If it was My Last Day.

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our minds.”
-Bob Marley

Dreams really do come true. {Instagram Photo @beuweddings}

I am a worrier. When I woke up this morning, worries immediately popped into my head. What do I have to get done today? What brides are going to be disappointed if I don’t email them? Oh…and I still have to write the Be U Weddings post!

Thursdays are traditionally a “real wedding day,” so I ask myself, should I post a “real wedding?” That would be the easiest solution, or should I write the final Be U Weddings post of 2012? As I ponder this decision, my family is sound asleep and the house is silent with the exception of coffee brewing in the background and my all-time favorite artist, Dave Matthews, playing.

How nice does this feel?! My decision is clear…I am going to write.

How do I start? Write about “right now,” I think to myself and within seconds my inner voice is already nagging me. What if people think I am a music nerd because I like Dave Matthews? Then I think Who cares?! I want our readers to know me for who I am! At that moment, the inspirational words of my husband’s favorite music artist, Bob Marley, come to the forefront, and everything is crystal clear as my story unfolds.

Coles Appliance and Furniture Company founded in 1946. The new location of the *U Empire.

It couldn’t have come at a more spiritual time in my life that people started talking about the so-called “End of the World”. Since my own wedding and the birth of beuweddings.com, many exciting things have happened in my business and personal life. Be U Brides, our upscale, custom wedding invitation company, became a great success, we moved our offices to my husband’s store, Cole’s Appliance and Furniture Company, **Rachel Moore came on board to do amazing things at the U Empire and my sweet baby girl, Tybee Rose, was born.

I just had a baby and all of these exciting milestones were happening, yet I didn’t have time to actually enjoy and appreciate them. I was moving through life like a skier racing down a mountain. I was in the trenches and I never stopped working. Be U Weddings was growing rapidly, we were launching the first ever #BridalGuide, planning for the #squashusale, and all the while I was raising a beautiful newborn girl.

And although I loved Tybee immediately and more than anything in the world (as I constantly recited to her in baby talk), I am hesitant to admit that it took me about a month to fall truly, madly and deeply in love. Other mothers will say they fell in love at the hospital, but not me and of course I was worried about it.

It was the night before a Be U Weddings’ partnership meeting, that my husband, Kevin, was telling me about his day and giving me a work-related pep talk. He said something inspirational, as he often does, just as I had looked down at Ty in my arms and all of a sudden, I felt it. A warm glow fell over me and I fell madly, head-over-heels and deeply in love.

The worry lifted and my thoughts began to focus on what was important to me. How did I want to live my life each day? Do I want to sit at my computer every day from the early dawn until I get into bed? Until I die? Do I want to continue down this slope? This is my one chance at life and I want to live it!

Live it like it’s the End of the World!

***Somewhere, over the rainbow at Bay City, Michigan’s Rotary Park, a bride and groom met, fell in love and had a dream wedding. Photographer, Paul Retherford,

Like Tybee, I felt like I was seeing the world for the first time. I decided to live my life for me and Ty and not for everyone else. Things started to inspire me differently like these shoes (above) that I randomly took a photo of and this arch from the wedding we featured this Wednesday and it confirmed to me that “dreams really do come true.”

One thing I hope you take from my story is to live each and every day like it’s your last day in this world, and when you plan your wedding—that one and magical day—plan it like it’s your last day on earth.

As the world continues to turn into 2013,  I hope that you’ll join us as we become the number-one wedding blog in Chicago. The U Empire will be adding new and exciting features to the Be U Weddings website, re-branding Be U Brides and creating new designs to add to our Squash U line. We hope you visit us daily for Chicago wedding inspiration and exclusive access to upcoming bridal events happening right here in this amazing city. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for the latest adventures of the Be U Gals, exclusive giveaways and a sneak peak inside the Chicago wedding industry.

The U Empire will be on our #winterbreak beginning December 24th and returning in 2013. Stay tuned and remember no matter what your inner voice says, always Be U.

-Sacha Krasney
President and Creative Founder

To the Be U Gals: Thank you to the Be U Gals that have been apart of the Beuweddings.com team since day one, thank you for believing in my idea and helping me to build this dream into reality. Abby Foster, Cassandra Thibodeau, Soo Park, Katelyn Koepke (now Lewis), Katie Garton, Betsy Striltschuk and Rachel Moore. I heart U.

____

 Quotes I live by each day:
• “Worrying Solves Nothing”
Rachy Rach {#crazycatlady} and I remind each other, this, every day.

•  “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our minds.”
The inspirational words of my husband’s favorite music artist, Bob Marley.

What I would be doing if it were the #endoftheworld:
With my husband and daughter:
“When the world ends
You’re gonna come with me
We’re going to be crazy
Like a river bends
We’re going to float
Through the criss cross of the mountains
Watch them fade to nothing
When the world ends
You know that’s what’s happening now
I’m going to be there with you somehow…”
- Dave Matthews Band Song “When the World Ends.”

Footnotes:
*U empire: Squash U, Be U Brides & Be U Weddings

** Rachy Rach {#crazycatlady}- I Heart U! XOXO – Be U Gal.

*** Inspiration: To this day, I can’t recall what Kevin said, but I do know that it changed my outlook on life. It was like a light bulb went off.

****Shoes photo: When I uploaded the photo into Instagram, the shoes immediately reminded me of the “Wizard of Oz” and the infamous song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” I started to sing the lyrics in my head and then the rest of the day to my daughter as we pranced around the city, hopping from coffee shop to coffee shop so I could get some work done, sifting through our latest and greatest #photosubmissions for 2013.

**** Rotary Park Photo: As I was reviewing our 2013 wedding submissions, I came across the The Rotary Park Wedding. I had only just skimmed through these photos at first, as I always do, and wasn’t initially intrigued. However, this photo {below} is what really captured my attention.

Caption: Be U Weddings | Photographer: Paul Retherford

Wow!, I thought. She looks like every bride’s dream, running to her prince charming. Then I noticed the fabric hanging down from her dress and tangled around her foot. What was that? I looked more closely and my inner voice started to rant, “ahh why is that there?!” And then I was struck with a realization. Even with this small fabric blip, Paul captured the “prince charming” feeling every bride dreams of. I felt it. Even if it was just for a split second before my inner voice took over. That photo told me a bridal story of how dreams really do come true.  #Be U.