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Tips for Attending a Bridal Show or Extravaganza in Houston

Bridal Show Tips

Attending a bridal show is a great idea. You will have a chance to meet many of the vendors that you are interested in booking and you can see for your self how creative they are when it comes to decorating their booths. Additionally you can see their work displayed for you. Photographers will have their best pictures out to display, Cake vendors will have their best display cakes and maybe a few samples for you to taste, Linen Companies will have their most popular linens on display, Dress and Tuxedo shops will have the new fashions out for you to look at, and most importantly, everyone will be offering some type of discount or promotion for their services.

Sow how do you get the best out of a Bridal Show?

Here are 10 Tips that will help you enjoy the bridal show,  get organized and save money

  1. Pre-Register Before the Show

    Save time and money by registering online through most bridal shows.  By registering online, you avoid the lines and having to fill out long forms and some bridal shows give you a discount if you buy your tickets online.

  2. Arrive Early

    By arriving early at the bridal show you have several benefits:
    (a.) You will be one of the first to go in and see everything still in tact and well organized
    (b.) You will avoid the crowds
    (c.) Be able to spend a bit more time with vendors
    (d.) Not have to stand for soo long waiting for a vendor to talk to you.

  3. Dress Comfortably

    Be prepared to spend more time than you anticipate at the bridal shows, especially the big ones. Wearing comfortable shoes and clothes will make your day less painful and stressful.

  4. Be Prepared to spend most of your day there

    Chances are you will want to see 2 or 3 vendors of every service you still need for your wedding. And you probably want to spend a few minutes talking to each vendor, asking questions about their services, packages, pricing and options they have. That’s going to take more time as the day rolls along and more people start to attend the show.

  5. Bring a Notebook and a Pen or Pencil

    Prepare yourself with a few questions you may have for each vendor that you want to interview. Additionally, be prepared to write down some of the things you like as well as dislike about each vendor. Maybe they say something you really like and want to remember which vendor mentioned it.. if you write it down you can always come back to it and give credit to the right vendor. On the other hand, if a vendor mentions something you don’t agree with, make sure you take not of it.  If they give you an unbelievable deal, make sure you write it down so you can reference it later on when you meet them. We vendors are human and can forget sometimes when we make a special offer for a special occasion.

  6. Set up Alternative Contact Info

    Set up an new Gmail address for your wedding and something new from Google.com is Google Voice.  This is pretty neat and I love it… It the exact same concept of email, but with voice. Google.com will give you for free, a local phone number that you can use to receive voicemails, and check them from you computer, your cell phone, or any other phone. Another great feature about Google Voice is that you will receive an email notification to your Gmail account with a written transcript of your voicemail. The features are endless so check it out! Google Voice Link.

  7. Contact Information Labels

    Many vendors want your information, and in return they may be having a drawing, a special discount, or both. Print out some address labels with the following on them.
    Both Names, ex. Maria Martinez & Kenneth Smith
    Wedding Date,  ex. 09-25-2010
    An email Address, ex. myweddingemail@gmail.com
    A Phone Number, Google Voice, Cell or home phone number

  8. Do Your Research

    Find out what services you still need to book, find out which vendors are going to be attending, check out their websites and what they have to offer, see pictures of their previous work and get as much information on them beforehand. Prices, packages, booth number, etc…

  9. Bring Your Check Book

    Many wedding vendors offer an additional discount if you book their services at the bridal show. So be prepared to make a decision and put down a deposit. It’s also a great idea to bring anyone that will be involved with the decision making and who may be helping you pay for your wedding.

  10. Bring Your Camera

    It’s a good idea to take pictures of the things that you see and like from your favorite vendors.

I hope these tips help you save some money on your wedding, get you organized, and make your day enjoyable!

Happy Planning

|o| Simply Frank |o|
Wedding DJ in Houston

Up Light Rentals Houston: PAR Cans vs. LED PAR Cans

Paraiso Maravilla Houston Uplights Decor DJ monogram Photo Booth

I’ve learned so much about up lighting, looking at it from the technical side of it.

PAR Can lights, or Parabolic Aluminized Reflector light, were initially used (and still are used) as up lights.

Traditional Par Can

There is, however, a draw back to using PAR Cans. You must use a very high wattage lamp (anywhere from 500 watt to 1,000 watts) in order for them to look good and to shine a perfect ray of light against a wall.. High wattage lamps  emit a lot of heat and are pretty dangerous to the touch. When I was at the Westlake Club, Jennifer, the coordinator, mentioned that during a previous wedding reception, the traditional PAR Cans actually caused a fire at her Venue. They were placed too close to some linens and they were so hot that they eventually started a fire… I’ve touched these lights and if you have kids at your reception, that’s another thing to look out for… very serious skin burns…

I didn’t want anything to do with anything that could cause bodily injury or cause any fires…

So I moved on and researched more and came to find that there were some LED PAR Cans as well…

Even when a vendor offers you LED PAR Cans there are a few things you should know…

LED PAR Cans have a fixed array of lights, meaning, they can never be changed out for a brighter LED. Once you purchase an LED PAR Can, you are stuck with the level of brightness forever.

There are 3 Common Brightness Values to look at.

  1. 1/4 WATT LED
  2. 1 WATT LED
  3. 3 WATT LED

LED PAR Cans usually contain many LED’s, or Light Emitting Diodes, to project a strong beam of light. And in comparison to the traditional par cans, they do as good a job of projecting a great looking ray of light against a wall, without the excessive heat.

  • 1/4 watt LED PAR CANS

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    Out of the lights listed above, 1/4 watt LED lights can be found for anywhere from $100 to $200 per LED PAR Can. They are listed at Guitar Center for $199, however in the technical details, they claim to have only a 5 Milliwatt LED, which is way less that a 1/4 watt, or 250 Milliwatt LED. Honestly, I don’t think they will emit a strong enough beam for up lighting. I would stay way from them. Actually I would stay away from anything under a 1 watt LED.

  • The 1 watt LED PAR CANS

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    can run anywhere from $250 to $500 per LED PAR Can.  Guitar Center lists the 1 watt LED for $499.  These are very similar to the ones we have here at Elegante Entertainment and when we purchased them we made sure to do our research well and not buy something that would end up useless after we tried them out at an event. As you can see by the video below, LED Uplighting at the Tuscany Villa in Katy Texas and on the pictures on our DJ Upgrades Section, these are more than bright enough to light up a room and add a great ambient to your venue.

    If you are considering a LED Uplights at your event, make sure that you can see them before they install them. If they don’t look like the ones in our video (Notice that the sun is still out and you can see that through the windows, these are very bright), you are getting the cheap lights.

  • The 3 watt LED PAR Can

    will costs well over $500 per LED PAR CAN. I wish we could  afford these, but these are the ultra high end LED Lamps. In the future we will definitely buy these, for now our 1 watt LED’s will have to do. I’ve never seen thse in real person, but if the 1 Watt LED Par Cans can do what they do, I can just imagine how these will shine… very bright…

So in conclusion, I embrace the future and stay away from anything that has over 750 watts as it may cause bodily injury or even start a fire, and I doubt any bride would want either to happen at her wedding reception.

Go with the LED Uplights, they may be a little bit more expensive to rent (or own) but in the long run, the upgrade is definitely worth it.

Happy Planning!

–
|o| Simply Frank |o|
Professional Wedding DJ in Houston