I am trying to figure out other ways to get more wedding cake orders. I have a website and am on Facebook and other websites for weddings. I have done a couple bridal shows but they are very expensive. What do you all do to get more exposure and your name out there? Thanks!

Talk to othe wedding businesses, especially venues, photographers and caterers. They tend to be the first hired, so they have the power to refer to you. If there's any wedding networking groups in your area go to those meetings and get to know some people. I'd guess that about 90% of my business comes from referrals from previous clients and referrals from other businesses.

Sounds good ^^. I never did a bridal show because they were so expensive and I didn't know what my ROI would be but I like your idea to liaise with wedding venues, photographers and caterers.

You don't have any pictures posted so it's hard to judge your skill level. If you are confident in your work and you have repeat customers then by all means building a relationship with various wedding vendors is your answer.

Make a few dummy wedding cakes and have some good photos taken of them. Then use those to print a nice brochure or hand-out and ask various vendors to place them with other wedding merchant's information they may display.

But if your work is not up to a certain level, all the networking in the world won't help. I am assuming it is so good luck to you!

Yes, please post your website link, so folks can give you some feedback on making it more directed at weddings.

I'm with costumeczar - MOST of my work comes from referrals from happy clients. There is no rushy way to do this - you have to let your business grow organically. I did one wedding show when I was a younger caker, and would definitely not do one again unless I was running a storefront with employees. I turn away more business than I can accept (for weddings AND other celebration cakes). Because there is only one of me!

The other 10 - 15% of my orders come from Facebook and website enquiries*. I often get asked to make wedding cakes for people in my capital city even though it is 150kms away, so the website is invaluable. People love to browse through oodles of pictures, and collect images on Pinterest and so if you have great photos of great wedding cakes on your website and FB page, and you also have your business set up properly (whatever model you may be under - home or bakery), then people will come!

* Just wanted to add, even referred customers want to see loads of photos of your work and get a feel for your style, so these days unfortunately you can't rely alone on word of mouth, you need a great website at the least (plus FB or Flickr, or Pinterest etc etc as bonus social media) to have them make the decision to give you a try based on what they see in, and feel for, your work.

Yes, I agree. You need to have a lot of photos of your work on your website and on FB. I currently get business from my website and FB and I have repeat customers but I have in the past subscribed to The Knot and got a ton of bookings from them. I think I still do get bookings from them even though I'm not a subscriber any more.

I've done a few bridal shows but while networking is fun and wonderful, I never get bookings from the shows. I do have a few wedding planners I work with that refer me to their clients too.