I don't regret .love that 👍

We had these same thoughts. We actually set up the pipe and drape for our show in our town. They give us a free 10x20 space at the show. But setting up for it just takes a lot of work and time sitting there all day. Especially for us being the only tenting computer in town. We found it being a lot better time investment. Just going to the show, networking with all the wedding planners. They don't have rental items. They just help the bride get what she wants. So we network with them and have the wedding planners book through us. We give them 10-15% off.

We do book a booth at EY Centre in Ottawa 2X per year. We do only that show, not the other one. We do not do tents, and we refer them out. I do offer tables, chairs, linen, dishes etc. We do a draw and we do get business from the shows. We now have a simple booth, where we feature the 2 most popular chairs, a cocktail table, backdrop and an arch etc. We do balloons as well so we usually add some balloons in there. Set up is about 2 hrs with 2 of us, take down is 40 minutes including loading the car. I say car as we make sure entire booth fits in the SUV so we do not have to wait for carpets to be rolled up to use the big dollies.

The gold is really in the other vendors at the show. There was at least 1 planner there that I would bet spends $50k + per year on tents, never mind tables, chairs, etc....I have seen them backing their truck up at our competitors.

We are only doing the very local show to us at a cost of $200. The larger wedding show ($1600) never had any tent rental companies. I agree with the networking, I walked the big show this year and just chatted with vendors and planners.

I had a similar experience but it was only like $300 for a booth so more worth it. Our next show is coming up and we hope to do some things differently based on advice from a local former owner. If I was 5k in, I would agree with you 100