Lifetime Images Bridal Shows 2009
Lifetime Images was out in full force at two bridal shows in the month of August. The first held at the Queen Mary, the other at the Orange Country Fairgrounds.
A big “THANK YOU” for the enthusiastic reception!
Bridal shows really aren’t our thing. When we meet people for the first time we like to take our time with them and get to know more about them. This is hard to do at a bridal show with so many people stopping by, spending a few minutes with us and then heading off to the next booth. We understand that for brides and bridal couple bridal shows can also be challenging with so much to see, so much information vying for your attention, and only so much you can process before you reach the saturation point.
Five years ago we invested in the big trade show display booth and after a couple of lackluster bridal shows we packed it up. Most of our business was word of mouth and fortunately that kept us busy. Recently we’ve added some new packages (such as The Fusion & Solana Packages) and we decided that the best thing would be to show it off, since seeing is believing.
We’ve had such a wonderful response to what we were showing! We especially enjoyed having the open booth at Orange County Fairgrounds so that brides didn’t have to be on top of each other. It didn’t feel like the bridal shows of the past, we got to engage in some great conversations and at the very least convey to people that we would like to continue the conversation. The kinds words and enthusiasm shown to our work and our offering really made that we are offering exactly the right thing.
Can’t afford us? Guess again!
When we started Lifetime Images back in 1997 we selected two words to convey what we were offering “Affordable Excellence.” Many of our clients were funding their own wedding and thus didn’t have unlimited funds for wedding photography. At the same time, they consistently ranked wedding photography as one of the most important priorities for their wedding. For those who know about hard work, understand the value of a dollar, and won’t compromise on quality, we’re here for you!
The funny thing about the big booths at a bridal show is that it attracts some, and repels others. One gal walked by and said “You’re work is beautiful, but I can’t afford it.” When we showed her the Fusion Bronze Package she said “Wow, I thought you were one of those studios that starts off at $5000. Well, no, but thanks for the compliment! We keep our packages affordable and we keep busy.
Jacqueline, Tasha, Wedding Dates & Wedding Cakes
If you stopped by the booth you may have met Jacqueline Rojas. How and why she was there is an interesting story. A couple of years ago we did a wedding for another cute bride named Juliet. Thankfully Juliet referred us to Jacqueline. Jacqueline happened to fall in love with on particular wedding, it was another Jaclyn who got married at Temecula’s Ponte Winery. So bridal show Jacqueline comes to us to photograph her wedding on June 20th of this year. One problem, we were booked. Over the course of the week she proceeds to change her date to the 13th of June, a date we were available. She held her wedding at the new and lovely Keyways winery in Temecula and the rest was wedding photography history. You can see the actual layout of her album at HERE.
One of the interesting things we’ve learned about weddings is that people tend to lose excitement after they are over. People often wait a year or longer to get around to ordering their album, and when the finally do get them they receive a lackluster reception from friends and family. Within two months Jacqueline had her album in the same summer she got married in. She is reliving the day with her friends and family, and trust me, the excitement never leaves her eyes as she talks about her wedding day. Aside from being a beautiful woman, she has this very warm, genuine personality that people seem to love. She is approachable and real, and thus we asked her to come to the bridal show. She loved, loved loved talking about her wedding. And what better referral can you get than someone who just went through what you’re about to go through?
So we said “Hey Jacqueline, lets go to the bridal show on Sunday!” And she was like “Hey, I’m sleeping on that day, and besides it takes me a while to get all dolled up.” We mentioned that there would be wedding cake and she asks if her maid of honor Tasha can join come too! It was so much fun to have them both there. Tasha helped our friends at Plug Video the next booth over. And there was cake and free time for them to run around and enjoy the bridal show without actually needing to plan a wedding. These gals gave up their Sunday for us, and did it with a huge smile, so we cannot express enough how thankful we are to them for what they did for us! Ladies, you rock!
The Fusion Package is our latest set of magazine albums, with a very unique and exciting twist. The Fusion packages really consists of four different packages, Bronze, Silver, Gold, & Platinum. The Bronze package consists of six hours of wedding photography coverage, a 30 side 10x10 magazine album, and all the high resolution images on DVD. Other studios were offering the same deal at the shows, well, everything but album for the same amount of money. If you want the album it would be an additional $800. Wait, that's at bridal show special, are you serious?
The Gold and Silver Packages are based on Bronze Package. These packages have more hours of coverage ( 8 and ten respectively). But then you get more options. You can make the bridal album dimensions larger (from 10”x10” to 12”x12”) It can have more pages, and it can have an upgraded cover, it can come with an engagement portrait, it can come with replica parent albums. In other words, it will take you where you want to go. And since the base package is so inexpensive, it builds from it affordably You’re in control of your bridal package so you get exactly what you want.
We’ve been offering flush mount albums, coffee table books, and magazine albums for around six years, We’ve see the number of suppliers grow from handful to hundreds. At one point we had a supplier who made a reasonably good line of coffee table books make a couple of our packages. As time went on we found better books and albums for around the same amount of money. Then our premium album supplier got into this market segment. Long story short, the Solana package evolved. It’s the combination of our low end package and our high end package, So, you get a fat package with a ton of goodies for a great price, and you get the same quality Italian books that many of our clients have spent over $5000 for in the past. it’s the Lexus album at the Toyota price! It’s a natural upgrade from the Fusion Package.
In a nutshell it features a 50 side bridal album, two parent albums, and four hardbound gift books for under $2000! The neat thing about this package is that you can do a little trading around here and there and custom configure it to your tastes.
Hot Links
25 interview topics for wedding photographers.
Wedding Photography is often sold on a vibe and feel, and sometimes things turn out great, but sometimes not. Wedding photography is an unregulated industry with far too many very nice people with nice images and nice stories to tell who are none-the-less in way over their heads. So, how do you avoid be taken for a ride? By asking the right questions and making informed decisions. 25 Wedding Photography Interview Topics helps you with the questions, and also gives you the background you need to make an informed decision. Since this is a general information piece we don’t really talk about our goods and services in the article. Thus its useful for people in other parts of the country or perhaps other parts of the world.
Visit Our Gallery
Our Wedding Gallery spans back five years. In the past we've put some of the best images we've taken throughout the year up on a slide show. Since our albums are now more time intensive we don't have the time to put together elaborate slide shows like we used to. But, we decided to change it up a little. We took a wedding from August 1 of this year. It had only one photographer and took place in Long Beach, Cypress and a reception at the lovely Ebell Club in Long Beach. We had it on a monitor under our trade show display, but you may have missed it. You can hot link to it and see it for yourself. Kashia put the funk back into funky on her wedding day and was smiling ear to ear as everybody rocked the Ebell Club!
You can also see other examples of our layouts and our pictures.
http://www.lifetimeimages.com/Wedding/Venues/Venues.htm
Venue review.
We had friends and clients come to us asking for help looking for venues. “I want someplace with a gazebo and a rose garden” they would say and we would show them the Disneyland Hotel for example. We had about 100 different wedding sites on the server to show people, and we decided to do a write up about all the places we’ve liked working at. Along the way, looking at their websites we’ve noticed a few things. Some of the venues had horrible pictures that didn’t do their properties justice, while others actually had models come in and do photo shoots on the grounds in locations off limits to bridal couples (such as fairways on golf courses). Our write ups tend to give you the opportunity to check out many venues with one consistent set of photographers, and one consistent reviewer without the marketing hype! Many couples we met at the show were still looking for a venue, this is a good place to start. Currently there are around 50 reviews and we’re adding more this year. Expect to reviews of The Mission Inn, Tustin Ranch Golf Course, Erharts By The Sea, Old Ranch Country Club, and Keyways Winery.
Currently there are around 50, there will be 100 soon enough