Coming Soon- A Preferred Vendor Page For Prison Officiants..

For many years now I’ve had people contact me regarding becoming a TDCJ Approved Officiant.

Frankly I was so busy working, traveling, corresponding with clients, film companies and journalists that the last thing I had time for was to teach someone how to do what I do.

Last weekend I went on a trip to Hyatt Hill Country Resorts with my husband who went into semi retirement last December and who is also a heart attack survivor.

You see it was a blessing that I was home to find my husband sprawled out in the great room struggling to breathe because it was a Sunday and I was home working events in the DFW area. Had I not been home it’s highly improbable my husband would’ve survived.

Since my husbands unexpected early retirement as president of a home building company due to the real estate industry changes the past few years eliminating the position he had held for years, my absence traveling 5, 6 and even sometimes 7 days a week has been hard on our marriage.

Although Matthew still works 10-20 hours a week with his best friend and developer, he’s ready to have his wife at home “even if it’s just for a few days a week. I’m tired of sleeping alone.”

Since I was 15 years old, I’ve been a workaholic. An overachiever. There were reasons. Cindy and I ran away at 15 and had no family whatsoever to lean on so we knew at a young age that the only way to survive and pull out of poverty was to work more and do more.

My background is unique in that to find solutions I became creative in doing so. When I was working in the office and learned salespeople made $4 more an hour than I did, I asked to go on the floor and was told “you have to look the part.” I didn’t have the wardrobe so I became a department store model to obtain the clothing to obtain the job on the sales floor.

It was during my divorce that I learned the Cadillac I was driving wasn’t paid for and why I decided to create the first of its kind ad campaign using my designer evening clothing for print ads in country clubs and paying for them with my spousal support checks. This created my own client base and while initially people laughed they didn’t laugh long.

I met my husband by selling him a Cadillac about 19 years ago. He came back and bought another one a year later and finally asked me to dinner.

I’ve spent about 40 years of my life traveling for business and have come to a point in my life where working 7 days a week rolling into 60 years old this year no longer works for me and knowing I can’t be everywhere, met with my web designer yesterday.

My website traffic for traditional events pales in comparison to the SHEER numbers of inquiries for prison weddings.

For about 8 years now I’ve referred people that I couldn’t address myself to other vendors over and over again. Never once was paid a referral fee much less a commission.

So you see, after literally building businesses for these other officiants with clients who INITIALLY came to me through MY sites rather than them, I wasn’t throwing these folks a bone. Instead I was literally feeding them with my referrals. Without clients there is no business!

My web developer and I discussed this issue at length with me. I was as my twin sister said “basically feeding people at my own expense.” Cindy was right. What was in it for me? After referring hundreds of clients to other vendors I had for 8 years done so at my own expense. I’m pretty savvy about business so changes needed to take place.

Many people coming to me or going through my sites have no idea how to get started performing prison weddings or what’s involved. I’m happy to send this information and in the future may even find time to schedule one on one zoom calls (for a fee of course because nothing is free especially time and knowledge) on performing ceremonies whether it’s in the free world or inside a prison.

My web designer and I came up with a great idea & concept somewhat like an Angie’s list of prison officiants so that anyone visiting my sites can easily access and choose an officiant from my site that pays for placement on my site.

For an additional fee vendors can choose to be highlighted and showcased on the first page of the site.

Years ago when my husband and I had a pool built the builder told me “if you refer anyone to me who buys a pool, I will pay you $250.” I referred not one but 2 people who both bought pools and the builder never did pay a referral fee. Not everybody is honest out here. Experience matters.

I was against the idea of trying to get paid when I just handed someone business they couldn’t get on their own so I’m doing this entirely differently by requiring officiants to sign up and pay a monthly fee.

For many years there was an officiant on LinkedIn that would comment on my posts “send me clients you can’t take care of all of them.” I found this very rude, arrogant and entitled. After all they came to me not him so I finally blocked him.

I earned my reputation in this industry. Nobody taught me. Nobody helped me.

In the coming week the new site will feature TDCJ Officiants with a brief bio and their location so the traffic coming through my sites can easily access an officiant near the prison which will be more cost effective since fees are based on travel distance.

Don’t know the process to become an Approved Officiant? No problem I’m happy to send you the required paperwork and instructions on becoming ordained which MUST occur PRIOR to submitting the application.

The TDCJ application AD-03.42 must be renewed yearly.

Filming for Prison Brides wrapped several months ago and I’m under contract with a production company and want to reiterate that media use media pages to contact me.

For years now Cindy and I have been encouraged to write a book. We are planning this year to finally publish Travels of the Texas Twins.

A follow up book of Cindy’s iconic quotes, #Cindyism is in the works. My twin sisters quotes are one of a kind.

I was recently asked how and why it’s so easy for me to be as honest as I am about my life. Too many people aren’t.

Now that my twin sister has successfully raised her grandtwins, Maryssa and Makenna and both are driving and working needing their Mimi less and less, it’s time for the Texas Twins to find a new outlet for Cindy.

I’ve been shopping retail space this week for a storefront and wasn’t fixed on whether to call it The Pawning Planners or Texas Twins Treasures. After all our unique flips and finds come from a wide variety of places. I’m still on the fence.

A lot of people ask why and how I became famous for prison weddings but there’s a back story. There’s always a back story.

From the inception of Texas Twins Events, I welcomed diversity. I traveled to other states for many years to perform LBGT weddings prior to the 2015 Supreme Court ruling.

While being interviewed at an Adam Bouska event in Dallas Texas by CW33, it never occurred to me how many people would see that much less that one person would contact me to marry her at a prison. But it happened.

Initially I didn’t think there would be a second prison request but one became hundreds. Referrals drove so many people to my sites that the numbers shocked my husband and even my web developer.

The merge of prison weddings with my traditional bookings was seamless since prison weddings occur during the week so as not to interfere with weekend visitation and my traditional bookings occur on weekends.

Looking forward to 60 and a few changes in the future from Fort Worth, Texas..