Before you continue reading, I have to warn you… this post is quite long but yet full of photos so you won’t get bored with words… I wanna share the process of how I came about with my booth for the fair… from conceptualizing the idea ’til the actual day.

So my 2013 started as a challenge… creatively challenged to be exact. This was because I had to prepare for my very first bridal fair in Manila. Supposedly, I had few months of preparation but the procrastinating me was not motivated enough so I just brainstormed last December and a lot of anxiousness as January came. After how many sleepless nights, liters of coffee, manic eating of burgers… I finally came up with an idea! Yup! just the idea… the whole panic mode was just about visualizing and sketching the booth.

You may ask, why it took so long just to draw the booth? Please ask, so I can defend myself, hahaha. Anyway, I had to consider a lot of things. Since, I’ll travel all the way to Manila, I had to think of a lighter way to bring all my stuff and boy how I hate bringing heavy things. So it should be light, efficient yet visible and attractive to clients. Then I wanted to put this and that but it’s not practical.

One idea was to put everything on the wall so I don’t have to bring heavy props and materials… and the idea of painted frames came in! 

Now the big dilemma was, how can I find the stinking panels for my walls? The basic and important material I needed was a burden. Luckily, being the personal driver of the speakers during Graphicon last December led me to such blessing. Ritchie, who was one of the speakers, helped me out with this.

After I showed my sketch and offered just one coffee {haha}, he then turned it into this… My drawing became so techy and legit with the help of SketchUp. {I’ve said it a million time… I don’t know what I will do if you didn’t help me with my panels. That’s why I’m very very thankful for your help, Ritchie}.

One list was solved, so let’s move on to my next concern… how to make my booth look pretty and handmade at the same time? I searched for pegs over pinterest, flickr, and everywhere, and these were my inspirations: hand-painted frames, cut-out butterflies and buntings. The painted frames was not only practical but will also give the feeling of handmade. Glad that litter of coffee came in handy.

Few days before we left for Manila, I’m baffled whether to paint the frames on the ingress itself or should I do it beforehand? I’m considering it’s my first time to paint a big wall, then the time for installation and the drying of the paint and embellishing the booth would take so much time. Again with the help of Mr. Baquirin {Ritchie}, suggested to use a canvas cloth instead and just tucked it onto the panels once I got there. Lesser time, more room for mistakes and efficient.

Now… apart from carrying heavy things, I dread numbers {yes! and I’m an accounting graduate, sooo embarrassing I know, please don’t judge}. The next dilema was to know the exact measurements of the paint area with enough space for the canvas to be tucked on the sides… And that’s where Heintje came to the rescue. From being my driver, to lending his garage and boards… but the greatest rescue was he did the actual measuring for me. Being tall had some perks. Why was I born short?! {I am so happy and thankful for all your help Heintje. You even did the ironing for me, and for all the things you’ve done, I couldn’t thank you enough}

Before doing the dirty job, I asked Paolo for some tips on painting {thanks Pao for the tips, owe you one}. So Heintje and I did the painting on the first day. Thinking it would be easy breezy and fast but I was so wrong. On the second day, I already asked my partner/cousin Karen {left} and sister Sandy {right} to helped me out, haha.

Later that day, I politely forced my other cousins, Christine and Alecs, to helped us finished, haha. Apparently, they willingly obliged or should I say, since I’m their eldest cousin they don’t have a choice? haha And there they were… being child labored while I’m just taking their photos {evil laugh now}.

Here’s a proof that I did the paintings too… hehe.

After a sumptuous dinner and lots of wisdoms from the young cousins, we’re finally done. {Christine-Sandy-Karen-Alecs-Me}

Took a photo of the initial look of the booth. This will be my actual guide for the other decorations. When I saw this, I was restless again, thinking if this could be enough… but I was also relieved for having it done beforehand rather than painting it there.

I printed the photo and add it to my handy dandy notebook. From here, I drew some elements that I can add for the decoration with the actual hand-painted frames.

Then on the week of the bridal fair, I was still designing the flyers, printing and cutting the butterflies, signage and calling cards. Yup! More cramming at this point. My emotion was in turmoil. A day before we left, I just started packing the materials, can you imagine? haha.

When we arrived in Manila, we still had two days before the fair. More time to look for furniture and necessary stuffs for the booth. Then the next day came and I couldn’t sleep.During the ingress, we were so hyped up and I assume we still looked fresh, haha. We’re so ready to decorate the booth now. I wanted to believe we’re ready, haha. Here we go… That’s Christine holding our signage that looked like a surf board.

When we arrived in SMX, they were already installing the panels. Now it’s time to tucked the canvas… in my mind, I was worried if we got the right measurements of the canvas. Otherwise, it wouldn’t fit the panels.

As the panels were almost up and ready, I can’t help being impassioned as I saw how beautiful  the canvas looked on the panels and of course the measurements were exact, haha. Who wouldn’t be emotional with that right? lol.

Now we’re all set to decorate the booth… Karen was in-charge of ironing the canvas, she’s a master in ironing, I tell you. Then I placed the invites in the frames then Sandy and Christine were the ones who glued them properly.

After hours of installation and decoration, we’re really done and this was the final look of the whole booth. I was teary-eyed as I was so amazed and so happy when I saw everything in placed. All the sleepless nights and liters of coffee paid off. I couldn’t imagine it came out pretty well. It said handmade, chic and pretty all in one. I couldn’t be more proud, naks! haha

The 3-day fair went well… met great couples. My friends dropped by to see me. Rochelle helped out in giving the flyers. Boobie analyzed the effective way of displaying our flyers and calling cards on the booth. We did a little rearranging after that. Met new friends and saw inspiring booths from other companies.

I am very thankful for everything… specially to my lovely family. During the fair I described to the clients how we did the invitations and Karen played a very big role with dealing with them. Sandy was so helpful in preparing the booth and giving out the flyers together with Christine. The two girls kept me and Karen balance for making us laugh and less anxious.

The early part of January was really emotional. Darn! Hate being emotional! But I couldn’t help it… I was anxious and challenged everyday, plus I can’t help but wonder what papa would say or think about this big event I’m doing. On the other hand, I was so grateful for the help I’m getting from all the people around me. Mama offered some extra monetary help which was also so very helpful.

This fair was really big for me. I’ve been battling with myself whether to go for it or not. However, there’s a part of me wanted to try regardless the outcome, just so I would stop wondering. Gladly, I did… and I would still do it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you… 

I’ll do more posts about the details of the booth and some of my favorite booths there. I hope you had fun reading and looking at the photos. If you’re planning to join a bridal fair, I’m not sure if this post would be helpful and inspiring, haha but if you need help, I’d be willing to share what I know.