Wendy tells it as it is

Wendy from designs by Dakin ( a top draw wedding stationery designer) sent me this email in response to my recent posting - Fake nose, glasses and how to save £24,000

Here, in her own words Wendy tells it as it is... 

Richard and the I do Magazine Team

This email served two purposes

Firstly was to give me a much needed laugh after working far too many hours (the thought of Richard in disguise filled my head with far too many images) and secondly to prompt me to look back at my order book to see what difference, if any, I have seen since exhibiting at the last two 'Ultimate Bride'

wedding fayres and placing my advertisements in both your I Do Magazines last September.

So with the kids tucked up in bed and a glass of pepsi by my side (I needed to concentrate so wine wasn't an option) I set about with an excel spreadsheet and my order book. I always ask brides where they found out about me and always keep a record to see which are the best fayres / advertising etc.

When I first signed up for the magazine advert last year I did question my own intelligence as it seemed alot of money to pay out but following the success of the first Magna fayre I had confidence in your ability to help promote my business. I thought this is a 12 month deal and the potential numbers of brides seeing my advert was immense so I took the plunge along with booking in for a second year at the annual wedding fayre.

Well what an investment that turned out to be. Firstly the wedding fayres are organised like a military operation which run like clockwork but I can appreciate the amount of hours put in by all the team to host such successful events beforehand, on the day and afterwards. I am already booked in for my 3rd year and am so confident it will once again be an excellent fayre that I have doubled the size of my stand.

The second part of my 'large investment' was advertising in not one, but two I Do magazines as being based in Chesterfield we are on the border so are in the catchment for both Yorkshire & Derbyshire.

The feedback I have received from brides regarding the I Do Magazine is excellent as they are full of useful tips, guidelines and of course excellent suppliers. I know from personal experience that we all start off booking our wedding with a budget which in most cases has been blown on the venue, church, photographer etc before they have even thought about the dress and then they find the 'must haves' which were never on the original list (but a friend had them / saw them on a wedding tv show) and I Do magazine is ideal to source the much needed 'extras' especially when the wedding fayre season is over.

These are suppliers whose leaflets would not have been picked up at fayres as the brides didn't even know she needed the 'got to have' item when she passed by their stand but is now losing sleep as the 'must have' has taken over their life.

Well my spreadsheet turned out much bigger than I anticipated.

I had two weddings last Saturday which I picked up at the wedding fayre last September and am busy working on stationery for a bride who got my details from the magazine and is getting married this weekend. It seems that every month there are at least five weddings which have been a direct result of the fayres or the magazine advertisements with the 10th September 2011 having 7 bookings from 12 as a direct result of the fayre/magazine. If only the banks could offer such a good return on my money.

Please can you put me down for the same size advert as last year in both I Do Magazines. I will be in touch shortly to sort out art work as I am now able to offer chair covers, venue decorating and a pick n mix sweet stall so would like to include these in the artwork and write up.

Richard, please pass on my thanks once again to all the team - you are all welcome to 'mates rates' at Designs by Daykin anytime !

Wendy

www.designsbydaykin.co.uk

Fake Nose, Glasses, and a saving of over £24,000

I've been doing a bit of undercover research work recently.

Here's what I've been up to...

I thought I'd have a look around a few wedding fayre's cunningly disguised as a groom.

So off I went in full camouflage, fake nose, glasses, missus and born out of wedlock child in tow.
The missus registered in at the desk, ticked the "I'd like you to sell my personal information
to anyone who is willing to buy it box" and we embarked on the fayre.

Various leaflets were offered to us with the complimentary question "Hi, have you sorted out your photography...cake...dress...décor..etc...yet"

We gave all the suppliers every chance we could and said that we hadn't sorted out anything yet and that we were looking to get it all sorted out really soon. "hot potato" (you would have thought)

We asked questions and when we left we said we were very interested put our leaflets into our goodie bag and moved along.

Sound familiar?

Two weeks later...

All the conversations we had with various suppliers at the show have been forgotten.
The boy has taken care of most of the leaflets by posting them in various crevices around the house
until the missus got so annoyed that they ended up in the bin, she did keep the little magazine that
was in the bag though (not I Do magazine BTW).

In the meantime as I watched all this unfold...I waited.

I looked through the post. Nothing.

I opened by email inbox. Nothing.

Surely I must receive something, I mean we gave our details at the registration desk
we even asked one supplier specifically to send us info. (BTW not one supplier asked for our details)

But nope, nothing has ever been sent. Not one business out of around
40 wedding suppliers we saw has sent anything.

Wow, I thought if just one of those companies had sent us
something they wouldn't have ANY COMPETITION whatsoever.

"But she did keep the little magazine though"

Look, wedding fayres are a fantastic opportunity to begin a relationship with brides.
Don't waste that opportunity by not getting contact details and following up with them.

Alternatively, I can save you all the trouble, how's this for an amazing offer....

My team of graphic designers and writers will design & write you a fantastic leaflet
and we'll hand deliver it to every brides we meet at almost 300 shows in your area...

...every week we'll keep in touch with the brides and make sure they're looking
at your leaflet.

...and to make sure some child doesn't post it down the side of the cooker
we'll stitch it into a beautiful magazine.

If you were to do this yourself it would cost you at least £25,000 just to attend the wedding fayres
Plus the printing, staff, expences and the follow ups.

We will do all this for you - from just £245 !

That's a massive saving of over £24755

To take advantage of this amazing offer

Call me on 01226 704682 or email me