Friendors: Friendly Conversations with the Vendors Behind Your City's Best Weddings

About Friendors: Friendly Conversations with the Vendors Behind Your City's Best Weddings

The Friendors Podcast is your backstage pass into the wedding industry. Each season we spotlight a new city and talk with vendors from every facet of the wedding world. Together we share real stories about first gigs, big wins, epic fails, and the lessons learned along the way. Hosted by Shawn Miller, professional wedding officiant and founder of Young Hip & Married, this is your weekly coffee break with your friends who work in the wedding industry (Friend + Vendor = Friendor), a time to connect, learn, and be inspired by fellow wedding vendors around the world.

Publisher

Young Hip & Married

Category

business · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

3 Oct 2025

Latest episode

29 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

21 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   29 Jun 2026

   Ep 20 - You Don't Have to Start a Business: Brittany of The Vancouver Club on Hospitality and Rising Through the Ranks | Friendors Podcast

   Friendors Podcast  ·  Episode Feature The Other Path Into Weddings: Brittany on Hospitality, Heritage, and Rising Through the Ranks at The Vancouver Club What if you could build a whole career in the wedding industry without ever starting a business of your own? In this episode of Friendors, host Shawn Miller sits down with Brittany, Director of Catering at The Vancouver Club, for an honest conversation about the path almost nobody in this industry talks about. Most guests on the show run their own company. Brittany took a different road entirely, rising through the ranks of one of Vancouver's most iconic heritage venues, and she wouldn't trade it for anything. This one goes deep on the parts of the job nobody romanticizes. The twelve years selling wedding dresses that started because her mom spotted an ad in the North Shore News. The fashion design degree she earned dreaming of evening gowns, before realizing she loved the business side far more than the sketchbook. The June 2019 start date at the club, just weeks before the world shut down, when her director left, her manager left, and COVID arrived all at once, leaving a skeleton crew to figure out how to keep a hundred-year-old institution alive. The roughly forty weddings that had to be postponed, and the ones that never came back. Then it turns. Brittany walks us through climbing from coordinator to director in the middle of a pandemic, what it really takes to run around 1,500 events a year, and the one question she asks every couple that has nothing to do with how their day looks: what do you want it to feel like. Plus the signature service that still stops a room cold (yes, we get into the synchronized cloche reveal), why walking through the doors feels like stepping into a different era, and why your wedding might be the one day you finally get to stop pleasing everyone else. 💡 What you'll learn Why building a real career in the wedding industry doesn't have to mean starting your own business What it takes to rise from coordinator to Director of Catering in the middle of a global pandemic The question that matters more than any detail: not what your wedding looks like, but what it feels like Why the club's signature synchronized service is the kind of moment guests remember for years How a fashion design grad who loved spreadsheets more than sketches found her home at a heritage venue Why Brittany made hiring a planner a non-negotiable for larger weddings, and the difference it makes Why your wedding should be the one day you stop trying to please everyone else in the room 💐 About Brittany Brittany is the Director of Catering at The Vancouver Club, one of the city's most iconic heritage venues. After twelve years in bridal and a background in fashion design, she joined the club as a coordinator in 2019 and worked her way up to running catering for a private club that hosts around 1,500 events a year. She has spent her career proving you can love this industry deeply without ever needing to go out on your own. 📲 Connect with The Vancouver Club Website: vancouverclub.ca Instagram: @vancouverclub 🔔 Subscribe to Friendors If this episode resonated with you, hit subscribe and leave us a review. New episodes drop every week. 📍 Available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts & Spotify #FriendorsPodcast #ShawnMiller #TheVancouverClub #WeddingVenue #VancouverWeddingVenue #WeddingCatering #HeritageVenue #WeddingIndustry #WeddingVendors #VancouverWeddings #YoungHipAndMarried #BCWeddings #WeddingBusiness #WeddingPlanning #LuxuryWeddings

2. 

   19 Jun 2026

   Ep. 19 Good Enough to Stay Forever: Lenny Palerstein on Escaping the Golden Handcuffs and Why He's Still Terrified | Friendors Podcast

   Friendors Podcast  ·  Episode Feature Good Enough to Stay Forever: Lenny Palerstein on Burnout, Betting on Himself, and the Leap to Full-Time What does it take to walk away from a job with a full pension, full benefits, and a paycheck for eight hours of work you actually finish in four? In this episode of Friendors, host Shawn Miller sits down with fingerstyle guitarist Lenny Palerstein for an honest conversation about the long, unglamorous road to going full-time. Lenny now plays weddings, corporate events, and venues all over as a solo performer, but it took him nine years of part-time gigs, survival jobs, and one genuinely terrifying leap to get there. This one goes deep on the stuff nobody romanticizes. The bartending years working until 4am, winding down with a drink and some Church's chicken, then waking up at 1pm too sad to practice guitar. The Canada Post letter carrier job he calls the real golden handcuffs, good enough to stay forever but not good enough to live your dreams. The nine years teaching guitar that he loved right up until his soul was screaming get me out of here. And the girlfriend who finally sat him down and said you have to quit now. Then it turns. Lenny talks about the reframe that changed everything, deciding to be a businessman first and a musician second, and what happened the moment he finally let go. Plus why a wedding might be the last place left where everyone leaves their differences at the door. 💡 What you'll learn Why "good enough to stay forever, not good enough to live your dreams" is the most dangerous kind of job What nine years of teaching, bartending, and delivering mail taught Lenny about waiting too long to leap The reframe that changed everything: being a businessman first and a musician second Why showing your work matters more than selling it, and how to put yourself on the billboard The case for busking, cold emailing, and taking yourself seriously before anyone else does How social media became a source of real friendship and real opportunity instead of something to dread Why a wedding might be one of the only places left where everyone leaves their politics at the door 💐 About Lenny Palerstein Lenny Palerstein is a Vancouver-based fingerstyle guitarist who performs solo at weddings, corporate events, restaurants, and venues. After nearly a decade of teaching and part-time gigs, he went full-time a year and a half ago and hasn't looked back, even if he'll be the first to tell you he's still a little terrified. 📲 Connect with Lenny Palerstein Website: lennypalerstein.com Instagram: @LennyPalersteinGuitar 🔔 Subscribe to Friendors If this episode resonated with you, hit subscribe and leave us a review. New episodes drop every week. Available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts & Spotify #FriendorsPodcast  #ShawnMiller  #LennyPalerstein  #FingerstyleGuitar  #WeddingMusician  #WeddingGuitarist  #WeddingIndustry  #WeddingVendors  #VancouverWeddings  #CreativeEntrepreneurship  #LiveWeddingMusic  #YoungHipAndMarried  #BCWeddings  #WeddingBusiness  #MusicianLife

3. 

   9 Jun 2026

   Ep. 18 The Ceremony Stays a Secret: Stephanie Veri on Burnout, Building Trust, and Planning the Wedding You Actually Want

   Friendors Podcast  ·  Episode Feature The Ceremony Stays a Secret: Stephanie Veri on Burnout, Building Trust, and Planning the Wedding You Actually Want She showed up as an emergency guest, ready in under an hour. But honestly, that's peak Stephanie Veri, and it tracks with everything she's built over the past 15+ years. Stephanie is the founder of Sweetheart Events Inc., Vancouver's premier wedding planning and officiating company, and Veri Creative Events, her social and corporate division. She's the OG proposal planner of Western Canada, a planner-turned-officiant who spent three years under a licensing company before striking out on her own, and someone who has quietly become one of the most trusted names in BC's wedding industry. She also happens to be a wife, a mom, and a former shy girl from Abbotsford who used to turn five shades of purple when anyone looked her way. In this episode, Shawn and Stephanie get into all of it. They talk about getting rejected by your dream company and going back the following year anyway, about hiring someone specifically to replace your burnt-out version of yourself, about the moment a wedding guest at Brock House told her she should be the one holding the mic, and about why her ceremony script is something no couple ever sees before the wedding day. They also get into what it looked like to plan her own wedding as a seasoned planner, including a helicopter elopement at the top of the world that nobody, not even the brother who was officiating, saw coming. 💡 What you'll learn Why Stephanie keeps her ceremony completely hidden from couples before the day, and the specific process she built so they never feel left in the dark How she caught her own burnout before couples started noticing it on Zoom calls, and the one hire that changed everything The line she uses at the end of every consultation that quietly reframes the entire sales conversation Why getting rejected by DreamGroup early on was one of the best things that happened to her career How interviewing friends and family transforms a ceremony from a speech into a genuine community moment What it actually felt like to plan her own wedding after a decade of planning everyone else's, and why she chose to surprise her guests, her brother, and the room 💐 About Stephanie Veri Stephanie Veri is a Vancouver-based wedding planner, officiant, and the founder of Sweetheart Events Inc. and Veri Creative Events. With over 15 years in the industry, she's built a reputation for weddings that are intentional, deeply personal, and just a little unexpected. She was the first planner-officiant in BC, and she is genuinely one of the warmest people working in this space. 📲 Connect with Stephanie & Sweetheart Events Website: sweetheartevents.com Instagram (Planning): @sweetheartevents Instagram (Officiant): @sheisveri Instagram (Social & Corporate): @vericreativeevents 🔔 Subscribe to Friendors If this episode resonated with you, hit subscribe and leave us a review. New episodes drop every week. Available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts & Spotify #FriendorsPodcast  #ShawnMiller  #StephanieVeri  #SweetheartEvents  #VeriCreativeEvents  #WeddingPlanner  #WeddingOfficiant  #WeddingIndustry  #WeddingVendors  #VancouverWeddings  #CreativeEntrepreneurship  #WeddingPlanning  #YoungHipAndMarried  #BCWeddings  #WeddingBusiness

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Contact Friendors: Friendly Conversations with the Vendors Behind Your City's Best Weddings

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.