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

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 [https://www.vancouverclub.ca/] * Instagram: @vancouverclub [https://www.instagram.com/vancouverclub/?hl=en] 🔔 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

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 [https://www.lennypalerstein.com] * Instagram: @LennyPalersteinGuitar [https://www.instagram.com/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

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 [https://www.sweetheartevents.com] * Instagram (Planning): @sweetheartevents [https://www.instagram.com/sweetheartevents] * Instagram (Officiant): @sheisveri [https://www.instagram.com/sheisveri] * Instagram (Social & Corporate): @vericreativeevents [https://www.instagram.com/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

Ep. 17 The Guy Behind the Camera: Simon on Getting Laid Off, Going Full-Time, and Why Weddings Are the Hardest Gig in Video

The Man Behind the Camera: Simon of Capture Media In this candid episode of Friendors, host Shawn Miller sits down with Simon, the videographer and producer behind the Friendors podcast itself, to pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to build a wedding video business from scratch. Simon opens up about an origin story that started with a GoPro strapped to a helmet on the slopes of Cypress Mountain and slowly grew into a full-time creative business he now shares with his wife Melissa. Along the way there was a business partner, 20 free shoots, a full-time IT career, and a COVID layoff that turned out to be the push he didn't know he needed. He shares what it felt like to get that phone call ending his nine-to-five ("I should be feeling worse about this, but I'm actually excited") and the moment he decided to go all-in. From the craft of storytelling through spoken audio to the human skill of showing up to a wedding with the right energy even when your cat is sick and your gimbal is acting up, Simon brings the kind of inside view that only someone who has truly lived it can give. Whether you're a wedding vendor trying to make the leap, a creative feeling the weight of going solo, or a couple trying to understand what your videographer is actually doing during those tense pre-ceremony minutes, this conversation is packed with real, hard-won perspective. 💡 In this episode, you'll learn * Why doing 20+ free shoots before charging a dime is one of the smartest things a new videographer can do, and what it actually teaches you * How Simon went from IT worker to full-time wedding videographer after a COVID layoff, and why he felt relief instead of panic * The storytelling workflow that separates great wedding videos from forgettable ones, starting with spoken audio before you even look at your footage * Why your energy on a wedding day matters more than your camera settings, and how to read the room when there's tension in the air * The real reason wedding videography is one of the hardest jobs in the industry: there are no redos, and the pressure never fully goes away no matter how many weddings you've shot * Why competing with other videographers is the wrong mindset, and what happens when two people edit the exact same footage completely differently 🎥 About Capture Media Capture Media is a Vancouver-based wedding and commercial video production company founded by husband and wife duo Simon and Melissa. Self-taught from his early GoPro days, Simon brings a story-first approach to every wedding, prioritizing spoken audio, emotional moments, and the quiet craft of making couples feel like there's no camera in the room at all. Their work has been featured in WedLuxe, Vancity Weddings, Rocky Mountain Bride, and Daily Hive. Simon also serves as the behind-the-scenes production force for the Friendors podcast itself. 📲 Connect with Simon & Capture Media * Instagram: @capturemediaweddings [https://www.instagram.com/capturemediaweddings/] * Website: www.capture-media.ca [https://www.capture-media.ca] * Facebook: Capture Productions [https://www.facebook.com/CaptureProductionsMedia/] 🔔 Subscribe to Friendors Friendors is where the wedding industry gets real: candid conversations with the vendors, creatives, and entrepreneurs who do the work every weekend so couples can have the day of their lives. Available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts & Spotify #FriendorsPodcast #ShawnMiller #Simon #CaptureMedia #CaptureProductions #WeddingVideography #WeddingVideographer #WeddingIndustry #WeddingVendors #CreativeEntrepreneurship #VancouverWeddings #WeddingFilm #BehindTheLens #YoungHipAndMarried #FromSideHustleToFullTime

Ep 16 - You Can't Beat the Game: Graham of Grey House Visual on Teaching Yourself, Staying Invisible, and Why the Feeling Always Wins | Friendors Podcast

Ep 16 - You Can't Beat the Game: Graham of Grey House Visual on Teaching Yourself, Staying Invisible, and Why the Feeling Always Wins | Friendors Podcast What happens when a guy who learned to film by chasing skateboarders around a park ends up building one of Vancouver's most respected wedding film companies without a single day of formal training? In this episode of Friendors, host Shawn Miller sits down with Graham of Grey House Visual for a conversation a decade in the making. These two have been shooting weddings side by side since 2014, and this is the first time they've actually sat down to talk about all of it. This conversation goes deep on what it really takes to build a career in wedding filmmaking from scratch: shooting your sister's wedding on a Canon T3i with a $50 Best Buy microphone, going on a lunch break mid-portrait session at your very first paid gig, and figuring it all out in real time while working full-time hauling 800-pound panes of glass. Graham shares the philosophy behind Grey House Visual's approach — capture the moment rather than capture it perfectly, stay invisible without being creepy, and never show up to a wedding with a preconceived idea of what you want. He and Shawn also get into the seagull-eating-a-pigeon story, the groomzilla who yelled at Graham for approaching him without a camera, the shift they're both seeing toward feeling over aesthetics in post-COVID weddings, and why the market being saturated is mostly a mindset problem. Whether you're a wedding vendor trying to figure out how to build something real, a filmmaker just getting started, or a creative entrepreneur who's ever had to bet on yourself before you felt ready, this one's for you. 💡 In This Episode, You'll Learn * Why being self-taught isn't a disadvantage and why the game literally cannot be beaten * How filming skateboarding in the nineties turned out to be the best film school Graham ever attended * What staying invisible actually means on a wedding day and why there's a very creepy version of it * Why showing up without a preconceived idea of what you want to shoot changes everything * How working at The Keg taught Graham everything he needed to know about handling mistakes under pressure * Why the feeling of a wedding will always outlast how it looked and what that means for every vendor in the room * How to build a collaborative community instead of treating fellow vendors like competition * Why the rise of content creators at weddings is the new version of what videographers went through ten years ago 🌿 Who This Episode Is For ✔️ Wedding filmmakers and photographers just getting started who need permission to be imperfect ✔️ Couples who want to understand what separates a great wedding film from a forgettable one ✔️ Creative entrepreneurs figuring out when to go all in on the thing they love ✔️ Wedding vendors who want to work better across disciplines with photographers, officiants, DJs, and planners ✔️ Anyone who's ever had to figure it out as they went and wondered if that was going to be enough 🎬 About Grey House Visual Grey House Visual is a Vancouver-based wedding and events filmmaking company founded by Graham and his wife Trisha in 2014. What started with a Canon T3i, a $50 microphone, and a free wedding for Graham's sister has grown into one of the most trusted names in the local industry, built entirely through relationship, craft, and a decade of showing up. Graham is still a daily watcher of skateboarding videos, still obsessed with getting better, and still firmly believes you can't beat the game. That's the whole point. 📲 Connect with Grey House Visual Instagram: @greyhousevisual YouTube: Grey House Visual Website: greyhousevisual.com 🔔 Subscribe to Friendors Friendors features real conversations with wedding professionals, creatives, and entrepreneurs building meaningful businesses without sacrificing their lives. 📍 Available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts & Spotify