In this episode Oh Shoot! podcast, Cassidy Lynne chats with Lauren & Michael from @thevendortable about their photography journey, how they started their podcast, and some of their wedding industry hot takes
Listen to the full podcast on Spotify or watch the episode on YouTube!
In this episode, Cassidy Lynne talks about wedding industry hot takes with the vendor table!
Hello everybody welcome back to another episode of oh shoot we have a guest episode this week and I think a lot of you guys are going to be very very VERY excited, I have on two guests and collectively they make the vendor table pod but separately they are Michael and Lauren so super excited to have them on the podcast today! So, let hear more about them.
Who are you & what do you do?
Lauren: I’m Lauren O’Brien one half of the Vendor Table pod. My creative journey started with painting in high school, I was really into it and thought I’d become an illustrator or do something hands-on with art. Funny enough, I picked up photography just to take reference photos for my paintings but ended up loving it way more! Without any formal training, I submitted some photos to colleges and got accepted. College didn’t stick though! I dropped out and took a break from photography. Spent about 5 years bartending in Florida, which was honestly terrible. After moving back to New York, I was just done with doing something I didn’t care about. So I picked up my camera again and landed a job as a lead shooter at a studio. Worked there for like 6 years, and then went out on my own. And here I am now!
Michael: I started my journey as a film student in college, not having much interest in photography during high school despite my mom being our dedicated family photographer. Taking a digital photography class as an elective sparked my interest, leading to getting my first DSLR. After graduating in 2009, I landed a job as Director of Photography at a marketing firm in North Carolina, where I discovered my passion for still photography through the Canon 5D Mark II.
Moving back to New York, I started second shooting weddings as a side gig. Initially disliking wedding photography, my perspective changed after learning from Chris Lipol, who taught me valuable skills I still use today. I balanced this with a corporate job at the Tiffen company for eight years, working up to Marketing Communications Manager while continuing wedding photography on the side. My first solo wedding in 2012 came from a couple who found me through my urban exploration photography. This led to more bookings through word of mouth, growing steadily from two to four to six weddings. What started as a side hustle eventually became my full-time career in 2019. And I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
Wedding Industry Hot Takes
How did you first meet & connect?
We met through Instagram! Lauren sent me (Michael) a DM, I had some wedding coming up and I needed a second shooter and se was down!
How did The Vendor Table come to be?
On the first wedding I (Lauren) second shoot for Michael we had like 15 min to have lunch, so we sat a vendor’s table, and I told Michael that I always wanted to have a podcast. Michael said he had the equipment, and after the season ended, we sat down, and we were like if we want to do this, we have to do it right and go all in! We filmed our first episode and 80 episodes later here we are!
Wedding Industry Hot Takes
What is it like working together on a shared brand? What are the roles & tasks each of you handle?
So, with our podcast and separate businesses (both in wedding photography), we’ve learned to divide responsibilities effectively. I (Michael) handle front-facing marketing, social media content, clips, captions, and backend business stuff like bookkeeping and sponsorships. Lauren manages the Facebook group, DMs, and friendly comment responses, while I tackle the trolls and run threads. Being a self-admitted control freak (totally Type A), it’s been challenging for me to delegate, but it’s necessary. Communication is absolutely key when running a business together. The podcast’s unexpected explosive growth has meant way more maintenance, especially since we pride ourselves on personally responding to followers – we’re talking hundreds of messages daily.
Between managing marketing, sponsorships, brand deals, and recently being asked to speak at WPPI, plus being in peak season, it’s intense. We regularly check in with each other, sometimes just to talk each other off the ledge (literally happened two days ago, with some serious phone yelling and “calm down” moments). Looking ahead to next year, we’re considering bringing on a social media person or virtual assistant because it’s becoming a lot to handle. But we’re doing our best to find that balance, that yin and yang in our partnership.
Wedding Industry Hot Takes
Any advice for someone who wants to work together with another person or wants to bring a new team member into their business?
We think is really important to not overshadow the other person. It good to lean into each other’s personalities and strengths. The most important thing when you have a face-facing business like this one is to make sure you are not taking away from the other person. We give each other the space to be ourselves and exist together as a pair like we know the vendor table would not exist without either one of us.
Do you ever get scared of sharing controversial opinions online? (Scared that your clients or potential clients might see)
When we started our podcast, we made a pact: if it ever negatively impacted our businesses, we’d shut it down immediately. This principle still guides us today. We carefully navigate controversial topics using what we call the 70/30 rule – we aim for 70% of our audience to agree with our takes and 30% to disagree. This ratio is strategic: the majority who agree provides a solid base, while the disagreeing minority drives engagement through comments and discussions. We’re intentional about not crossing into purely negative territory.
Instead of bashing aspects of our industry (like saying “weddings suck”), we focus on showing the realistic side of things. Our goal is to educate people about vendors being human too, sharing authentic perspectives about the industry without sugarcoating. At the end of the day, any controversy we create is meant to spark healthy conversations. We believe in normalizing respectful disagreements and creating a space where different opinions can coexist and generate meaningful dialogue. This approach has served us well over the past year and a half.
Wedding Industry Hot Takes
How do you guys manage running a podcast / brand while separately having your own photo businesses?
Michael: Here’s a breakdown of our podcast production workflow and my daily schedule managing two businesses: For the podcast, we batch record 3-4 episodes in 2-2.5 hour studio sessions monthly. Our producer Matt handles the initial editing, then we review and select clips. I personally do the captions to add humor and hooks, posting clips at 8:30 AM every other day.
Running both a photography business (35 weddings this year, 12 still to edit) and the podcast requires intense time management. My typical day starts after dropping kids off – I workout, then tackle photography work. The last two hours of my workday are dedicated to podcast stuff like networking. I try to disconnect when kids are home until 9 PM, then I’m back in the office until 1 AM working on podcast content. Yeah, I know – working 12-14 hours daily sounds crazy. Being a gamer taught me to function on minimal sleep, and I actually enjoy the quiet night hours. But here’s the truth for aspiring creators: success requires serious grinding. Our 75-100k views per clip didn’t happen by accident. You get back what you put in, so I’ll keep grinding until either I can’t anymore or can afford to delegate.
Wedding Industry Hot Takes
Questions from listeners:
What was the most difficult thing to do when you started the Vendor Table?
Finding the right clips that would resonate with viewers was probably the toughest challenge at first. Like, we’d post stuff we thought was hilarious, but without context, people were just confused. What’s super funny when you’re in the moment with friends doesn’t always translate to social media. The wedding industry actually gives us tons of content – there’s always some wild story or drama going down on TikTok.
It took us a good six months to get our first semi-viral clip, and eight months for a truly viral one. Man, I remember being hyped about getting 700 views, like “Yo, this is it!” Then we hit 10,000 views and we were absolutely stoked. The first 100,000-view clip was mind-blowing, and when we finally got that million-view? It was crazy! But for real, finding that perfect formula took forever. It wasn’t an overnight success – we had to keep grinding and tweaking our approach until things finally clicked.
How do you guys handle social media fame & trying to run a normal business at the same time?
It is definitely weird to be recognized in public, lol! People are sometimes afraid to come up to us and say hi, and we also find it weird because we are just normal people lol. Something we have noticed is that some vendors that were not that nice to use, now that we are bigger and treating us a little nicer.
Wedding Industry Hot Takes
THIS OR THAT
Destination wedding or local luxury wedding
Main shooter(Lauren) or second shooter (Michael)
bridal party or no bridal party
videographer or no videographer
sunset shoot but lot’s of people OR mid-day shoot with no one around
Show Notes:
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