Achievement Unlocked:: Craft Fair Success.

I feel like I’ve been on a roller coaster ride for the past three weeks.

And now that the ride is over, I want to go again.

My first craft fair event was a success! Granted, I worked my ass off to get there, but it was worth every minute of my prep time.

Including the not-so-perfect tablecloth.

I was worried a card table wouldn’t fit into the GTI, in addition to all the things I needed to bring, but it all worked out. I didn’t even have to remove The Boy’s carseat. Bonus!

Packing up the GTI.

Once I got to Cotton Babies, I had a few minutes to kill, so I went into Freddy’s for some duct tape (you never know), a Clif Bar, and some sunscreen. I wasn’t sure where my table was going to be, and I wanted to be prepared (and not a lobster by the end of Hour 4).

When 9am rolled around, I checked in with the event coordinator and chose my table spot. I guess it’s not typical of craft fairs to let you choose your spot, but I was thankful to be able to at this event. I strategized and chose my spot on the east side of the building; that way I only got the morning sun and wouldn’t be baking in the afternoon sun.

I’m glad I had an hour to set up shop. While I did a test run at home and took good photos for reference, setting up still took me longer than I expected! Thank goodness I bought the duct tape- that was helping my banner stay up!

I confessed to the vendor next to me that it was my first craft show, and she said, “You could have fooled me!” While I did a lot of work on merchandising my booth, you can be the judge:

marshmueller booth! She’s a beauty!And then 10am rolled around: this is it.

marshmueller is open for business.

The first 45 minutes was painfully slow. I feared no one would come my way and look at my wares. The realization that I might have NO sales was very, very real.

10:45am: My first sale! YAAAAAY!

Achievement Unlocked: recouping the cost of the booth fee.

Throughout the event, it was so, SO reassuring to have real, live customers interacting with my products (including a product I debuted at the event…I’m posting about those later this week), and being genuinely excited about them, and BUYING them. Best. Feeling. Ever.

I even got a few custom orders to make.

All in all, at the end of the day, I felt great about my sales and actually had one last minute sale as I was packing up!

Notes for next time:

-If I’m going to use a grey bed sheet as a tablecloth, just bite the financial bullet and buy a wrinkle-resistant one. I had a hell of a time keeping the wrinkles out of my crappy one. You really do get what you pay for.

-Make sure the Square card reader app for my iPad is actually functioning. My first sale was a little nervewracking because the transaction wasn’t going through. Thankfully, the app on my iPhone worked beautifully for the rest of the afternoon.

Now that I’m set up for selling at craft fairs, I’m impatiently waiting to jump on the next one!