brooklyn and will be hitting San Francisco next month.

I haven’t done any of these craft or stationery shows.  I’m not sure that I really fit in at a craft show, as my wares are pretty much limited to greeting cards and artwork–everything else is custom, which kind of defeats the purpose of a craft show, right?  People come to purchase.

I would love to do the National Stationery Show (or the Gift Fair), especially for my greeting cards. The cost of attending those shows is seriously prohibitive, though (think thousands of dollars, plus the cost of travel and booth decorations).

I’ve done one bridal show–Lovely Details for two years. It’s a smaller show and is much less expensive than the bigger bridal shows, which can be $1500 for a booth.

Last year, I didn’t get much business from the bridal show.  It is a small show, so that’s not to say that I wouldn’t get a better return at a bigger show.   This year I had the pleasure of meeting a few of my readers (hi guys!) and people seemed to react with more enthusiasm at my table (which, appearance-wise, hasn’t really changed that much since last year).  Maybe people are looking for more personalized/different wedding stuff than they were last year?  I have no idea.

One cool and slightly unexpected thing I found last year was that there are a bunch of really amazing wedding vendors in the bay area, and they are very fun people.  This year was no different.  I had the opportunity to meet Amanda of Blueberry Photography, Audrey at Glowing Bridal, Andrea at Sift Cupcakery, Jennifer at Jennifer Longaway Photography, and John at Enhanced Lighting.  These are super nice people, and they make me really excited to be part of the wedding vendor community.  Last year I wanted to be best friends with Lisa + James, Huckleberry Karen and Lisa at Bellissima Vita (more on these four in about a month), and I’m happy to say that I am now pretty good friends with all of them.

So there are benefits to doing things like this, other than just getting business.  I don’t think of it as networking–I think of it as meeting awesome new people whom I would love to see again.

But is it worth the high cost for some of the bigger shows?  I’m not sure.  As a bride, I only went to a few shows, and I didn’t book any of my vendors after seeing them at a show.  How about you guys?  Would you book a vendor because you saw them at a fair?