So I did my first bridal expo...
...and it went WAY better than I expected it to.
You might not know it from my profession and my extremely boisterous way of interacting with my clients, but I am painfully awkward, shy, and anxious. I brought my husband along to make sure I had my anchor near me, I was very much anticipating floundering and becoming overwhelmed. I was telling my friends in the days leading up to the expo that I was already feeling defeated. Like I had already failed at what I was setting out to do, and I would be a miserable bummer that made all prospetive clients cringe. Is anybody else like me, just like...riddled by imposter syndrome and self doubt? It's the worst.
Derek and I arrived in STL on Saurday afternoon to meet with a client for their Getting to Know You session at MoKaBe's (my new favorite coffee place!!! I had the Punch a Nazi. Absolutely delicious, and I'm now making it at home. Every day. It's a problem), went an picked up a few last minute expo items from FB Marketplace, and then had lunch at Meskerem.
Meskerem is easily one of my favorite places to eat in St. Louis.
We finished our amazing food, and then headed to the hotel so we could relax before our wild ride of a day, but we quickly realized that we hadn't made any dinner plans, an we didn't really have the energy to go anywhere, so we decided to head to the grocery store to rustle up some Girl Dinner.
He eats the things he does and I am STILL thrilled to wake up next to this man evey day. Amazing.
Cue waking up bright and early on Sunday morning....
And I was way more calm than I thought I would be, though I admittedly slept like cheap ass the night before. Derek and I gott up, got ready, and headed out to the convention center, not knowing quite what to expect. We had no idea where to go, what to say, what to do, we bickered in the car a bit, the usual stressed out shenanigans. When we arrived, we were...whelmed? It was a drive in garage type feel, which was not what I was expecting, but it did make things exceptionally easy.
Oh hey, that's us, neato!
And then the daunting part...
Getting the actual booth set up.
Derek and I had kind of talked about what we wanted to do with set up, but we didn't really know what the reality of our space was going to be, how we'd want the tables to look, we were just kind of having to wing it. After we unloaded the car, we got to work settiing everything up.
Well. This all looks a little naked. Perfect for boudoir, baaaaaaaaaaaad for boudoir marketing.
I'm nott even sure
what Derek went off to do, I think he actually might have been going to park the car, but I ended up ing our enire space except the backdrop and curtains, that was a joint effort between Derek and I. But let's see how it turned out, shall we?? Yes. Yes we shall.
My my my, what a booth set up!
And that was it!
We had our set up, and once the expo started, it was just non-stop. Surprisingly, people weren't as keen to engage with Derek, and double checked a lot to make sure I was the photographer, not Derek. Not because Derek is weird or imposing, but I think femmes are less comfortable with a male photographer than the industry admits.
It was a long, long day for sure, but I am so excited to welcome five new people to my boudoir experience, I am even MORE excited to work with them and make some gorgeous magic!
