I haven’t participated in a bridal show since exhibiting at the Bridal Extravaganza in 2007, so this year I thought I would give it another go. Armed with a year and a half of quality design education and lessons taken from the last show of many years past, I was determined to create a new and improved booth. The smaller size of The Woodlands Dream Weddings show was appealing to me as I saw it as a chance to really sit and talk with brides. Keeping that desire in mind, I set out to create an extension of my living room in the 10′ x 8′ booth space. After much research I determined that painted hollow core doors and Simpson strong ties were the way to go. Here is the result!

My little living room.

I was going for something between shabby chic and ultra sleek. I chose process cyan, the color of my logo and one of the colors in my own wedding theme, for the hollow core door “walls”. The ability to reuse the painted panels for other shows and booth sizes was important, so the modular nature of the doors worked out really well. By choosing a 30″ width, I will be able to adapt from the more generous 10′ booth width (4 panels) down to the common 8′ booth width ( 3 panels). We were worried about the structural stability of the setup once assembled, but it turns out one 90 degree angle makes the assembly sufficiently stable. The lightness of hollow core dores makes them a poor surface for hanging heavy framed images, so we kept it light with prints mounted on crisp black foamcore. While the magnetic tape we had chosen initially failed to keep the photos up, we found a new solution in paper tape. At 27 bucks a roll it is worth every penny. It’s repositionable and great for hanging foam mounted images in a hurry; it even gives them he look of being mounted with stand offs.

Space planning of the booth was a breeze thanks to a program called Sketchup. It’s free, easy to learn, and components such as digital furniture are available to visualize your space.

Towards the end of the show the traffic waned and enjoyed walking around and touring the booths. It was interesting to see the booth designs, especially those of other Houston wedding photographers. I was able to talk to quite a few brides and grooms at this show and many people seemed to appreciate the place to sit. I am already brainstorming ideas to improve upon the booth for the next show I exhibit in!