I have a bridal fest coming up in January, where they had 4500+ brides last year. Not sure the size booth I'll get yet, but DH is big into advertising and thinks I need way more than the three dummies I was planning to do to display for this event. (he's saying 12! )

How many would you do, or have you done, or have you seen displayed...? I haven't done an expo yet, so I have no idea what to expect. I'm planning to do samples as well (AND have some HELP!)

It'd be fun to have free reign to order all the supplies for a dozen dummies, but is that overkill? Is 3 too few? 5?

any thoughts?

4500 brides!! I just did one last week and we had a little over 60 brides and counted that as a success. I had 8 display cakes. I think the more display cakes, the longer the brides stay and look and chat. I think the more the better, but I am into overkill, too. Good luck with your show and have fun.

hmm, interesting.

So maybe a dozen wouldn't be bad. And how fun would that be? To have my DH actually encouraging me to spend $ on all that display stuff? heehee! He wants to put mirrored shelving behind them and lights on them so it will look like a jewelery store display--really wow! That's what he's good at, so I need to listen, even if it sounds like overkill.

Wonder also how many samples to make. I mean, there's no WAY I can make 5000 samples..! (picturing self unconscious wearing apron and oven mits)...

Wow!!! What a cool experience!!! I've never done a bridal show before, but just off the top of my head, I would think that if you have too many cakes, some brides might be overwhelmed and not really look at them all because of crowding or whatever, but maybe I'm totally off. If it were me, I'd do maybe 6 or so, featuring a different style of decorating on each one. I'd probably have some very simple, but elegant; some displaying fresh flowers others gumpaste; one that was mostly white and one that is full color; maybe a Tiffany Box one, I don't know, these are just some ideas. I'd make a bunch of sheet cakes for tasting and just cut them in really tiny pieces.

Yes, I'm making a list of a real variety of styles that I'd like to make, like swags/ribbons/bows, stacked boxes, smooth simple tiers with flowers, quilting, dragees, sugared fruit, scroll work, etc.

I don't want to get carried away, but it'll be a fun thing to work on this winter. I think I have about 8 idea/styles in mind so far, but we'll see how many I actually do.

Well, I just looked at your photos and your cakes are absolutely gorogeous, so I know you'll be getting orders!!! You do a fantastic job!

What a lucky gal you are to have a husband with a creative touch! I think you should keep a journal of all your thoughts, sketches, goals, recipes and then go to work. Give yourself a "shoot for the stars" goal and a bare minimum goal of the number of cakes and samples. Don't stress yourself out if you have gone over the bare minimum. You do not want to go to the bridal fest exhausted because you've been in the kitchen for the last 72 hours. Just make sure that you have variety and lots of business cards. I'm sure that you will get a lot of great information from others on this site. Take pictures of your booth. We all want to see what you and your husband came up with. Good luck and have fun designing.

I went to a bridal show and I saw a booth with about ten cake dummies and boy was that overwhelming! The booth was just too full and it was hard to move and even talk to the chef. I think the key here is quality versus quantity. Six is a good number. You also have to take into consideration the size of your booth. What's also important is the taste of your cake. So, maybe you can focus more on that. And like you said have some help to answer questions, etc. Good luck!

I would pick your top designs, maybe 4, and then set up a nice book of your cakes have on hand your cards order forms, maybe have a drawing of some sort to get names and phone numbers for a data base list. You will need space for your samples, maybe your best brides cake flavor and your best grooms cake flavor, maybe even have a nice aromaed coffee to lure them in. I use a small cd or dvd player that has a slide show on it. It runs on batteries and it is nice for people to few your other cakes. It is also eye catching. I would save some space for your samples, you will need it, don't forget napkins and maybe some of those wet wipes, a good knife for cutting samples and some water to wipe off your knife, and lots of paper towels. Good Luck.