Today we’d like to introduce you to Kesha Butler.
Hi Kesha, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The Vibe & The Vows began during one of the hardest transitions I’ve ever faced.
I was 46, a mother of three grown children, and a recent empty nester. I wish I could say I handled that transition beautifully, but the truth is, I missed my children. I cried. I felt lost.
Suddenly, it was just my husband and me at home. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the life we have built together and am always grateful to have him beside me, but that doesn’t make the transition any less emotional.
For the first time in my adult life, I was no longer responsible for the daily care of a child. I had spent so many years being Mom that I honestly didn’t know who I was as a woman when that part of my life changed. I loved seeing my children grow and build lives of their own, but I was left without a clear sense of purpose and asking myself, “Okay, Kesha—what’s next for you?”
Unexpectedly, the answer came at one of my nail appointments.
Before I was ordained, before I had a website, and before The Vibe & The Vows even had a name, my nail tech, Sandy, who I’d been going to for over a decade, had basically decided that I was officiating her wedding. She saw the vision before I did and kept encouraging me to take the idea seriously.
And the more I thought about it, the more the pieces of my life began to connect. I had actually been building the skills for this role long before I knew I would step into it.
Weddings and events have always been a part of my life. Since 1992, when my mother started her own event planning business, I helped her decorate venues, design floral arrangements, worked in catering, coordinated events, and helped numerous brides prepare to step into their “I do.”
Through those experiences, I was able to gain the knowledge of what it takes behind the scenes to turn an idea into an experience people would remember.
And it wasn’t just my experience in the wedding industry that started to make sense. I thought about my own marriage too.
My husband and I have been married for 16 years. He is my partner, my support, and, as I affectionately call him, my Husbae. The life we’ve built together has given me a real appreciation for what couples are actually promising each other when they stand at that altar.
Now, I don’t believe my marriage makes me an expert on anyone else’s relationship, but it has given me a real respect for the promises couples make. The wedding gets the beautiful clothes, flowers, music, and photographs, while marriage is built when nobody is dressed up or watching. It takes communication, adjustment, grace, shared responsibility, and the continued decision to choose one another through both the good and the difficult times.
The more those pieces came together, the more I realized this wasn’t just something I could do—it was something I genuinely wanted to do.
So, I became ordained and launched The Vibe & The Vows in 2025. I officiated my first wedding that July, and by the end of my first year, I had booked 15 weddings, and every ceremony I performed confirmed what I had already felt: this is where I belong.
And as I continued growing as an officiant, I started learning more about what I wanted The Vibe & The Vows to represent.
One of the things I’ve come to appreciate is just how much the ceremony can set the tone for the entire celebration. It’s the reason everyone has gathered in the first place, and I love being able to create a moment that brings a couple back to why they chose each other while giving the people who love them a chance to experience a little piece of their story too.
I’m also learning that some of my favorite ceremonies are the ones where you can really feel the couple in them. Maybe that comes through their story or their personalities. Maybe it’s in the family, cultural, or faith traditions that mean something to them, or even a new tradition they decide to start together. Whatever it looks like, I want there to be room for all of that.
And, of course, it has to have a vibe—their vibe. I want the ceremony to feel so connected to the two people standing in front of me that when it’s over, the people who know them best can look at each other and say, “That was so them.”
But for me to create a ceremony that really feels like them, I have to take the time to actually get to know them.
So that’s ultimately become one of the most important parts of how I work with my couples. I invest a lot of time and energy into understanding who they are, what matters to them, how they interact with each other, and what they want their ceremony to feel like. I pay attention to the little details they share with me because sometimes those are the things that tell me the most about their relationship.
And that care doesn’t stop with writing the ceremony. I genuinely become invested in the experience we’re creating together, and I’m always thinking about the little ways I can make it feel even more personal and meaningful for them.
And by the time their wedding day arrives, I’m not a stranger reading lines from a script. I speak directly to my couples as though we’re having a conversation while their guests have the privilege of listening in. I want my couples to look at me, take a breath, and know, “Kesha’s got us.”
My commitment to connection also extends beyond my couples. Since launching The Vibe & The Vows, I’ve been selected as the Philadelphia City Ambassador for Black Women in Weddings, and this role gives me another way to do something I genuinely care about: build real relationships, connect women throughout the wedding industry, and create opportunities for us to grow together.
And although Philadelphia is my home and my starting point, it is not the limit of my vision. I want The Vibe & The Vows to become a trusted and recognizable officiant brand well beyond the Tri-State area.
And as I continue building The Vibe & The Vows, I realize that while creating this business hasn’t erased how difficult becoming an empty nester was, it has helped me rediscover myself.
I’m a mother and a wife, but those aren’t the only parts of who I am. I’m also a storyteller, a leader, a creator, and a woman with dreams of my own.
And yes—I’m a Vibe!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
One of my biggest challenges has been learning how to build a business in an industry where social media visibility can sometimes carry more weight than personal connections, relationships, and even reputation.
I’m naturally a face-to-face person. Put me in a room with someone and I can talk to them, laugh with them, listen to them, and build trust pretty quickly. That part has always come naturally to me.
But building a business today means learning how to create that same kind of connection before I ever get the chance to meet someone in person. Couples may discover me through Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or my website long before we ever have a conversation, so I’m learning how to let people experience who I am through those spaces too.
For me, that means sharing more of myself, allowing people to hear my voice, see my personality, understand how I approach ceremonies, and hopefully feel some of that connection before we ever meet.
At the same time, I never want to feel like I have to constantly perform online just to stay visible. I’m still figuring out that balance—learning how to show up consistently and let people get to know me while still making sure that what I share feels genuine to who I am.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Today, my work through The Vibe & The Vows is centered around creating wedding ceremonies that are deeply personal to the two people standing in front of me.
I believe the ceremony sets the tone for everything that comes next for a couple on their wedding day. It’s the moment when two people get to pause in the middle of all the planning, all the people, and all the moving pieces and remember exactly why they’re there.
When I work with a couple, I take the time to understand their story, their relationship, the people who matter to them, what they value, and what they want their ceremony to mean. I listen for the little things too—the details, inside jokes, memories, and pieces of their personalities that might seem insignificant on their own but say something real about who they are together.
Then I take all of that and weave it into a ceremony that honors the structure and traditions that are important to them, while using words that come from their actual lives. The ceremony may be shared in front of everyone they love, but the words are meant for the two people standing in front of me.
That’s the kind of ceremony experience I want to create—one that hits different, in the best way.
My role also goes far beyond writing and officiating the ceremony. I guide my couples through the entire process: the ceremony structure, vows, meaningful traditions, creating new traditions when they want something uniquely theirs, rehearsal, and even the marriage-license process.
I work with couples from different backgrounds, cultures, faiths, identities, and traditions. That matters to me because I don’t believe there is one right way for love, marriage, or a wedding ceremony to look. My goal is to understand my couples well enough to create one that honors who they are.
I’m continuing to develop The Vibe & The Vows around the full ceremony experience and the support couples need leading up to it, while building stronger relationships with venues and wedding professionals throughout Philadelphia and the Tri-State area.
I’m also serving as a Philadelphia City Ambassador for Black Women in Weddings, which has opened another part of my work that I’m excited about—helping create connections, opportunities, and community among women in the wedding industry.
As I continue to grow my business, I realize that I’m still growing right along with it. My confidence continues to grow, and so does the pride I feel in the work I’m doing.
I get to stand beside couples during one of the biggest moments of their lives and remind them, through their own story, why they chose each other in the first place.
And I don’t take that lightly.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I’m from West Philadelphia, born and raised—and yes, you absolutely have to read that in your Will Smith voice. 😂
So much of who I am today can be traced back to the people who helped raise me. I lived with my mom and stepdad, but my family was much bigger than the people who lived under our roof.
I’m talking about two aunts who were like second mothers, a cousin only 13 months apart from me who was raised more like my sister, and an uncle who was so much more than an uncle to me—and still remains one of the most important men in my life.
And then there is my grandmother, my “shero”.
At 86 years old, my grandmom can still do just about everything. She cooks, bakes, sews, knits, crochets, and creates the most beautiful things with her hands. She taught me creativity long before I understood that creativity would become part of how I made my way through the world. And she continues to inspire that in me today.
More than anything, my grandmother makes me believe I can do anything I decide to do, and that belief has stayed with me throughout my life. Even when the path doesn’t look anything like I originally planned, I have the knowledge, drive, and determination to figure things out.
And let’s not forget about her warm, funny, and witty personality, which ultimately rubbed off on me.
My grandmother always says I was camera-ready and that I came into this world ready for my close-up, with a head full of curls and a smile that made her heart melt. It’s what we call “the first grandchild effect”.
So obviously, it was no surprise that when she was in fashion school, I was her little model, walking in runway shows as a toddler and wearing her original creations.
And I guess you could say some of that personality was always there in me. It just took me a little while to turn the volume up.
The truth is, I was actually very quiet growing up. I went to Catholic school, was a straight-A student, and eventually graduated at the top of my high school class, earning full scholarships to four different colleges.
But those years looked very different for me than they did for most of my classmates. While I was figuring out who I was and what I wanted for my future, I was also a young mother raising two children, one with a disability. In a lot of ways, I was still growing up while learning how to raise children of my own.
Unfortunately, I didn’t finish college, and my career path took a different direction than the one I had imagined.
Professionally, I eventually found my way into medical billing and claims, which became the career I would spend much of my adult life working in. Outside of work, though, I never stopped being creative. I still found myself helping with events, catering, decorating, and using whatever skills I had to help the people around me.
And I think a lot of that comes from the family that raised me—a family that, by the way, happens to be mostly women.
Growing up surrounded by so many women meant learning the importance of both family and independence. The women in my family taught me to love myself, to love my family deeply, and to show up for the people I care about. But they also taught me to know how to stand on my own two feet. Have your own. Take care of yourself and your children. Think for yourself. And never lose who you are inside of a relationship.
And YES, we’re also EXTRA.
We had Sunday dinners no matter how big or small the table was. We celebrated holidays, birthdays, milestones, and even things like first words, first steps, and first teeth. If there was a reason to celebrate somebody we loved, we found one.
I’ve carried that extra with me into adulthood. I’ve always been the organizer and the person looking for a fun, creative, meaningful way to make the people I love feel celebrated.
But growing up wasn’t only about creativity and celebrations. Becoming a mother so young, navigating difficult relationships, and trying to build a life while I was still figuring out who I was forced me to grow quickly. I was determined not to allow my circumstances to decide what my life—or my children’s lives—would become.
My goal was for my children to become better versions of me. And in trying to create more for them, I kept pushing myself to become more too.
If you had met me at 12, you would have met a timid, quiet girl who was still trying to figure out where she fit.
At 47, I’m bold. I’m fun. I’m confident. I’m still fiercely loyal to the people I love. I’m still creating. I’m still celebrating people.
The difference is, I no longer walk into a room trying to figure out where I fit.
I know I belong there.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thevibeandthevows.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vibeplusvows/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vibeplusvows
