La Dolce Vita
- inspiredchaoswv
- May 24
- 4 min read
Well hey, friends! It’s been a while! I was kind of surprised to see that my last blog post was April of 2023 - over two years ago! Holy cannoli! So much has happened since I last wrote to you all...
(But the CliffsNotes Version is…)
A little over three years ago, I fell in love with the most extraordinary human and was gifted with two of the most spectacular "bonus kids."
Where once my baby and only true love was Inspired Chaos, suddenly my time and attention shifted. IC began as a dream of a retirement gig, became my daily reality, and where I poured all of my spark and energy - from the purchasing, running of the store, and the creative space behind it; regular decor changes, photo shoots and events.
One day, it all shifted. I found myself wanting to get home to put my time and attention into my partner and kids instead of just my work. My focus (and joy) became them - family outings and creative dinners, soccer games and dance recitals, birthday parties, scavenger hunts, river trips, family game nights… and the decoration/themes/blogging of Inspired Chaos faded into the background.
We've switched around the decor a few times, reusing some ideas of the past like our vintage book jewelry display and using old guitars on the wall to hang necklaces from. This year brought some new inspiration, and a new spark for a theme and change up...
Just a few weeks ago in April, I married my soulmate in the most spectacular ceremony in Positano, Italy - my mama's idea! We'd been planning a birthday trip to Italy for my mom for several years and she said, "Why don't you two do your ceremony there?"
It was my first time in Europe (and in Italy), and the culture there was something I immediately felt drawn into. There was an easiness, a joy, a simplicity in what some consider the mundane. Where we stayed, there were no protein shakes or "diet" anything... just fresh foods that were slowly savored, instead of something you ate because you needed to fuel your body. The morning of our wedding, my mom and I were sitting on top of our rental, a watchtower built into the coastline in the 1500's. Construction workers carried their lunch pails on the trail past us, up the hill, laughing, joking and flirting with passerbys, as an older gentleman with a slight limp and sun-faded hat made his way down the hill with his small scruffy dog. He stopped right by our place, at a flowering wild orange bush, to smell the fragrant blooms for several moments, and then plucked one off to continue on his walk. He whistled as he strolled away and his little dog’s tail never stopped wagging.
My mom and I looked at each other and smiled. It's no secret that we (my mama, me, and my fabulous entrepreneur husband) can be very good at taking a pace that's a little too fast - forgetting to slow down to smell the wild orange…
Italy inspired us all to bring the pace back down (once we catch back up from being gone - LOL), and to savor "la dolce vita" - “the sweetness of life.”
The day of our wedding, there was a kindness and indescribable joy from complete strangers. As we walked down the cobblestone streets to get wedding gelato after exchanging our vows, locals came up to shake our hands or hug us, exclaiming “Aguri,” (which translates to “Best Wishes), and even the teenagers kicking the soccer ball on the beach stopped their game to come over to extend their congratulations. It was better than the cheesy rom-coms Mike lovingly watches with me, or the romanticized Italian love stories. It was pure and it was real, and it was something I will hold in my heart and mind for the rest of my life as one of my best memories.
Of course, we had to use the Amalfi region to inspire our theme for spring/summer 2025 and will be bringing on the lemons and incorporating that famous blue tile look (I wanted to bring it all home !!) While the travel (and time before and after) was packed crazy full, we also feel reinvigorated and have all kinds of new ideas and things we’re looking forward to trying out this year… while still savoring the recipe of the Italians, the slow, "la dolce vita."
(Thank you for being part of our Inspired Chaos journey over these past seven years, and for helping us grow to this point. We can't wait to see what happens next.)
((It was almost impossible to pick photos to share from our special day - there are hundreds!! Emiliano Russo Photo and his team made our day incredibly fun and special and we couldn't love our pictures more...))
(Our First Look)
(Our Ceremony/Vows)
(We do, we did, we're married! Pop that bubbly!)
(That's the tower where we got married in the bottom left picture!)
