Sunday, March 9, 2014

Life is a Playlist and I'm Gonna Listen to it All Night Long.


We've all experienced that moment when a random song comes on and suddenly you're transported back to a time that prior to those notes beating, felt far away. A memory that feels so distant, you now regularly never even recall it. It isn't until those notes and lyrics take over, and then you're back there.

You're back feeling the moments of those first dates together. You're driving in your first car with the windows down. You're at your cubicle of your first job. You're celebrating your best friends decent into marriage. You're dancing like you own the club on your 25th birthday. You're happy. You're sad. You're broken. You're healed.

No matter what the memory evokes, as the music plays on, we remember with certainty that it is in fact, a memory. It's a cherished moment from the past. We sit here right now with new songs playing that will one day create the framework around the time that is this moment.

In fact, there's an entire playlist of songs I have yet to hear. Listening to a song from one of yesterdays soundtracks, lets out a nostalgic tone along with the reminder that music keeps playing and all we have to do is listen and enjoy.




Sunday, March 2, 2014

Life Lessons from International Brides



As a bridal consultant and stylist, I get to interact with brides during one of their most anticipated and exciting parts of the wedding planning process....finding the dress.

While the focus quite obviously is placed on the details of dress style and fit, my favorite question to ask the bride is how she and her fiance met. It's those stories that shed light into them as a couple and varying degrees of inspiration into my daily life.

A couple of my international brides threw down some real world knowledge somewhere in-between trying on drop-waisted ball-gowns and the Atlantic ocean.

Little Italy

The highlight of my day was working with an Italian bride who spoke very little English. Her mother who accompanied her spoke, exactly two words - "Yes," and "No." Both English words pronounced in the most Italian way possible.

Though the bride currently lives in Florida, the wedding would be in Italy and with no surprise, would require satin fabrics and lots of beading.

As this little Bella stood in a fitted Cristiano Lucci gown, I asked how she met her fiance, who I had earlier learned, was also Italian.

Through broken yet simultaneously impressive English, she explained how she came to Florida on a trip to attend her Aunts baby shower a year ago and he was there.

I laughed and replied, "So each of you had to travel from Italy to Florida to meet?"

She smiled, making a huge hand gesture, opening her hands and arms, and said with jovial conviction, "Life!"


Not at all sharing the same language, it was both funny and heart-warming, to have had one word say so much.

To Egypt with Love

I worked with a bride from Egypt recently. Her fiance is still there while she has been living in Florida for two years now. She hopes when they marry, he'll move here.

When I asked why she moved here, she simply said: "For a better life."

It reminded me that despite a lot of things we may dislike or disagree with in our country and government, it still largely remains a place known for being a destination for freedom, for something better, and a place where when you dream of something, there's a real possibility you'll achieve it.