...often hides a whirlwind if activity underneath! And that brings us to
Lesson Four: it’s important to make like a swan. We are so proud of the
stand set that we take to all our wedding fairs – it looks a little bit ‘different’
and we love that. But, our lovely blackboard style table is obviously made of some kind of dark matter because it weighs a ton, our bookshelves need putting together in a
flat pack nightmare and every time we load the Illustriesmobile we curse the lamp, the chest,
the vase and most particularly the chair (we hate that chair). We get red and sweaty, dusty and dishevelled
lugging it all up steps, round too-tight corners and through tiny doors – our knuckles are permanently scarred! When it is all up, it looks great – and the
hard work hides beneath a polished veneer. It’s like the ‘choice’ hotels we
stay in when we’re at shows far from home – we’re a small business and we have
to keep costs down, so Luxury Wedding Show, big tick, we’re there looking the
part on the day of the show. Who needs to know we didn’t get to bed in a really
bad Travelodge until 11.30?
 |
| The table. Bloody heavy... |
We also exhibited at the Designer Vintage Bridal Fair last
year, and were mighty star-struck that no less than five (count ‘em) of our
favourite bloggers were there. We’ll be honest and say that we had to take a deep
breath before going to talk to them, and how silly were we?! Kelly of Boho Wedding, Kat of RockN'RollBride, Amma of Beyond Beyond, Annabel of Love My Dress and Alexis of OMG I'm Getting Married were all
lovely and totally mystified at how anyone could be intimidated by them. And you know
what, even if they hadn’t been, we reckon you still shouldn’t be afraid to go
up and talk to ‘high-profile’ people – they’re running a business or building a
brand too, networking is everything. And
that was Lesson Five.
