How long should a bridal market appointment be?

Most bridal market appointments run between 45 and 90 minutes. Plan the presentation so the core of the line is shown in the first half, leaving time for questions, terms and building the order before the buyer's next appointment.

What should a designer prepare before market week?

Confirm the line and style numbers, wholesale and suggested retail pricing, delivery windows, minimums, size range and sample availability. Have line sheets ready in the format buyers will actually use afterwards, and make sure every sales representative is showing the same information.

How do you capture what a buyer liked during the appointment?

Record interest against the style itself rather than on a separate notepad. Favorites, notes, photos and requested quantities should all be attached to the style number so the follow-up is accurate days later, when several appointments blur together.

When should you follow up after a bridal market?

Send the appointment recap the same day or the next morning, while the buyer still remembers the line. Follow up on outstanding decisions within the first week, before competing appointments and internal buying meetings crowd it out.

Bridal wholesale insights

How to Run a Bridal Market Appointment

Market appointments are where a bridal season is won or lost. The designers who leave market with confirmed orders are rarely the ones with the most styles — they are the ones whose appointments were structured, recorded accurately and followed up quickly.

1. Prepare the line before the market opens

Everything that slows an appointment down is decided before market week. Lock the style list, confirm wholesale and suggested retail pricing, and agree on delivery windows, minimums and the size range you can genuinely produce.

Make sure every sales representative is presenting the same line in the same order with the same pricing. Inconsistency between representatives is one of the most common reasons a buyer delays a decision.

2. Open with context, not with the first dress

Spend the first few minutes on the story of the season, who the collection is for and what changed since the last delivery. A buyer who understands the point of view edits the line more confidently — and more generously.

Ask what the retailer needs before you present: price bands that are selling, gaps in their floor, silhouettes their brides are asking for. Then present the line against those answers.

3. Control the presentation

The representative should decide what is on screen or on the rail at any moment. When a buyer is free to skip ahead, the line gets skimmed rather than seen, and the styles that need explanation are the ones that get lost.

Move at a deliberate pace and pause on the styles that carry the season. Give the buyer somewhere to record interest as you go, so nothing depends on memory later.

4. Capture interest on the style, not on a notepad

Favorites, notes, requested quantities, fabric or customization questions and photos should all be recorded against the style number they belong to. A photo in an unlabeled camera roll is not a record; a note on a separate pad is a transcription task.

This is exactly what Live Appointment Mode was built for: the retailer follows the presentation on their own device and everything they mark stays attached to the correct style.

5. Build the order in the room

Do not leave the appointment with only a shortlist. Turn the favorites into a working order with quantities and sizes, even if it is provisional. A provisional order gives the follow-up a subject.

Confirm terms while the buyer is present: delivery window, deposit, minimum, exclusivity or territory expectations. These are the questions that stall orders when they are left to email.

6. Send the recap the same day

By the third day of a market, appointments blur together for both sides. A same-day recap containing the presented styles, the buyer's favorites, their notes, the photos and the working order keeps your line at the front of the decision.

Follow up on outstanding decisions within the first week, then track the order through production and delivery from the same record rather than restarting the conversation in a new thread.

Run this appointment on AME

Live Appointment Mode is part of the AME Designer Wholesale Platform. Present the line, let the retailer favorite and annotate in real time, and leave the appointment with an organized order and recap.

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