Wedding Planning 101

Ok so I've been thinking for awhile now about becoming a Wedding Planner. I think I would be really good at it because I am organized, even-tempered, not easily flustered, creative and most importantly, I love weddings!! The thing that tempts me most about the career is that things will always be a little different, and that is my main concern for my life. I don't want to be stuck in a job doing the same thing day after day. I need variety!

I think I want to pursue this but I am not sure where to begin. I dont think I need to take a course because I think I have a handle on the basics. There aren't a lot of wedding planner companies that I could intern for either. So I think I just have to start by helping friends plan their weddings so that I can get a feel for it.

What do you think? Should I do it?

My Life

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'The Lesser Known "I Don't Have a Dream" Speech'

What do you do when you don't have a dream? That is my dilemna. Yes, I went to school for Fashion Design because I thought that was my dream. Turns out, it isn't. Fashion can be exciting and beautiful and I do love it, but not in the way that I thought. I love Fashion for the way that it beautifies the world, makes people feel good in their skin and gives us something new to look forward to every season. But fashion is too demanding, too superficial, too unimportant. If I'm going to spend my life doing something, I want it to be something that helps people. And although I do think that looking good and having a sense of fashion is important, it isn't usually life-changing. I want to make a difference.

But how? I don't know what to do. I do NOT want to go back to school to learn something else, that would be a waste of 4 years and roughly $100,000. So I want to find something that uses my degree and my knowledge but also helps, enlightens, changes, grows or moves! Can fashion do that?

And worse yet, everytime I am dumb enough to open my mouth about an idea or thought I have about something I might like to do, a week later I change my mind. So what should I do? Should I just wander around my life as if I am a stranger in it? I need to find a dream- something to work for- something meaningful. How will I find it when I'm not even sure what I'm looking for?

Another Year Gone By

Well... I am not so great with keeping up with my blog- it's been almost a full year since my last post. But I do have a pretty good excuse- my last post gives just a preview of what my senior year was really like. I did get very sleep deprived. There were weeks at a time where I couldn't sleep more than 3 or 4 hours a night. So it pretty much sucked. But I made it through, and I got that degree!!



But now it's on to another challenge- real life. I have to find a job I like/can stand, and one that pays enough to pay off my loans and save up for my future. And although I'm finding all of this very overwhelming and depressing to say the least- I am finding comfort in being home with my family and friends who I always missed while away at school. I can't wait to be here for all the fall festivities- and I get to be home with my baby brother for his last year of high school. I love fall with no school!!

Senior Year!!

Well here I am, at the beginning of the end. I feel like I have been in college for half of my life- but at the same time, I can't believe it's almost over. Just 8 more months of treacherous studies until I can proudly claim that degree. I am sitting in my bed right now, calming myself down after an all-nighter in the Fashion Studio. Whoever thought that Fashion was an easy major was wrong. It's the 3rd week of school and already I am sleep deprived. I was in the lab for 12 hours straight working on only ONE assignment- and it was a drawing/painting assignment. Sewing assignments take days. Anyway, I am just in shock as to how much work is already being piled on us. I have 6 classes, 2 jobs and a partridge in a pear tree. I just hope that I am able to keep up with all the work and not get sick from sleep deprivation. If you have a chance, try to tell my teachers that theirs is not the only class I am taking, and that I do have other committments outside school... cause yeah I think they all missed the memo.

Looking back...

Well I haven't posted on here since before I left London! Talk about a long time! Well anyway I've been back in the States for almost 4 months now and things couldn't feel more normal. People talked about "reverse culture shock" but I don't think I really experienced that. The first weekend I was back felt a little weird, partly because of jet lag and partly because I had been SO far away for SO long!! The chemistry with my friends and family felt a little different at first but now I can safely say everything is back to normal.

People said going to Europe would change me forever and as much as there are a lot of things about myself I wouldn't mind changing, I hoped they weren't right. And now I can say honestly that I think I am the same person as I was when I left. However, I have gained a few things from the experience. I am a lot braver than I ever have been before. Living in a city like London changes the way I look at taking a day trip to NYC. I used to be really skiddish about getting mugged or pick pocketed, and it is true that those things happen, but there is only so much you can do to prevent them. So being overly paranoid won't help anyone. I also know that I can get around in the city and I don't to worry about getting so helplessly lost that I will never find my way home! I can handle it!

Overall my experience travelling abroad was priceless. To be able to spend a length of time in a beautiful city in Europe for not much more than my regular tuition is something that I will never have the chance to do again. I hope that someday I will be able to go back on an extended "holiday" and see all the beautiful London sites again. But most of all I want to go back to Italy. There is no place I have ever been or dreamed of that could be more amazing. And in the end, I have grown up just a little bit more, taken another step into adulthood and being independent. And we'd thought I'd never get there!

Thoughts on Uniformity in America

We had a class recently about the rationing of fashion and utilitarian clothes that people had to deal with during World War II. I never really thought about how people had to change their way of dressing back then. The wars that we’ve had in my life have been far away and in other countries therefore I have been pretty much unaffected by it.

If we had to ration our clothing today, I think it would be extremely interesting to see people’s reactions. My overall thought is that people would actually become more grateful for what they have and less frivolous. I think it might actually be a good way to take care of some of the spoiled Americans we have today. But it’s different now because a lot more people are independently wealthy and aren’t afraid to show it. Back then people didn’t want to show they had money during the war because it meant they weren’t being patriotic and were spending money on frivolities. Now people are always protesting the wars and not showing their support to our country’s causes.

I can’t imagine what it would take for our country to ever have to rationed clothing again. We have clothing factories in the U.S. and I’m sure there are fabric suppliers at our disposal as well. But I suppose not having access to the cheap labor factories that are in other countries would make a huge difference in price and availability. Also if we did have another World War where most countries were against us, we would most likely be using our own mills to make uniforms for the soldiers. Which is how they originally had the rationing of clothing I suppose.

People today take so much pride in their individuality I don’t know how people would be able to deal with the uniformity of rationed goods. As it goes for school uniforms, it creates a similiarity between all people groups. I think that is good and is something that our country needs. People spend too much time trying to set themselves apart with a lot of money and nice cars and big boats. Not to say that having that stuff is wrong, but I think that often times people put so much focus on those things that they ignore the really important things in life. Even though we are the richest country in the world, we still have an extremely high poverty rate. I wish there was a way we could instill this kind of uniform feeling among us and do something to help those less fornutate than ourselves. True, easier said than done. But if everyone just cut back a little, didn’t buy that 2nd cup of coffee every morning or took the bus instead of a cab, there would be a little extra something for that person with nothing.