How many wedding expos does it take to book a wedding? One? Five? Ten? Twenty?
No, seriously, this isn't a rhetorical question, its a genuine honest question because it seems like there is wedding expo fever in Brisbane at the moment. Barely a week goes by now without some form of expo or showcase somewhere, often there's more than one and, frequently, they're happening on the same date and at the same time. But is anyone actually going to them?
The statistics show that the actual number of weddings happening in Brisbane is pretty stable, with only a very minor increase last year, mostly attributed to the passing of the marriage equality bill, so it seems strange that so many organisations want to jump on the bandwagon and host an event, especially in light of what appears to us to be ever decreasing numbers of attendees at these functions.
The latest showcase to flop disastrously was the Ever After Expo at the Brisbane City Hall on Saturday night. Yes, I know, Saturday night, odd time for a wedding expo (or indeed almost any sort of expo), but the promises were of something different and unique. Of course that came from the organisers, who also promised to market the event widely but seemingly failed to do so. In the end, the show was an absolute ghost town, attended a pitiful number of couples who inevitably felt bombarded by vendors keen to achieve some sort of return on their investment.
This expo fail begs a few questions, but none more so than why did Brisbane City Council, who also sponsored some of the stands (including ours), go with a western-Sydney based events company more known for organising farmers and flea markets to run this showcase? Even though our stand was sponsored, we still had other significant costs, including niche marketing materials that cannot be used elsewhere and staff wages which run into the hundreds of dollars that are unlikely to be recouped thanks to the poor attendance.
Despite the poor publicity from the organisers, this could, and should still have been a popular showcase because there were over 50 vendors, all of whom doubtless promoted their attendance through social media and other channels. Added to this is the fact that Brisbane City Hall hasn't held a wedding showcase for a number of years, a factor which should have created at least some intrigue amongst prospective couples. Then there was the time, which, whilst less than ideal for some, could have worked for couples or groups who chose to spend the afternoon shopping in Queen Street before tagging a visit before heading home or heading out for the evening.
But none of these factors seemed to work and no one (well, almost no one) turned up and I believe its because WEF (Wedding Expo Fatigue) has set in. There are just too many expos, not enough variety of vendors and too much confusion.
Ten years ago there were three organisations running three-day events in both Autumn and Spring wedding seasons and that was pretty much it. Couples and groups made an occasion of going along to one or perhaps more of these expos, saw a vast range of suppliers, most of whom had genuine special deals on offer and booked the suppliers they felt most at ease with. Then the internet took over, couples stopped booking at the major expos because they wanted to compare online and, as a result, vendors stopped offering their best deals at shows because they got ever decreasing returns. The numbers through the shows decreased and the shows got less relevant to vendors and a gap was created in the market. Wedding venues then began hosting their own, smaller scale showcases, with a very small selection of suppliers and the seeds of WEF were set.
Fast forward a decade and the big shows are but a hollow echo of their once regal stature and we now have in excess of 100 wedding showcase events per year in the Brisbane region alone, with WEF appearing to be entirely endemic. But are couples getting better service, better choice and better deals? Sadly, the answer is an absolutely resounding NO! Couples aren't getting to see the widest or best choice of vendors because, more often that not, the "preferred suppliers" of a venue are in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with the host venue and the client ends up paying more than they might otherwise need to. One also has to consider "vendor fatigue" for those suppliers who are tied to one or two specific venues - are you really getting their best creativity, or are you just getting the "cookie-cutter" package that's easy to deliver?
There's no easy answer and we can't go back in time, but please, if you're a venue coordinator thinking that another wedding expo is a great idea then please do some research, take a look at the market and perhaps create something truly different and unique, otherwise you'll probably fall victim to the curse of WEF. Likewise, if you're a couple looking for the best solution for your day please do some in depth research (not just page one of Google), and don't go along to too many showcases because it will just confuse you, not to mention creating some unnecessary "venue-envy" you don't need in your life. As for great deals, well, all you have to do for that is check out the specials page on our website ;-)
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