The Original Wedding Expo is the New England destination for future brides and businesses to network and for all things wedding related. I had a chance to speak to Robert Chevalier, President of Chevalier Associates, to ask about his background in the business, and about what we might expect for this fall’s season of exhibitions. The interview took place on Tuesday, February 17, 2009. You can listen to it here or read the transcript.
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The theme of your convention is weddings and when did you become interested in weddings?
Well, we are a family business. My parents, my mother and father, started The Original Wedding Expo when they had started their advertising agency back in 1978. And I was associated with the wedding expos from when I was 7, 8 years old pushing around the exhibitor coffee and donut cart during setup, all the way up ’til today, producing and running Chevalier Associates.
Ok, so you’ve kind of grown up in the convention life.
I have, yes, definitely grown up in the trade show side, both the professional side of promoting the shows and then putting on the production hat. Now we hire professional trade show decorators to actually set up the Wedding Expo.
And when did you say the first Original Wedding Expo took place?
1978 at the Driftwood in Shrewsbury [Massachusetts]. And then we moved. We were there for 2 years, ’78, ’79, and then we moved to the Auditorium in Worcester, the Worcester Memorial Auditorium, and then we were at what is now the Crown Plaza, for a couple years. And then, when the Worcester Centrum opened, we moved the Wedding Expo, as it grew every year, to the Worcester Centrum, and then to the Trade Center which is now the DCU Center. And now we have moved to the Royal Plaza Trade Center in Marlborough.
Let’s talk about The Original Wedding Expo events that are lined up for this fall.
We start the season in September. We will be in Marlborough September 13th at the Trade Center, then in Sturbridge at the Host Hotel September 20th. And then 2 shows in November, at Twin River, a 2 day show at the Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island November 7th and 8th. And then in Braintree at the Sheraton Braintree Hotel on November 15th.
What are some of the things people might expect to see when they attend one of your shows?
Everything that can be expected from the standpoint of an engaged couple coming to plan their wedding. All major facets are represented from bridal shops, tuxedo shops, invitation companies, limousines, photographers, caterers, cake bakers, all of that wrapped around a professional setting and a professionally choreographed fashion show. We hit them with all the senses. They sample food. They eat cakes. They listen to music. They see a fashion show and one lucky couple walks away with an 8 day honeymoon to Aruba. So you know, all the aspects are represented and the exhibitors have the opportunity to meet face to face with hundreds of engaged couples.
Are they a one day affair? Are they a weekend affair?
4 out of the 6 shows are 1 day, 1 day Sunday shows, but our Twin River show and our January Marlborough show are 2 day events.
How far in advance should attendees plan to register?
They can register all year long online at OriginalWeddingExpo.com. Brides can come online, download a 2 for 1 pass that they get in their e-mail and then they can bring it right to the show. So they’re planning all year long. And they can come to the site and we can see who’s coming into the site when they’re downloading passes and what shows they plan to come to.
Alright. And what are some ballpark admission rates?
All the shows are 12 dollars per person, but online, brides can get a 2 for 1 pass, so basically we’re discounting that by 50 percent.
Ok, so this is something easy to do. This is sort of a no-brainer if you’re in the market for a marriage, this is easy. It’s not going to break the bank.
Absolutely.
Do you have a chance to walk the floor and get a sense of what people are most interested in?
Yeah, absolutely, because myself and my staff continually work the show floor, from exhibitor setup through the show hours right down to breakdown because we want to make sure that we’re available to the exhibitors. And yes, during the show hours, we are able to see the interaction with the exhibitors and the guests and we get an idea of what the bride is thinking, how serious the bride is, and the guests, as far as planning or if they’re getting some ideas. This past January at our two shows we’re seeing brides who are serious with their budget. They were making deposits. They were booking appointments and it was a good thing to see.
What are some of the favorite attractions?
The fashion show. Because of the word of mouth over the, you know, 31 years of how we produce our fashion show. It’s professional with professional choreography, professional models out of Boston, and what we do is we feature fashions from the 4 seasons. So anybody coming to Wedding Expo, depending on what time of year they’re having their wedding, there’s bridal gowns for the entire wedding party represented in their time of season that they’re getting married.
What kind of companies or individuals might be interested in displaying their products and services at your events?
Any wedding-related vendor who would want to put themselves in front of anywhere between 300 brides at one show up to 1,000 brides at a 2 day show because like I said, it’s a great opportunity for exhibitors, both start-up–mom and pop–or existing companies, to meet face to face under one roof. And you know, in the course of their business in 1 year, they couldn’t hope to see this many brides in front of them in 1 day. And to answer your question, everybody from limousines to wedding cakes and everybody in between, there’s a place for them at the show.
How would you encourage them to get involved? How would they contact you to…
Online at OriginalWeddingExpo.com, we have pages for exhibitor services and potential exhibitors to look at what we’re all about. There’s files on there for them to download, testimonials… They can get a really good feel for what The Original Wedding Expo is all about and then they have the ability to contact us directly through the web site or at 888-774-3976.
Just curious about “The Original” in the name of your show. Has their been confusion with another wedding expo that might have started running since your show?
There have been some different bridal shows within the Massachusetts / New England area who may not know that we are trademarked with both The Original Wedding Expo and Wedding Expo, and over the years, we have been the preeminent. We have been the premier in long lasting, longest running bridal show, and that’s why it’s important that we have branded ourselves as The Original Wedding Expo because we’ve shown a lot of different companies how to sustain their wedding business by taking part in the Wedding Expo.
Excellent. Is there anything I’ve missed that you’d like to cover, or…
No, you’ve done a great job. I just want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to go to the web site at OriginalWeddingExpo.com because it’s loaded with information for both brides and exhibitors or potential exhibitors and bridal merchants.
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You’ve been hearing my conversation with Bob Chevalier, one of the key men behind The Original Wedding Expo. If you enjoyed this interview, and you’d like to hear more conversations like it, subscribe to LCI Paper’s podcast.
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The Original Wedding Expo
Joshua Birch
