In this episode of Mind Your Wedding Business, Kevin Dennis sits down with Tanya Pushkine, also known as The Vow Whisperer, to explore why multicultural ceremonies are one of the most powerful ways couples can celebrate their heritage. After a successful corporate career, Tanya unexpectedly discovered her calling during her own wedding—launching a niche business dedicated to crafting deeply personal ceremonies, coaching couples through writing their vows, and training friends and family members to officiate with confidence.

Together, Kevin and Tanya unpack the growing shift toward personalization: couples wanting vows that reflect their real story, ceremonies that honor both sides of their heritage, and celebrations that feel authentic rather than performative. Tanya shares how she guides couples through cultural conversations, helps them uncover traditions they may not even know about, and balances multiple cultures or religions with sensitivity and intention.

They also dive into the vendor side—how planners, officiants, and creative teams can approach cultural traditions respectfully, what to research beforehand, and how communication prevents mishaps. With stories spanning Nigerian dances to Malaysian tea ceremonies to fusion Hindu rites, Tanya offers a grounded, real-world look at what it means to create a ceremony that’s both culturally rooted and unmistakably “them.”

Highlights

• A niche is born: Tanya launched The Vow Whisperer after her own wedding experience revealed a need for personalized ceremonies and vow support.
• The rise of personal vows: Couples are moving away from “repeat after me” and toward heartfelt, individualized expressions.
• Heritage matters: Modern couples increasingly want to incorporate cultural, religious, and ancestral elements into their ceremony.
• Officiant coaching is booming: Family and friends officiating has surged—bringing both beautiful moments and avoidable mishaps.
• Cultural conversations: Asking about ancestry, family traditions, and generational practices builds ceremonies that feel meaningful.
• Research is key: Vendors who explore cultural traditions can elevate guest experience and honor clients authentically.
• Balancing acts: Multicultural and multi-religious weddings require care, communication, and thoughtful blending of rituals.
• Vendor collaboration: Planners, musicians, and cultural specialists all play a role in executing a seamless ceremony.
• Guest experience first: Personal vows and cultural rituals are often the most memorable parts of the day for attendees.
• Advice for new vendors: Stay curious, ask questions, and let the couple’s story—not assumptions—guide every decision.

This episode is a thoughtful, behind-the-scenes guide for wedding pros who want to honor culture with confidence, craft ceremonies that feel personal and intentional, and build stronger relationships with today’s globally diverse couples.

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All right, folks, welcome to another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. I am here with Tanya, who is the vow whisperer. She's the founder of the vow whisperer. So we're going to be talking about multicultural ceremonies as the ultimate way to celebrate heritage. Tanya, welcome.

you

Thank you so much, Kevin. I have wanted to be on this show for years. Yes, yes, I'm so glad we're doing this.

wow!

I'm excited we're doing it too. can you tell us a little bit about yourself, Tanya, and how we got you here today?

Absolutely. I started the vow Whisperer six years ago after typically, very often you hear this when a planner will have started her wedding business after her own wedding. Well, I started this business after my second wedding. And it was really, I had this big, fabulous, lucrative, glamorous corporate career and I got married. didn't know.

wow.

I had had one wedding years ago and this one I had no idea what I was doing, but I planned it and we wrote our vows and the New York Times covered it for one of those, you know, full on the main one of a Sunday. And the writer was, it was a big deal. And the writer came up to me after the ceremony and she said, look, I have covered hundreds of weddings for the New York Times, but I have never seen such an incredible ceremony. And the next words were,

Yeah.

Wow, that's a big deal.

Tanya, I know what you do in your real life, but this is what you need to be doing. You need to join the wedding industry and figure something out. And literally a month later, I was having lunch with a guest at the wedding. And I said, I don't know. I mean, what about if I helped couples with their vows? Because that's how I started out. And he said, my God, you're the vow whisperer.

wow.

And there we go.

⁓ And there we go.

And I started this plan. mean, my husband constantly tells me I did it all wrong. I did not have a business strategy or a business plan. I had nothing but a crazy idea. And six years ago, it took off. I created at the time a very niche category and I now have a ton of competition. did not have anyone six years ago. ⁓ And it was really...

It was helping couples with their vows and important to note, I'm not a writer. And so it's basically counseling, advising, getting every people to bring out everything about their past lives, the relationship, what the proposal was like, what did you feel like when you first met? All of these things, I get it out of the person and then I craft their vows using their words. So it is a thousand million times percent.

Mmm.

you

from their hearts. It's not me. I'm not feeling what they feel. So that's how I started. And then I was working with a couple and they said, you know what, we've just fired our officiant. Would you marry us instead? I went, sure. So that became a whole thing. I'm very lucky. I travel the globe doing this now. And then...

Yeah.

jeez.

wow.

And then the part of the business that has exploded, and I think you'll understand this, in the last couple of years, most weddings are performed by family members or friends. These people have no idea what they're doing. I hear one horror story after another, and from planners. And it's become the biggest part of my business. I coach these people on how to perform the ceremony like a pro.

Mm-hmm.

⁓

I'll craft the ceremony with the couple so they get exactly what they want. And this poor friend or Uncle Johnny or whoever does not have to AI how do I write a wedding ceremony.

Help me out chat GPT

Exactly, it never

goes well. So the ceremony is exactly what the couples want. And then I coach the officiant with everything from stage directions to don't forget to tell the guests to please be seated after you've told them to please rise. Uh-huh. I know. I know.

⁓ thank you, because that's what they all forget. I can't tell you

how many weddings I've seen where they stand for the entire ceremony. Yeah.

Yeah, I know, I know.

Or they don't get out of the frame for the kiss. You know, things like that. So the coaching has become huge. And I do that for, it's funny because I'd say 40 % of my business takes place in Italy. And it's Americans looking, doing destination weddings in Italy who hire me because they're bringing along Uncle Johnny or best friend Sally. So, you know, that's...

Yeah, yeah.

Wow.

wow, lucky!

Mm-hmm.

in essence what I do.

And it's funny when you said the friends and the coaching, which I think is a much needed thing in our industry because a couple things I think has been a seismic shift in the wedding industry from when you started your businesses. People just did repeat after me vows and that's what you did it because that's what everything done. But now that there's been this big seismic shift for breaking tradition and doing all this stuff, now it's like personal vows and it's your and these couples are laying it all out there on the line.

Right.

Yes.

yes, they are. it's almost, I mean, when I started, I had to convince people, you really want to write your vows. It's going to make your ceremony just the most magical, so much more so than just a normal traditional whatever. And now it's like everybody does vows and a lot of them do them in private.

You do.

Mm-hmm.

You know, first look, that's a trend lately. Or in the ceremony as a full on public performance. So yeah, it's, I think it's a wonderful thing to add.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I always love it too because the couples, I always say it's a raw real moment and you're just letting it all out there in front of your closest family and friends. Obviously it had an impact for that writer when you did your vow, but a lot of times it has the real impact on the guests as well as the couple.

Right.

Yes,

yes, it's what the guests love the most, you know, and it's also what the couple is going to remember about their ceremony more than anything else. It's the vows. It's what they say to each other. It's a love letter to each other that they're sharing publicly or privately, whichever. And ⁓ it just makes a huge, huge difference in a ceremony.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, and the one thing I was going to say, two couples are really, you know, nowadays, they're just letting it, they're bringing, like you said, uncle involved and so many different people. And it's not that traditional thing that we've always had, you know, so many years ago. you're filling a big void, Tanya, in our industry, for sure. So, but okay, you're from New York, lots of cultures, lots of... ⁓

Yeah, yeah.

different things. I always say here, over here in California, I'm in the tech world, so we are really this melting pot of just so many different religions and cultures and kind of different things. get back to our topic. It's like, can wedding pros respectfully approach conversations about heritage and cultural traditions with their clients?

Right. Right.

So something that's interesting, yes, I am from New York. I'm in the Mecca of cultural, you know, whatever. I got it, yeah. I'm originally Belgian. And so I grew up, I was born and raised there and I grew up surrounded by, I mean, you have countries everywhere that are different cultures. you know, so that was part of my DNA. And coming to America, ⁓

Mm-hmm. You got it. Yeah.

⁓

Mm-hmm.

was a huge culture shock, I have to say. That was, it was, we just had Halloween here. I did not grow up with Halloween. It's, it's still a foreign thing to me. It's still like, why are you all getting dressed? I mean, yeah, but so

Mm-hmm.

wow.

Yeah.

It's okay. I'm

American and Halloween's a foreign thing. That's my least favorite holiday.

⁓

it may, you know, I, yeah, exactly. And people take it very seriously. really? What does your front yard look like right now still?

⁓ my wife is one of those. Yeah, she loves Halloween.

⁓

Actually, we've converted it to Thanksgiving. it's got, I got kids, so we have a couple of turkeys blown up and you know, and then we have permanent ⁓ color lights on the house that change. You hit a button on your phone and it changes that color of them. I really like them. They're a lot of fun. We're very fall right now. We're living in fall.

⁓

nice!

Very cool. ⁓

except it's pretty hot though, right?

Here in California it is, it's weird. Like right now as we're recording it is 70 degrees right now in November.

Okay, okay. So the multicultural, you asked how does one approach or how does one discuss? So it.

You

Yeah, because

I was just going to say, because I feel like if you don't know, some people will just not ask and just try to go along with it. I think they're missing the boat if they don't have that conversation.

I think it's one of my first questions when I meet a couple on Zoom. It's, know, do they envision anything for their ceremony? And most couples don't. They have no idea what to even ask. So I probe a lot. I probe a lot to get as much out as I can. And I always ask, where's your ancestry from? You know, are you second generation, fourth generation?

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

What did your grandparents do at their wedding? And what did your parents do at their wedding? And I just keep asking questions. And when it's very obvious to me that one is one ethnicity and the other is another, I talk about, do we want to celebrate where you are each from? And inevitably it's like, my God, what an amazing idea. Let's bring a Nigerian dance into the ceremony.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

do a Malaysian tea ceremony, let's do this and that. And I have now, I mean, there's no culture that I have not, and I love doing this because if I don't know the cultural aspect of a particular background, the research can be so much fun. And especially when you research wedding traditions, that things that you've never heard of. And I really do believe that couples more than ever,

are writing their own rules. They are deciding what they want to do. It's not mommy and daddy. And so here they're saying many times, not always, we don't want religion, but we want to celebrate our heritage. And so very much, whether I'm officiating or coaching somebody else, crafting the ceremony, whatever it is, we will incorporate.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

these wonderful rituals, traditions, fun things that range from music to poetry to who knows. And I've done myself, I have done because I got to know the Indian culture so well that I...

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we do a lot of Indian too. And I'm still learning.

We've done a lot and I feel like I'm still learning because there are different pockets in India. Yeah, and it's you're forever learning, I feel like.

Yes. Yes.

I've learned so much about some of these different pockets that I am now, I am now a Sanskrit speaking, ⁓ full blown Hindu priest priestess. Well, I'm joking a little bit. It's mostly fusion Indian weddings that I do, but I can totally wing it. You know, it's something, cause I've done so many of them now that

Mm-hmm.

Wow, that's amazing.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I get found for this, you know? it's, yeah, it's, you know, if somebody's an Indian marrying a whatever, somebody else, ⁓ it could be a Catholic or a Jewish or whatever it is, I can do both sides. So yeah, it's fun.

That's nice

Yeah here in the Bay Area like I mean me immediately made me think of I had an Indian bride and The groom was Korean and so they blended both and so they did the Eastern Wedding in the morning and then the Western celebration in the evening and but it made for one long day You know, but that's but a lot of the Indian celebrations here in California, you know

Mmm!

Mm.

Some of them are still multi-day, they're still, but they're starting with a ceremony sometimes as early as 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the morning. And then they go until 11 plus at night. know, so it's just, it's amazing. I always test my couples at the end. I'm like, you guys are on adrenaline right now. You just, they're like, we're just, yeah, we have to take it all in. But it's such an interesting way. I was going to say too, with some of the times I've seen it done very well done is,

Yes.

Yep. Yep.

I know.

I'm thinking of an Indian-Mexican wedding I did. so he was Indian, she was Mexican. And so what they were doing is for the Indian side, they had an uncle that explained the ceremony to the guests so they understood what it was about.

Right, right,

right. Or you do, I remember doing a Korean and they all came in their national ⁓ costumes, outfits, whatever. It was so beautiful. That was straight, no, it Korean American actually. And I lost my train of thought about these Koreans.

⁓

Mm-hmm.

Oh,

that's OK. We'll work on it. All right. So let's move on a little bit because I have a question about some best practices because people nowadays could jump to chat GPT to get information. But what do you think the best practices for vendors who may be unfamiliar with a specific culture or religion, how do they learn about this? I always find learning from the couple is usually a good way to go.

No idea.

But what's some good practices in that?

It depends what kind of vendor you are and what do you need to know. mean, the wedding planner obviously needs to know more than anybody what she's planning. And Indians typically hire an Indian wedding planner. ⁓ There's an exception. There's a planner in South Florida who does every single Indian wedding there. And she is as all American as you can get, but she knows her stuff, you know? So it depends. You, for example,

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

I would think you would need to know a little bit about their culture. look, AI is great. I do not ⁓ encourage AI for vows or writing a ceremony or a speech. I have a lot of people who come to me saying, I went down that road and no, no, it's not working. But if you're doing research.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

on a culture or two, chat GBT is amazing. Absolutely. But then I also ask a lot of questions and sometimes I'll talk to the parents because sometimes the kids don't know. And they'll say, you know, can you talk to our parents and ask, you know, ask a little bit about what they did at their wedding because we would like to do the same thing, but we just don't know enough. So, and then I'll, you know, it's a family affair here. It's, you know.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

A lot of research goes into this.

Yeah.

Well, and then is there a good, without burdening the clients, is there a good way to go about that? You know, like without putting, I guess doing your research on your own. But I guess, but it's good to learn from the client as well.

Yeah, it's not, I think, well, when I talk to parents, they love it. You know, they feel involved. They're not just paying for the wedding, if they're paying for the wedding. You know, they're getting involved and they love talking about their own wedding and they're reliving their memories. And it's not a burden at all. No, I get into a bigger situation where I wouldn't call it a burden, but I have been, now this is,

Mm-hmm.

not multicultural, multi-religious. And that's when I sometimes have to intervene with the parents because one wants a hopa and the breaking of the glass and the wine blessing and the other is saying, absolutely not. This is not a Jewish wedding. I'm a Catholic. My son is Catholic. And then I do have to get in between. And then it's rough. Yes, it's rough.

Hmm.

No, that's gotta be rough. Yeah.

But it's my job, I've got to do that and sometimes I'm really mediating. ⁓ It can get tricky. So that is burdensome on me actually because it's not a conversation that I particularly enjoy doing.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Well, yeah, because you're blending the families, and if they don't have the same beliefs, then that's when it gets... And if they have very, probably very strong beliefs on their side, they're going to put their feet in the sand a little bit and hold tight to not let it go.

But me too.

I do have, I have a story. did a wedding in one of the most spectacular venues right outside of New York last year. And it was a Jewish woman, a man marrying a Catholic. I mean, it was just a simple traditional multi-religious whatever. And when I got there, the Hopa was being built, but the Catholic family said, no, no, no, no, that cannot look like a Hopa.

Mr. Flores, you need to turn that into just an arch. And that got really interesting. I mean, the dynamics at the wedding, you're creating all this havoc over some flowers, whether they're over your head or on the side, who cares?

Mmm.

Yeah, yeah, people dig in. They really do. So, all right. So how can planners and creative teams collaborate to ensure like cultural elements are incorporated authentically, you know, like really done well?

Yeah.

So I think it starts with me by the ceremony is really where you see it the most. Now, there are plenty of cultures where so much cultural traditions of weddings takes place outside the ceremony. It's food related, it's music related, it's pre-wedding something or other. So I do the research and I approach the wedding planner.

this is what we're going to do in the ceremony, but there is so much more that you could also do. Whether it's types of food that you have, whether it's, you know, whatever it is. So I sometimes educate the planner on some ideas. ⁓ Whether I'm officiating or coaching somebody, I'm very connected to the planner. ⁓ Not so much other vendors. ⁓

Hmm.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

It's really the planner who's the orchestra conductor. And she will then translate to a caterer, let's have this kind of food to celebrate, you know, the Mexican, thing, or the this, or whatever the culture is. ⁓ So I do the research, and then I tell the wedding planner, and then it's up to the planner to work with a couple to see what is it that they'd like to do that's outside the ceremony, which I'm not in charge of.

Yeah, that's which probably makes you happy to not be in charge of that All right. So you're known for helping couples make their ceremonies deeply personal So how do you balance cultural tradition with individuality?

So I think it's interesting because maintaining your individuality in a ceremony, sometimes one culture is far heavier than the other.

Hmm.

The Jewish ceremony ⁓ elements are far more intense than in a non-Jewish. Now, not Indian. Indian, there's a ton of stuff to do. Moroccan, a ton of stuff to do. But the Jews, and I'm a Jew, so I can talk about, know, there's a lot that we do in a ceremony. And sometimes it's a lot more than the other, whatever other culture.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So I need to find ways to balance it out so it's a little equal, though very often the other person and the couple will say, you know what, it's okay. Do the wine blessing, do the this, do the that. We'll just do a prayer for mine. It's all we need. My parents will be fine with that. I always tell a couple the ceremony is a reflection of who they are as individuals and as a couple. And I want to make sure we celebrate.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

who these two people are because they're very different from each other. They may be madly in love and have so much in common, but they are individual people and we need to celebrate them that way. The vows are a great way to celebrate the individuality of somebody. ⁓ Whether it's a multicultural thing or religious aspect, I really do like to balance it out as much as possible. So it really comes through. I want guests to walk away saying,

Mm-hmm.

My God, that was so them. I wanted to really, yes, personalize, absolutely, but I want the guests to have the experience. We are all now about the guest experience, right?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

I preach that.

I preach that also. And I just saw today on Instagram what Gen Z are looking for in wedding trends. And the last slide was treat the guests like VIPs. Make it about them. So for me, a ceremony, it's yes, sure. It's about doing exactly what the couple wants. But I want those guests to be as engaged, as taken in, as wowed by those 20 minutes, 25 minutes.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

no more than 30 or it turns into a Catholic mass. Yeah, no, I don't do more than 30. But I want those guests to witness something that is just mind blowing. It's also, the ceremony is the start of the celebration of the next five hours and you better kick it off with a wow because it gets people pumped up and psyched for the party, you know.

I agree.

Yeah, I agree.

It's

also really important. This is the beginning of their marriage.

Mm-hmm.

Let it start on the right foot. know, let it, so, so for me, that ceremony, many times it's not given the importance it deserves. It's an afterthought. When I think it should be a priority, it's so important. It's why we're all there.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I think people lose sight of that. That's why you're there. Five, six years ago, even maybe a little bit longer, it's like we just want to do the quickest ceremony possible and get to the party. But I think they're losing sight of it, where I think this generation that we're working with now is a little bit more individualized, and they like to show their individuality and come out. So that's where I think there's been a bigger shift in the...

for someone like you, know, putting individual vows and putting it all out there, because people are spending more time on their ceremony than they have in the past.

Absolutely. Though I will say, I still have the ones who say, how fast can we get this done? Could you do an eight minute ceremony? like, you're chipping your guests. Guests love ceremonies. And if it's too short, they're going, wait, what just happened?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I always say if it takes longer for you to walk in and do the processional and the recessional than the ceremony, we got a problem.

I don't know.

Yes, absolutely. You've got 25 groomsmen walking down and then boom, done. It's like, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I can't tell you how many times that's happened to me. I'm sitting over there on the side. I'm like, we're done? You're like, yeah. I'm dumbfounded that ⁓ we're already done. So yeah. was like, Yeah, exactly. So all right. So what vendors play the most critical role in pulling off a seamless multicultural ceremony? And how can they best work together?

Yeah, you may now kiss. Boom, wait, they just walked down the aisle. ⁓

I think music is an important piece, especially if it's incorporated. ⁓ For my own wedding, my second wedding, I picked a DJ who, because I'm Belgian and my husband is Dutch, so our countries are neighboring each other, but we have so much cultural stuff in our lives.

Okay.

Mmm.

And I love Brazilian music and he loves this kind of music. we really, and I grew up on Edith Piaf, probably nobody knows who she is, but, ⁓ or Jacques Brel, who was Belgian. And I wanted that music at the wedding, at the reception, not necessarily for the ceremony. And so I worked with a DJ who really understood multicultural music.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

It was important to me and to my husband as well. So that's one vendor. And obviously the planner, like I was saying before, because there's so many different touches that they can add to create a multicultural wedding in terms of ceremony. I mean, sometimes, you I need props of some sort or there's a certain musician that needs to play in the middle of the ceremony or

There's a reading in another language or the programs need to be printed in different languages or whatever. That's usually a plan.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

⁓ yeah, more than anything, I'm, I don't really need to talk to a florist about, you know, yeah, I know. ⁓ Turn that hopa into a fba. Right. Exactly. But no, so typically it's really, I think music is very important. ⁓ I don't deal with, again, if it's the food that's celebrating heritage, that's not me. I, I suggest it.

Well, you had to mediate that one that you... ⁓

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, how can planners and venues prepare in advance for culturally specific needs, like changing attire, traditions, the flow of the ceremony sometimes is affected by all that kind of stuff?

to a planner.

Yes, because there are like an Indian ceremony is much longer than my traditional 25 minutes, as you know. But that's not the only one there. I mean, I did a, I was just going to say, yes, yes, Persian, ⁓ Arabic. I did a Lebanese wedding recently, much longer than normal. So I think.

Persian too, it long. Yeah, yeah.

Hmm.

If I'm contacted, I'm either contacted by the couple who have found me, for example, found me on here and suddenly they go, my God, there's somebody who understands us. And they'll reach out. Or a planner. And a planner very often knows, I talk about the multicultural stuff a lot and planners kind of know me for that. So if they come to me and say, I have a couple who, he's this, she's that, what can you do?

Yeah.

Hmm.

Mm.

Can you help? Yeah.

can

you help, then inevitably I'm hoping that that planner kind of knows what we're going to be doing. ⁓ You know, knows something about the culture of the people who just hired him or her. ⁓ So if we all work together, great. You know, I mean, I did a Japanese sake ceremony, which was very cool. ⁓ Yeah, it was.

Sounds cool.

You know, I needed the planner to get me the sake cups and the this and the that and, you know, to help me get prepared. So the more knowledgeable they are about the couple that they are planning the wedding of, the better. But I'm also here to, if I've spent all the time on the research, I'm happy to hand it over.

Mm-hmm.

I love it. Love it. All right. So have you seen an example where cultural elements were integrated beautifully because the vendor team communicated well together?

Yeah, yes, actually quite a bit. With Indian ceremonies when, you know, there's a fire there and I don't know who the fire vendor is, you know, the fire vendor and then the garland vendor and then the incense vendor, you know, there are a lot of people and the horse dude or the dove guy or who, you know, yes, we all have to work together.

Hehehehe

There's a lot. There's a lot.

Mm-hmm.

and pull it off, you you never know who you're going to need. And hopefully the wedding planner will have sourced that vendor and then I'll work with them. I just did a dove release. I'd never done one before. That was for the Lebanese wedding actually. Yeah, and the guy who was 87 years old, he shows up right before the ceremony starts with his big box of doves.

Mm-hmm. ⁓ wow.

And I said, okay, show me, explain to me how this works because I have no idea. I'd had a call with him a week earlier, but I said, okay, so how's this going to work exactly? So we only had to work together. So there could be a lot of vendors involved in a ceremony and it can work beautifully. Everybody is well orchestrated. Again, it's the planner. It's the planner who's done an amazing timeline by the minute of who does what.

And that's how it works impeccably. If we're doing a DIY in a backyard, which I've done, then it's me. That's me. It's me who's figuring all this stuff out. And look, I started out doing a lot of DIY and I was doing DIY during the pandemic and I'm very, yeah, I was super busy during COVID, unlike a lot of people.

Mm-hmm.

it ends up being you.

I was going to say probably through COVID.

I know,

lucky.

People wanted to get

married, you know, so it was in Central Park in New York, just the couple and I under a tree. ⁓

That's actually probably really beautiful when it's all said and done.

It was wonderful. And the other thing, this is funny actually, nothing to do with multicultural, but New York and California were the only two states where we could marry people on Zoom legally.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

and I married hundreds of people in my pajamas.

Good.

on Zoom. mean, who had to get dressed? You know, it's like I was home. I wasn't going up. So. ⁓ yes. yes, absolutely. But, you know, I don't do so much DIY anymore, but I can. I'm happy to, if you know, why not?

Yeah.

We were all busy watching Tiger King and all that whatever, all that good stuff.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Perfect. All right, before we wrap up, kind of want you to pretend I am a vendor that's green, doesn't know a lot about multicultural. What advice can you give them to get started, I guess?

⁓ Do a little research. Again, chat GBT will give you everything out in two seconds and you'll learn. ⁓ It's not that hard. And if the couple has hired you, clearly they trust you. They trust that you understand who they are. And hopefully the vendor has done a little bit of, I mean...

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Maybe vendors don't even know there's going to be a multicultural ceremony when they're hired. And so once the couple meets with me and very often I am the last vendor that they hire. Yes, it's insane. But if I'm the last and we suddenly come up with this amazing idea to do a multicultural ceremony, then I have, then the vendors all need to know this too. And then I tell again,

Mm-hmm.

Isn't that crazy? Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It's the wedding planner who needs to communicate and then puts me in touch with the vendor. I'm not stepping on the toes of the planner. It's up to me to tell the planner we're going to need music, we're going to need food, we're going to need whatever it is, we're going need programs printed in Arabic, whatever it is. So very often the vendor, actually to your point, the vendor does not know this is going to be a multicultural ceremony because

Mmm.

The couple

didn't even know until I brought it up. Yeah, yeah. So it's an education. It's not that hard.

until they got into it and do it. okay. All right.

It isn't and I feel like the more I do the more I learn like it just you know and some of my faith like I just did a Chinese a Jewish wedding where they did the tea ceremony out in front of everyone so the Jewish side could see the tea ceremony and participate in the tea ceremony and then and then they did the signing the ketubah out in front of everyone so the Chinese side could see and both of those are usually very private

Right, right.

Yeah.

you know, private ceremonies. And I thought, what a way to educate each side and celebrate each other's culture.

Right.

Yeah, I've done quite a bit of the same. I remember I did one that was Russian and I don't know what it was, but I found similarities in both the cultures and I was able to explain to the guests what I was going to do. I was melding the two cultures together and it had to do with a kiss at the end.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm. ⁓

because I remember the Russians, what they do at the end is all the

guests will count. Like the longer you kiss and everybody's counting one, two, three, the longer the marriage is going to last. And I found, and I wish I could remember what the other culture was, but it was a very similar thing. I think it was Georgian.

Mm.

⁓ OK.

I think it was Georgian, which is not that far from Russia. And they did something very similar. So I put the two cultures together to do this kiss, but I explained to everybody so they understood. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I love it. That's a great way. then

again, guest experience. We're right back to guest experience with that as well. all right, Tanya, it's been a pleasure having you on. ⁓ Can you tell our ⁓ listeners best way to get a hold of you?

Exactly, exactly.

Thank you. ⁓

Absolutely. ⁓ The website is thevowisperer.com. There's a contact form on there. You can DM me at The Vow Whisperer on Instagram or I'll give you my email which is tanya at thevowisperer.com.

All right, perfect. And we'll have all of Tanya's information in our show notes to make it easy for you guys to get in touch with her. So Tanya, can't thank you enough. feel like we could have kept talking about multi. I mean, it's just, I feel like we just scratched the surface when it came to multicultural weddings. So I can't thank you enough. And we'll see you next time. You're welcome. And folks, we'll see you next time on another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. Take care, guys.

I know.

Thank you. Thank you so much.