January 15th was the Atlantic Wedding Showcase at the Cunard Centre, Pier 23, Halifax.  I want to thank all of the future brides (and grooms) who stopped by for a visit and a chat, I appreciate it.  This was my first show and I think it went quite well.  I met with well over 100 brides to be and discussed weddings in various locations including Jamaica, Italy, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, PEI, Ontario and of course all over Nova Scotia.  I really enjoyed being able to have conversations with so many brides and hear about their ideas and expectations for their day.  It was also great for me to be able to hear the feedback on the albums and canvases I had on display in my booth.  I was thrilled with the positive responses I was hearing about my work from the brides and from other photographers.

Aside from compliments on my work, I had a lot of compliments from other vendors regarding my booth.  Having never done a show before I felt that if I was going to commit to a wedding show, I was going to go all out.  I don’t claim to be a handy man by any means, so I’m pretty happy with the results.  I decided that building a wall would be the best course of action as I needed somewhere to hang canvas prints, so I went to a few home building stores for some price shopping and after Home Depot and Rona, I found a deal on MDF at Kent.  I bought 1/4″ MDF and had them cut the boards to 2′ x 8′ and deliver them to my house.  I also purchased a bunch of 2 x 2’s and had them delivered as well.

I started by drilling shallow holes in the MDF with the intention of countersinking the screws.  The key was to drill far enough to hide the screws but not so far as to go all the way through the MDF.  Once all the holes were drilled on a piece of MDF, I screwed the 2 x 2’s to the back around the perimeter.  I had to cut the wood for the ends and with my old saw, that took a while and I managed to cut myself twice with the saw.

After attaching the 2 x 2’s I used wood filler and filled all the holes over the screw heads and waited for it to dry.  Once dry (overnight), I sanded, wiped clean and painted each sheet with 2 coats of paint (paint & primer in 1).  One problem I encountered was the MDF warping out from the 2 x 2’s in my cold basement.  I had to add additional screws so the walls weren’t wavy.  Building in a warmer area would have prevented this problem.

Next I took baseboards and cut each baseboard to the size of the MDF and attached Velcro strips to the back of the baseboards.  I left them off the wall until the show itself.

With the wall sections built and bad weather preventing me from doing a trial setup, I made my way to the Cunard Centre for the setup.  I put the wall panels on the floor and screwed the pieces to each other and then used some extra 2 x 2 on the back of my largest wall to add some stability.  With the walls raised, we attached the baseboards and touched up any areas that needed some extra paint.

The next day (the day of the show), we came early and hung the canvases and my sign and we were ready to go.  After a mere 6 hours of show time, we had to tear down the wall and head home.  The take down was much quicker than the construction and the only hiccup was that some of the screws became stripped and took some extra work (struggle) to get them out.  After unloading the van and returning it (and picking up dinner), Robyn and I were home watching the Pens game by 7:00.

What would I do differently you ask?  Not too much really.  I was glad I had Robyn with me as there were times it got quite hectic and I could have used one more person even.  After the fashion shows ended it got crazy so we made sure to refill our supplies during the shows.  I could have used 2 more chairs as there were often more than 2 people looking at albums at a time, so maybe more chairs are in order next time and maybe one more album would be nice.  I had 4.

There’s one big question to be answered still and that’s regarding my Engagement Session giveaway.  Who won?  From 120 entries received the name picked is………. Jen Flemming!!!!! I will be contacting her shortly to see about setting up time to take the photos.  Congratulations Jen!!!

Here are the booth process photos:

Enjoy!!!

www.DustinHallPhotography.ca

I had the space heater going to warm up the room and dry off the wood that got wet during a snowy delivery.Drilling the holes for the screws.A screw, just below the plane of the MDF.The wood filler waiting for a sanding.After sanding.The booth at the Cunard centre with our stuff ready to construct.Robyn wiping down a wallWith the walls constructed and the baseboards on.The way we left the booth before heading home.  Note the painted edges of the wall makes a huge difference.I took this shot just before the show got under way at 10:00am.