How to Have a Big Fake Wedding in Charleston, SC

It was a beautiful Wednesday afternoon in February with temps in an upward swing, this week, with most days being in the low to mid 60’s. The skies were partially cloudy with a small chance of rain that no one wanted, but for a wedding more luck is always accepted!

The destination was The Historic Rice Mill, with its colorful old brick that you can find as the same charming exterior of many of the buildings in town of the same age. It stretches skyward three stories at the water’s edge, overlooking a dock just off to the right filled with several sail boats with masts just as tall as the mill. The open water of the Ashley River, with James Island just beyond, fills the rest of your view.

You enter the building through a short hallway that opens up to a large room as long as the building allowing you to take in the amazing view from end to end. You are guided to the right through three rows of cocktail tables that fill half of the room, decorated uniquely with no consistent design, yet there was a consistent theme. As you work your way to the open door at the end of the tables, an outside seating area comes into view. An open deck with market lighting above is filled with seats for each guest, and allows you to enjoy the warm ocean breeze as you wait on the ceremony to begin.

Music from a live band begins and everyone stands to watch the bridal party and the elegantly dressed bride in white with her dapper groom make their way down the aisle, approaching the custom designed archway that waits for them at the front.

Now you start to notice some things that are a little odd. You noticed that you don’t even know the couple or anyone of the other 200 strangers sitting around watching all of this take place. Everyone is happy for them but now you’re asking yourself if you somehow became a wedding crasher? You do remember that you had to pay for a ticket and got a name tag as you entered the building. What is this!?

This my friend, is a big fake wedding.

It is a real celebration of marriage for a real couple, they are just renewing their vows rather than getting married (even better to see people that are still in love after years together!). You are joining their celebration along with a bunch of other strangers just like you, engaged (or wanting to be engaged) individuals attending with their squads.

Remember all those different tables? That’s not the handy work of a crazed cousin of the bride, but instead that is a tiny little setup representing each and every one of the wedding professionals that have gathered together and used their super powers to make this event happen! Everything you can think of has been brought together for this event, from the obvious things you see and hear (cakes, food, deserts, flowers and the music) to the more subtle artwork you could miss if you’re not paying attention (makeup, hair, handmade bowties, and paper products). The organizers of this event have worked hard to bring everyone and everything together for this beautiful day of celebration and their name, appropriately so, is The Big Fake Wedding.

Let me work this party with you as the rest of the night plays on and I’ll share all of the experiences and memorable moments that take place that you may want to happen during your own big day. Let’s start with the more obvious parts, and then work our way to the details, because the details can possibly be the part that everyone will talk about from now on.

To bring you back to the beginning, you begin by walking through a pair of large rustic wooden doors to see this beautiful wall of windows filled with the view of water and sailboats beyond. To your left in this room, you will find a long historic bar with dim lights, a wall of drinks, and a thick counter-top, that leaves you feeling like it is a sturdy and established location for your dance floor liquid courage to be served. The dim lights and atmosphere that is created by the bar leaves the rest of the space as the perfect spot for a dance floor, to be filled in with all of the colorful dancing lights and music that makes everyone want to move. Since this half of the room is so large, why not take advantage of some of the extra space in the corner to pop up a photo booth? This would allow you to take advantage of all of the energy and joy that is being shared on the dance floor and make it into a tangible memory for everyone!

After you have spent some time working up an appetite on the dance floor, you can make your way past the bar back towards the main entrance again, and you will be greeted with mouthwatering smells coming from the different tables that are set up to share some snack size main dishes. Tonight you will find parmesan crusted chicken on a bed of root vegetables, some lamb all dressed up and ready to eat, and even some fried green tomatoes. To follow that up, you chase it down with the many, many options for dessert. Depending on where you look you will see anything from custom shaped sugar cookies, an astonishingly accurate looking golf bag groom’s cake, a Bailey’s ice-cream bar, or uniquely flavored popsicles. Don’t worry though, there is plenty to go around a few times, thanks to the intimate size of this whole celebration, so feel free to try out everything (even seconds are welcome 🙂 ).

While you enjoy your dessert, you are now able to explore more of this beautiful venue and to take in all of the little details that surround you. As your eyes glide across all of the windows while the daylight is fading beyond them, you now notice that the walls are a really neat rustic pattern of old brick and concrete, as if the concrete was just a thin mask of modern design and the rustic bricks are fighting to come back. Looking around the venue you now take notice of the dinner tables that are set up for an extravagant wedding with beautiful floral centerpieces, hand lettered place cards and table numbers, and beautiful colored china. Now that you have seen some of these more detailed pieces, you decide to make your way to the rest of the room where tables have been set up by the rest of the talented vendors as a destination for you to meet with them personally and to get to know how they can help you with your own big day.

While you enjoy your dessert, you are now able to explore more of this beautiful venue and to take in all of the little details that surround you. As your eyes glide across all of the windows while the daylight is fading beyond them, you now notice that the walls are a really neat rustic pattern of old brick and concrete, as if the concrete was just a thin mask of modern design and the rustic bricks are fighting to come back. Looking around the venue you now take notice of the dinner tables that are set up for an extravagant wedding with beautiful floral centerpieces, hand lettered place cards and table numbers, and beautiful colored china. Now that you have seen some of these more detailed pieces, you decide to make your way to the rest of the room where tables have been set up by the rest of the talented vendors as a destination for you to meet with them personally and to get to know how they can help you with your own big day.

Walking through the tables you are greeted with warm welcomes and a smile, as you are introduced to each artist that took part in this event, because everything that you see is nothing less than art. You meet several characters like…

The lady that actually brought in all of the comfortable, vintage chairs that transformed a small open space into what could be a room of its own. (Adorn Charleston)

A woman that makes notebooks with handmade paper covers that are meant to encapsulate your wedding vows. (Raw City Paper)

A daughter and mother florist duo, where the styles of two different generations collide to create something completely unique. (Waiting on Wild Flowers)

The lovely woman who was responsible for bringing the majority of the rental furniture that you can see throughout the entire venue. (A Tailor Made Event)

A fun couple who make beautiful, sustainably sourced, vintage bow ties. (Tiebreaker Bow Ties)

A husband and wife photography team that have skills with a camera and color that are well beyond their years. (Moving Mountains Photography)

Even right in the middle of all of the organized chaos, you spot one of the most well-known names in the wedding industry, The Knot!

And at the end of the room before you start to make your way back down the opposite side, you run into us. A trifecta of friends that are professional designers with a passion for personalized weddings and custom paper products for any kind of occasion. (Enlove Occasions)

This is just to name a few of the over 30 vendors that worked together to put this whole thing together.

After you have made your rounds and danced till your hearts content, even if you have two left feet (*cough* raises hand), before you can leave you are gifted these delightful little candles that are locally made just to help you burn the midnight oil after the party has commenced. (Charleston Candle Company)

Luckily for those of you that were not able to attend or were just having too much fun to be able to take in everything, there was also a videographer that partied along with us and he captured the entire evening!

And just so you have the ability to reach out to anyone that made something that you saw in a photo or the video and just fell in love with, here is a list of everyone that took part in this awesome event and that they did to contribute.