Our First Wedding Show

Our first wedding show had us standing on ice. Literally. 

our booth space with our neighbours and all of our gear piled on our table

starts off pretty bare!

OUR BOOTH! tada! A little DIY magic and a blanketponcho to keep me warm.

Our winter boots look authentic next to the winter birch bark trees in our background, non? 

Our entire booth was handmade or repurposed objects straight from our home. We spent hours putting together our business cards which literally tied a knot, painting those birch trees and scrubbing our kitchen table of the baby food remnants. The bunting flags hang in our home now and the picture frames were ripped off the walls and repurposed for the show. We contemplated bringing our desktop mac like other vendors had, but were content for our first show with our trusty 7 year old mac book that I'm writing this post on now. Good old lappy! 

We set-up camp in a hockey arena. Yep! That's how we do in Ontario. We felt like we were literally standing on the ice. We were fucking freezing for hours, I'm not gonna lie. It was pretty bad. Especially at 6.5 months with hours of standing. That's ok though! Once the doors opened, we were happy campers. No complaints from us! It was amazing to chat with brides, grooms and their families about what we love to do.

We made a very conscious effort not to be all up in your face, soliciting and pushing pamphlets. Instead, we politely said hi to those who looked interested and started chatting if the moment was right. I think that approach suits us, although maybe it's not forward enough. We're still working on selling ourselves. I guess you have to do that if you own your own company, eh? 

We received many compliments on our tie-the-knot business cards and received some great feedback on our brand which is equally as important to us as booking. It's very validating to know we're on to something here and the fact that we put so much of ourselves into our work and into our booth, feels good when others get it. 

Now that we've got a show under our belt, I think there's a lot we would do differently and a lot we would do exactly the same. We're already thinking of other shows in our radius we could hit up that would have larger number of attendees (this show had less than 1000 for sure, which was hard for us as a small business owner who rented the booth space expecting more). 

Overall, we were just happy to be there and showcase our work. We put a lot into our handmade booth and even though it didn't quite fit in the booth space, and it was very DIY, and although no one took us up on our show special of booking that day and receiving $500 off, a lot of people entered our contest and a lot of people started to think about wedding video. We're new in town and although we're ready for the business and we'd love to go after it fast and hard, we know that sometimes these things take time. 

We will draw the winner on Sunday. I'm very excited for the future. We made some great connections with local photographers and others in the industry and we can't wait to see how the rest of the year pans out.

A New Home for Love and Anchor

So, some exciting news. But at the same time, some heartbreaking news. We've moved. Yes, I know, it's a bit sad. Not just out of the HRM or anything. We've moved back to Ontario, and are setting up shop there. It's not such a huge move actually. We're both from Ontario - Matt from Toronto, Steph from the Durham region. We met at Trent University in Peterborough, after all. And while we absolutely loved it in Nova Scotia, things haven't turned out quite as well as we'd hoped. We really want to take our business full time, and support our family shooting weddings. But it wasn't happening quite as we needed it to out there, and we think we'll have more luck in Ontario. And, of course, our family is back there. Your priorities really become clear when you have a child - we want Rowan to grow up with his grandparents and cousins around, to be able to see them often, every week, rather than once or twice a year. It's a tough decision, but we also don't think an uncommon one.

Nova Scotia has been really great to us. We can't think of a more beautiful place to live. Everytime we've gone out to a shoot, we've been amazed at how wonderful the province looks and feels and smells. The people here have been super welcoming and friendly - we've made a few friendships here that will continue on, despite the move. It is very sad that we're leaving, and we didn't really expect it to turn out this way, but we're making the decision for our family, for our stability and future. We'll miss Nova Scotia, but we also know that it's the people that make a place, and people are portable! Ontario isn't so far after all. And, with the beauties of techology, the distance becomes shorter. We feel that's one of the reasons we do this work in the first place. Video, especially, makes it possible to experience these events if you can't make it yourself, and allows you to relive it, no matter where you are. So we'll just keep this in mind during our move. And keep up our connections to this place.

We'll miss you Nova Scotia! 

Consultation? What for?

It's all in the details

So you may be wondering - what's involved in a consultation, and why is it necessary?

We state on our website that we always like to have a consultation with our clients before the wedding date, and this is for a number of reasons. The first, and most significant reason, is that we find it always puts our clients' minds at ease. They are often excited and anxious about the thought of having photos and/or video taken at their wedding, and how it is going to work out in real time. So one purpose of the consultation is to answer any and all of your questions about the process, the lead up to the wedding, what happens on the day of, and receiving the final products (which of course means the awesome videos which will make you cry and which you'll love forever!). We don't mind answering questions, no matter how trivial, and indeed want to answer your questions - the more satisfied and confident you are in the lead-up to the wedding, the better it will go for all of us on the day.

How will the space flow? Are there any obstructions or events we can plan fod? 

Another reason for the consultation is for us to nail down the details. We are very detail oriented when it comes to shooting. The more preparation we have, the better. The more information we have about what will be happening, the better. This is particularly important for our observation style of shooting. Essentially, to get the footage we need, we need to be in the right position to shoot it. We can't do much with footage if we either didn't get it in the first place, or we were in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Think of this scenario: we go into a wedding with very little details or knowledge of the exact events of the day - of how people are going to be positioned at the ceremony, where the first look is going to take place, of how the bride and groom are going to enter the reception, etc. We figure we'll just pick it up on the fly, and follow everyone around. But then it turns out that, uh-oh, we weren't sure where the bride was going to be standing for the bouquet toss, and, uh-oh, turns out we were on the wrong side of the room and didn't have a clear view of the bouquet being caught by that lucky girl, because uncle Frank, who is a staggering seven feet tall with shoulders the width of a eighteen-wheeler was standing in front of us and we couldn't get out from behind him. And so it turns out that we didn't capture that detail at all, or it was obscured because of our positioning. 

So, this is an example of why we need as much information as we can get before the wedding. So that we can make sure we're in the position ahead of time, ready to go, and capturing all your unique moments as they happen, without obstruction. These details are super important, and so the consultation works great for nailing down almost the minute by minute play of the wedding day (assuming those details are in place far enough in advance). 

  

We always ask about important friends and family which is a big part of your wedding day!

And last, but not least, the consultation is simply a great way for us to get to know you, ahead of time. There is nothing like face-to-face time with a client, which is why we always prefer to meet in person, or if you're out of province or can't make it, at the very least through a video skype chat. It is much easier to connect with one another when you can see the person's face and hear their voice. Email simply doesn't cut it for this type of interaction, and we think it is vital to establishing our relationship with our clients, which will carry on into the wedding day. Think of it this way: how much easier is it to welcome someone to your special day, camera in hand, when you've already spoken to them, joked and laughed with them, and gone over the minute details of the day, rather than greet a stranger with whom you've only had minimal contact through email?

We make sure to put a lot of effort into these consultations, to reassure you, to comfort you, to encourage and excite you about your wedding. In the end, it helps us all to be more comfortable with each other, which makes the day that much more special, worry-free and magical.