May 10

May 10 THE BIG FAKE WEDDING- Nashville, TN

Kelly Emilianowicz

events, weddings, glamping

Our experience as a vendor at the coolest touring Bridal Show:

The Big Fake Wedding

For those unfamiliar with “The Big Fake Wedding”, it’s a unique alternative to a traditional bridal show. It’s the first event of it’s kind, creating an experiential opportunity for wedding vendors to showcase their products and services to shopping brides and grooms just as they would at a real wedding. Launching in 2008, The Big Fake Wedding is still the most uniquely curated and most far-reaching bridal show alternative in the nation, attracting over 6,000 attendees and 1,000 vendors annually across 30+ events in 25 cities.

The hand-selected vendors perform their services as they would at a real wedding, and the “wedding guests” get to hear the music, taste the cakes, and smell the flowers… while enjoying a night of great food, dancing and surprises, leaving brides-and-grooms-to-be saying “I want my wedding to be just like that!” For brides and grooms, the event serves as a source of inspiration, a resource in finding trusted wedding vendors and an emotional reminder to plan for what comes after the wedding: a marriage! For participating wedding vendors, the event exposes their business to new referral sources, while also exposing each vendor to a wealth of inspiration, resources and confidence to take their business to the next level.

As a vendor who traditionally pitches tents outside, in the ground, we were tasked with creating a way to showcase our bell tent lounge setup, indoors. The stunning downtown venue, One Canary, consisted of various levels of industrial floors that offered city views of downtown Nashville. The building as a whole offers numerous rental spaces for events, concerts and weddings, providing each event is a uniquely hip ambiance. Our lounge was set up right as guests exited the elevator and we had a perfect view of the entire show.

We had ample space in the great room so we pitched one of our 450m bell tents indoors for a completely out-of-the-box lounge area concept. The tent actually created a calm, cozy and romantic hangout area where you could go for private conversation and serene relaxation. It provided a beautiful showpiece that was both functional and visually stimulating.

As the guests piled in, we were able to talk with each one and explain our business in greater detail. Each vendor was stationed near their setup, our table was just outside of the tent door and along with handing out information sheets/ business cards, we also had dry s’mores for guests to take with them. Overall, we loved our location and had a blast at this event!

This show consisted of all types of vendors, each providing a different element and we were so impressed with everyone’s designs.

Networking was a huge portion of this event and we made some great friendors.

Here are a few of our favorites: