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Hi there,
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… to my blog. I'm here to share lots of helpful tips on
how to create a beautiful lifestyle through food,
fashion and décor.
Throughout my career, People have always asked me:
How did you start your business? What exactly is a lifestyle blogger?
It’s a hard to narrow it down, but I have been working in the lifestyle and entertaining industry for almost 30 years. Food, fashion, décor, and entertaining have been an integral part of my life for a long time.
I’m here to share my ideas with you from my many years of catering and event planning experience. My family had a retail home furnishing business that exposed me to the best of the best in decor and textiles and I got to know the ropes in all these creative fields. You could say it's just part of my DNA.
It's the small things that count, and it's all in the details!
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I can’t set an alarm clock and you can’t ask me to turn on the TV – I’ll be LOST! I can, however, provide a wealth of helpful information about entertaining from the MANY parties I have given. As an event producer, I’ve done a lot of catering, planning and styling. I am also a junkie when it comes to food, fashion and décor. I can talk trends and I always know the best of the best, whether high or low.
Before my kids were born, I worked in a very big fashion company doing merchandising and fashion shows as well as in the New York show room during fashion week. I was a personal shopper in a major department store for many years before that. I dressed women twice my age head to toe...and I sold lots and lots of clothes. I'd like to think I was actually an "Influencer" to the women that I dressed- and that was way before Instagram existed!
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Babies arrived and I left NYC for the 'burbs. I started entertaining so much that it felt like I was hosting a party every week. I started cooking when I was really young, and I just continued throughout each phase of my life. One thing lead to another and all of a sudden, I was catering for other people. My days of catering led me to event planning. I was the caterer for parties and then the next thing I knew I was ordering all the rentals, organizing tents in homes and finding venues, picking out linens and flowers for clients. Within a few years, I was so busy with planning the parties that I left the kitchen and became a full time event planner.
Over 20 years later I have been so lucky to organize parties all over the New York area from intimate and elegant to over 800 people. I've planned parties in the greatest venues, the most beautiful homes, and even a campground with no running water! The majority of the events I plan are in the New York area where as well as the Hamptons, but I've also been fortunate enough to plan events in fantastic destinations from Aruba to Aspen, and Memphis to Malibu.
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While I still plan the parties at Carolyn Bender Events, clients often ask for my advice. I find myself consulting with them about various lifestyle needs- like what to buy for their home, where they can find an evening bag for a dress to their event, what playlist they should put on when guests arrive for a party, where they can find a fun place to eat with their college friends visiting NYC…just to name a few.
After all this time, I finally realized how much information I have to share so I started a blog in 2018...
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My blog is called CBeaLifestyle because of my experience as a caterer and event planner with a background in the fashion industry. I have really been inundated in all the aspects of lifestyle.
The name is a play on my initials and is an homage to my Granny Bea who always encouraged ME in everything I did and shared her love all around. She was technically my first "guests I catered for. You can see the letter she wrote me in 1981 on my opening post on the blog!
It all started while I was growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, and now here I am to share my LOVE for all my favorite things…Food, Fashion, Décor and Lifestyle, all with a little Southern Hospitality and New York Style!
Hope you enjoy...
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