There is a wide misconception on exactly what a wedding sponsorship is. The type of people who seek out sponsors for their wedding are, for the most part people who understand budgeting. The concept of wedding sponsorship has been around for quite a while but still in some circles controversial. People have read articles and heard stories about couples who have gone this route and saved thousands of dollars in the process but the interesting thing about some of these couples, is that they could easily afford the wedding in the first place. So why go through the process of locating sponsors? Could it be that it just made “good sense”. Now I would have said “business sense” but that’s where it gets controversial. I have listened to heated arguments about this exact topic, almost as if the discussion was about politics. Some argue that this is a special day and it should not be tainted by the domination of corporate involvement. Just to be fair, most of these arguments take place due to lack of information on this subject. I think that most people when they here the words “Corporate Sponsor” they think of banners, flyers, display booths, print media and even publicity gimmicks. At the very least have a preconceived image of the words “Sponsored By…” etched in their minds.
Sponsored weddings are not corporate events and should not be treated as such. The form of sponsorship, which appeals to most wedding couples and corporate sponsors alike, are cross promotion and barter opportunities. As an example, if you were already prepared to pay $7000.00 for the wedding venue and the vendor said to you “ look, if you give me the names of three more potential wedding couples that I might call to promote to my venue, I will give you a 70% discount ($4900.00). Now if you knew three couples that were getting married in the next year, you might be inclined to pass the name on to the venue owner, and take advantage of this discount. There is no different between this scenario and what a wedding sponsor can be. Two things to remember; everything is negotiable on some level and everything has some value to someone. If you would like more information on wedding sponsorship go to http://www.sponsoryourwedding.com
Brian Leslie is CEO of “The Wedding Sponsors”, a company which provides sponsorship services to wedding couples looking to save money on their “big day” The author of this article, Leslie, has spent many years in Film Industry as an Executive Producer specializing in cross promotion and financing.
