Back in July I received an email from Whitney introducing herself from a company named The Big Fake Wedding. Within her email she told me about The Big Fake Wedding and what it is they do and told me they would be putting on an event in Orlando and needed another photographer. For those wondering, The Big Fake Wedding is just as it sounds: its a wonderful fake wedding! Basically several different vendors from the area are invited to come together and show off their talents for a “wedding.” Despite the wedding not actually being real, the couple is a real couple! They use the event as an opportunity to renew their vows to one another, pretty sweet right? The guests at the wedding? Engaged couples, wedding planners, friends of couples getting married and so on. They attend to not just greet a vendor at a table but to see their work physically in action! The Big Fake Wedding is an awesome opportunity to meet other vendors in the industry from your general area and gather amazing content for each and everyone’s portfolio. It’s often described as an alternative bridal show, but more so than that its probably the most fun you could ever have networking… which I loath networking events, but this one rocks.

So a little bit about the day itself, I’ll be transparent here and tell you I was super nervous! Having never done anything like this before, I wanted to nail it. Thankfully I worked alongside two “dynamic duo” photography teams: Rad Red Creative and Dewitt For Love Photography. Lee and Brittany from Rad Red and Shannon and Brandon from Dewitt For Love are the freaking coolest. I had my brother Cole shooting with me that day and I felt like the 6 of us gelled super well together and just had a lot of fun. Honestly working with them eased my nerves and they made the experience even more of a blast. Very thankful our three businesses were asked to do the event together!

So for the event, all the vendors are given the same “theme” for the day. It includes a few inspirational photos, a starting point color palette and a little description of the “vibes” they’re looking for. The theme we were all given was Homespun. Essentially go to any given Anthropologie and viola! You have the Homespun theme. It was exciting to see how each and every designer interpreted this theme to fit their own style for their brand and I enjoyed photographing the details of  all their hard work!

Like I mentioned before, our couple was a real couple who’s names are Palmer and Nicole. They each had a friends they invited to be part of the bridal party and they were a really fun bunch! Nicole is absolutely stunning, I’m lowkey obsessed with her gorgeous hair, the color is amazing! Together you could really feel the love between her and Palmer, they were the perfect couple to ask to participate in this event. The vows Palmer and Nicole renewed to one another were beautiful and so touching. At one point during the vows I was standing next to Brittany from Rad Red and we both we’re on the verge of tearing up. I think that’s one of the aspects I love most about The Big Fake Wedding – the opportunity they are giving to real couples to take a moment and celebrate their love for one another once again. Also, to make new promises they may not have accounted for when they originally got married. Simply put, it’s a beautiful thing to witness.

Here are some of my favorite images from The Big Fake Wedding in Orlando! I hope my images give you a taste of the awesome talent from the other vendors at this freaking awesome event!