1 October 2026 · 5 min read · Oscar Markham
Are wedding fairs still worth it for a venue?
Every Irish venue has done wedding fairs and most are quietly unsure whether they work. The honest answer is that they can, but not as a place to book weddings. They are a place to collect couples who are early in planning, and almost nobody treats them that way.
Nobody books a venue at a fair
They collect brochures, talk to twenty suppliers and go home overwhelmed. Expecting a booking on the day is the wrong measure and it is why fairs look like a failure.
The measure that matters is showrounds booked in the following fortnight.
Book the visit at the stand
Not a brochure, not an email later. A date in a diary while you are standing in front of them.
Venues that do this report completely different results from venues that collect business cards, and it is the only meaningful change most need to make.
Your own open day usually beats somebody else's fair
At a fair you are one of forty suppliers in a hall. At your own open day the couple is standing in the building, which is the thing you were trying to achieve anyway.
It also costs less, and you can invite the enquiries who have gone quiet, which is the list that needs a reason to re-engage.
If you do go, go where your couples are
A venue in Meath at a Cork fair is spending a Saturday on people who will not travel. Local and regional fairs convert; national ones mostly do not, unless you genuinely sell a destination.
Measure it properly
Showrounds booked, then weddings booked, traced back. Not leads collected.
Most venues have no idea whether fairs work because they have never traced a single booking back to one.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.