For Dorothy Wang, This Lunar New Year Brings Wedding Planning, "Wisdom," and Tequila

Get the Full StoryFor Dorothy Wang, this year's Chinese zodiac feels especially significant. "The year of the snake is all about shedding your skin and transforming and using your wisdom from previous years," she says. And with new projects, a recent engagement, and upcoming wedding plans, the reality TV star is ready to do just that and trust herself in the process. "Sometimes I get stuck in what I feel like people want from me and what I actually want. It's OK to grow out of certain things and leave them in the past." As Wang, who just celebrated her birthday earlier this week, says, "I just turned 37, so I'm no longer 25 years old running around Beverly Hills."

In honor of the Lunar New Year, Wang teamed up with Tequila Don Julio to launch Tequila Don Julio 1942 Year of the Snake Edition, a limited-edition bottle designed with a Chinese zodiac snake and Aztec feathered serpent. Wang, who's been a longtime fan of the Don Julio brand, describes the release as "a beautiful blend of two cultures coming together."

While tequila will certainly be involved in her celebrations, the most important part of the holiday is gathering her chosen family. Though she's usually with her family in Los Angeles during the Lunar New Year, this year, she's hosting a family dinner for her friends in New York City at Hwa Yuan Szechuan. "If I'm not with my family, I like to host dinners and continue the traditions, which is usually just a family dinner," she says. They'll be eating lucky Lunar New Year foods, like dumplings, which "signify little bags of money," noodles for happiness and longevity, and fish to increase prosperity and abundance.

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Wang isn't "superstitious," but she likes to honor Chinese traditions for the holiday. "Some years, I'm more committed than others, but in general, my family always just says, be with family and loved ones," she says. "How you start your year is how your year is going to be. So they also really want me to keep a calm temperament, not get upset, and no fighting. No cleaning, no housework, or busy work."

Though Wang wasn't public about her relationship at the time, last year, she also hosted a Lunar New Year dinner with her fianc , Brandon Yankowitz. In fact, she only hard-launched their romance after they got engaged in October 2024, surprising fans on social media. "It's not like I was keeping a secret because my friends, my family, and everyone around us that saw us in person knew that we were together or met him," she says. "We just didn't post it on social media. He's very private."

After sharing her dating life on "Bling Empire: New York" and "Rich Kids of Beverly Hills," keeping her relationship private felt "very strange." "I think it was different for me at first because I always put everything out there," she says. "I probably never thought that I would be able to not post my significant other on Instagram, but once you have something very special, it feels sacred and just for you and the people immediately around you. But after we got engaged, we felt like it was time to let people in a little bit on our love and our story together."

Because Yankowitz didn't have an Instagram account, the couple created an Instagram account for him a week after they got engaged. "He's private on it, but he looks at it like a photo album. So if I tag him or we do a collab ppst , he likes to be able to go on it and see our photos together."

As for their wedding plans, Wang says they're still in the "scouting process" of choosing a location. "Shockingly, I'm really not that big of a wedding girl . . . hopefully that means I won't be a bridezilla, but we never know!" While they initially wanted to book a venue right after their engagement, they decided to take a break over the holidays. "Wedding planning is a fun process, but it really also is a very stressful process. We love so many different places, so it's hard to narrow it down. We love to travel and we want to create a unique, fun experience for our guests and our families, so we're thinking probably a destination somewhere."

Luckily, the year of the snake comes at an opportune time for Wang's next chapter.

Yerin Kim is the features editor at POPSUGAR, where she helps shape the vision for special features and packages across the network. A graduate of Syracuse University's Newhouse School, she has over five years of experience in the pop culture and women's lifestyle spaces. She's passionate about spreading cultural sensitivity through the lenses of lifestyle, entertainment, and style.

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