What Happens When A Nigerian Catholic Marries A Long Island Jew

Mash-Up relationships and marriages are always tricky (Two cultures! Two religions! Two ethnicities! We’re already dizzy.) so we’re calling in the experts on this one. We talk with Nigerian-American Anthonia Akitunde, founder of Mater Mea, about her challenges planning her mash-up wedding to her white, Jewish fiance. And we bring in wedding planner Rebecca Pfiffner, of Be Hitched Event Planning & Design for expert advice on how to handle a wedding, and marriage, when relationships and cultures and families can clash.

Anthonia Akitunde, Founder of Mater Mea

Anthonia On How Solidarity Supports Romance:

I couldn’t be with someone of the same race as me or a different race than me who did not get what it means to be a minority in this country. Scott is white and Jewish but I don’t have to explain to why things are messed up in this country as it relates to people in my community and police brutality and racism. I don’t have to explain to him why it’s wrong.

Rebecca Pfiffner, Wedding Planner Extraordinaire

Rebecca On Focusing On Meaning, Rather Than Pinterest:

My Mash-Up couples really start from a core place of defining, what is meaningful for us? How are we going to express ourselves and express what’s important to us as a couple and our values through our wedding? And that grounds the whole experience and make the wedding itself so vibrant, so alive, and everyone is so engaged and focused. Ideally, that’s going to happen for you whenever you start from a place of figuring out what is most meaningful to you, rather than wanting to have your wedding look like something on Pinterest.

Get Every Guest On The Dance Floor

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Photo credits: Emmanuel Hahn for Arq

This podcast is produced by American Public Media and Southern California Public Radio, KPCC. It is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how the NEA grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.