Say Yes to the Mess (with Fiona Hare)

Would you get married? What would your big day look like? And who's already banned from your fitting appointment?
This week we're with Bridal Stylist and Best Friend of the show, Fiona Hare! She tells us what makes a perfect "yes to the dress" moment, what makes a boutique a boutique, and why The Menu is a classic. 

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

0:48

Welcome. Wonderful. No introduction. We're all still afraid. Right. I mean, I thought my crowd, like, if I think something the way I asked, like 14 seconds before Phines dipped out of the call. Everybody ready? We all for anybody and everything. It just. Hell, yeah. Yeah, We see you. Well, we can't hear you. Did you guys see the movie Tootsie? No, no, I want to see Dustin Hoffman. And, you know, they had him on a TV, and he was playing a woman, I think. And he was so unattractive that they told him to keep moving back further from the camera. And that's what I've been doing. You know, they. They made a musical adaptation of the movie, too. Oh, okay. Yeah. It was on Broadway, I think five or six years ago. Never saw it, but I knew it existed. What do you. What are you doing now, Fiona? Me? So I am a bridal stylist and a customer experience specialist at a bridal boutique called Wedding Angels. They're two different locations. One's in Roswell, one's in Portland. Competition with that other company. No business. David's Bridal, the one that filed for bankruptcy. They have a very different approach to bridal stuff than we do. And I really like the way that we do it because it's all about like, honestly, the most important bit about it is like connecting with people. So it's more about like getting to know each other rather than like selling a product. And like by getting to know someone and like listening to their feedback and getting to know them oftentimes, like they do find their dress. But we we're we're not in the same league. We carry dresses on the low end of gowns that we have start around 1500. Wow. And then the expensive end, which I've actually I think I've sold the most expensive dress in the boutique and it was just under $10,000. Wow. Wow. They're pretty well to get people to be able to afford that. Are the dresses made by your company or you buy from other suppliers and are they from the United States or foreign or what? Yeah. Yeah. So we we do not make our gowns in the boutique. We have we have over 900 gowns like different styles in our boutique, which is like unheard of. It's a ridiculous amount. And we actually have that number of gowns in your store. Do you? Yeah, we have that little girl you want. How big is it? It's crazy. It's not giant. We're actually running out of space. We've got So we have six private dressing rooms for all of the different, like parties that come in to search for their gowns. We provide champagne, we have water, we have cookies. We have on sparkling grape juice. That was my idea. And so, like the kids who come can, like, feel special. And then we have so we have oh, gosh, I don't know the exact number. I have to, like, listen to it. So we have the designer Stella Bjork, Essence of Australia, Martina Liana, Martina, Liana Lux, all who wander, Mikayla, Paloma Alexander by day more. JINICH Christina Wu. Adriana People. MGM Why Hines Park? I think there's another one. And some of those are like mother of the bride gowns, but the majority of them are bridal gowns. And how far in advance of a wedding does a client what's the average amount of time before a wedding if somebody actually just tries to pick out a gown? Yeah. So we get different time frames all the time, which is understandable because the Internet tells people the wrong information. A lot about this depending on the designer, depending on the gown, it can take anywhere on average, if you're like ordering a brand new one between 4 to 9 months to get the gown. And then after that you need about two months for alterations before your wedding because they're not custom making it to your measurements. We have a size two hour and then they tailor it on your body and person after you get the gown, because if you like, send custom measurements to someone and they get something slightly off, it's not going to fit you the right way. What do you guys? So it's a lot of go ahead. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Am I echoing at all? No. No. What do you guys think about weddings? Like the party itself? It all sounds so how do you say this? Like, stressful, right? I think it's different for different people. And, like, I think planning the weddings a lot, but what more and more people are doing, which I think is smart, is instead of doing like the huge big party, if that's important to their like families, they do the huge, big party, but a lot of them are just like going off on their own and going on an adventure and getting married, doing that, like going to Scotland, you're going to have a bride who she's getting married in Cabo and they're going to go on a boat after they get married, like a little speedboat and just jump in the ocean to celebrate. So it's like it's different for different people. But I yeah, it is. There's a lot get busy always telling me about, like really stressed out people that come in and the fights and like it's stuff that you wouldn't see it call on or something, you know. Well it's weddings are definitely the most like emotionally charged event for most people like especially for women society kind of your whole life ever since your little tells you the most important day of your life is going to be your wedding. And when you have kids and the kids thing isn't about the woman, it's more about like the life that they're bringing in. But the wedding is like all about the woman. At least that's how society puts it. So a lot of people come in with like this super intense pressure from either like their mom or society. I guess we're just they feel like everything has to be perfect. So it is very emotionally charged. And sometimes those situations bring out not the best behavior from people. Honestly, most of the times it's the moms. It's not the actual brides, but it's like we also see like some really amazing memories being made like that that you don't get to like, see in any other kind of like in Fiona's. Fiona's a saint because the stories that she's told me, I definitely wouldn't have reacted as gracefully as she has. I believe you. I'm trying to think, what do they do? They keep like a second of it for the groom in case he doesn't show. Yeah, maybe it depends on the bride, I guess. What is? They can borrow. We have. We have some, like, headless men, mannequins that work tuxedos in our boutique. They can borrow them. That'll be the groom, right? Little or no? One of the rest of you guys think about weddings and all that stuff. Grandpa, I've been there. Well, I think. I think exactly what Fiona is saying. It's a really big, big deal to a lot of, you know, younger women in their whole life and men to the most important. Where are you going to say, Phines? men also. Well, go ahead. Well, I would just going to say I believe it's a high stress situation because of what Fiona was saying. But as part of what makes her so good with customers, it's like some understanding of like a this is this is like a societal way or use. It's this is like sad is about to come on you and that's probably why the mother there so like is that a representation of like oh I don't know is it is is putting so much stake in your name and and I know that's probably a very what's that word in high stress you know it's like so oh my gosh yeah I was at a wedding I don't know a year ago and and boy, the the the bride was just having a ball dancing and everything. She just was having a real fun time. Yeah. That's how it should be. Yeah. It's a very it's there are a lot of people celebration. Oh, I guess this is my, my nerdy philosophical question. I don't even know how I'm putting together, though, but I'm thinking about society or I'm thinking about capitalism. It's, you know, that's always something. But this time. But I think fair. I'm just thinking about, like events and tradition and why we do things like kind of like not weddings in general, but I guess we'll maybe think about this is like silly. The Vincent traditions we do like make the gender showing thing. And then while we started doing it and why I became the way it does and like I know it's rooted in some like Hays Community and families are coming together and, you know, all this other stuff. But then it got into this, you know, big fanfare that some people like lease me or some I like turn to I have a turn knows that a lot of like the big events come like oh this is so much but it's important because, you know, I want someone to celebrate my days. I guess my question is, Hmm, do you think weddings are too traditional? I think the traditional elements of weddings are shifting. Okay. What? I didn't quite hear that. They used to. They are what? I have a little shifting ground. That shift shift shifting, like, are they too traditional? But I do think they're changing. A lot of people now aren't following like the same set structure that you have to do for a wedding. People are getting more creative with it and more unique about the celebration. So rather than it being about like the cookie cutter what society says, it's more about the celebration of those two people. Like I had the sweetest couple and it was it was two women who are getting married. They were both in their late forties, early fifties, and they wanted to look for their dresses together and they brought their daughters to join them and like look for this. And as they were telling us everything that they were doing for their wedding, I was like, They're not even really doing a ceremony. They're just having a huge party That's awesome. And they're like signing the marriage contract. Eric Contract in the middle of it and like having fireworks go off or something or like streamers. So it's like a cute little celebration moment, but it's like less about the ceremony and more about them celebrating being together. Yeah, so it's like it's shifting. There are still some very traditional weddings that happen, but I think people are feeling more freedom to celebrate the way that they want. It's funny when your girlfriend works in the wedding industry, how do you what's your opinion of what's your opinion of weddings if they just abdicates? I mean, yeah, I, I, I think it's amazing for some people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To me, like you're skirting, you know, you don't got a personal Instagram plan. No but your weddings scramble. It's great. You know, it's the end of you lost your identity three times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, you know, I think. I think the two weddings that I have been to as an adult were with Fiona. And both times when they do the vows and stuff, I did cry. It's very beautiful. But because do you get invited once in a while to the wedding from like someone you know, pick out a dress? Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So far, since I've been at Wedding Angels, I've been invited, like, tentatively, not officially yet to, like, nine or ten different weddings. Wow. Wow. But I, I help a lot of brides, so, like, percentage wise, that's maybe like, maybe five or 10% of the brides I've helped. Well, I can see where you would make them feel comfortable. Yeah. I mean, it's there's so much pressure about, like, wedding dresses. The I just I want the person to be able to feel confident because, I mean, myself included. It is very easy for women to be incredibly self-critical about appearances. And often times when someone finds like, what is their dress, you can see in their face that it's the first time ever that they have felt truly beautiful and confident and who, like in their outsides, matching their insides. And that's like, it's really awesome getting to help them find that I think is pretty awesome. And what how do you think that our do you think they're and this is I guess I'm asking the room not just you Fiona but like how do you think like grooms are the males in these like weddings can be more like make it more of like a both of them thing are more of a like a pressure for both our because again I don't I guess I don't know enough about weddings but I know isn't there like you're not supposed to see the wedding dress or your wife until the wedding. Right. And that's true. But what if I'm like, excited to help and like, you know, it's people are breaking those traditions now. It's great. They're like people who bring their fiancés to help them find their dress. The whole thing about not seeing the bride before the wedding is from ancient times because that tradition and bridesmaids come from the same like cultural route where they were worried that the bride was going to get stolen so they wouldn't let anyone know what the bride looks like. And this happened oftentimes in arranged marriages, too. So the bridesmaids would wear identical outfits to the bride and all of them would go together. So it's like just a mob of people dress the same way. So the bride, when it gets stolen or protected them from demons wanting to impart negativity on their marriage. And it's like all these like really old traditions that have like, evolved. But that's where it comes. Like the groom is supposed to see the bride before the wedding because if they do, she might get stolen. That is when that happens. That makes it a different experience. When you have like older, older people getting married. Yeah, definitely. There's always finding the balance of like what's appropriate for the different ages. And it also I look younger than I am a lot of times too. Like people have thought, I'm like 20 in the boutique before and I'm 25. So when I have a bride who's older or I help a mom find her dress, there's always the there's always having to overcome the fact that I am younger. Can they trust me? MM. Are you? You're 25. I'm 25. Boy, that's your child bait. But I know I have a little baby still there, but yeah, there's like a with brides who are older, we definitely have to proceed gently so it doesn't feel like we're trying to push them to do something that we want. It's that we're guiding them to do what they want to do. I like, Oh yeah, it's really fun too. We get to hear amazing stories all the time, which is really cool and like, get to like some of them are memories that I've seen families make together. MM In the boutique I will never forget there is one. It was an older bride. She was. She was in her late fifties, was her first time getting married. She brought her mom with her and like her mom was a little out of it, but I was like, That's fine. All good. So we like we're in our private room. Then privately in the dressing room, the bride lets me know that her dad had passed away a month before, that her mother has severe dementia and was very recently relocated to Georgia from Florida because there was no one left to take care of her. And this bride was having to sort through the death of her father, her mother's stability declining quite rapidly and planning a wedding At the same time. She's doing something very simple, but she had to postpone her wedding by over a year. So we get in. She's in a dress that she feels amazing. And her fiance even texted her and was like, I can't wait to marry you. The bride was like, I think that's a sign. She was like, This is my dress. And her mom had like the first true moment of clarity in her eyes that I had seen the entire appointment. And we had been together for like an hour and a half at that point. And she said, This dress speaks and it's you and she immediately started sobbing and it was like, I got to witness that powerful moment between a mom and a daughter. That might be one of the last moments of mental clarity they have together. It's like I'm I'm never going to forget that. And that's like that's something really special that comes with this territory. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, I was going to first say, like, Oh, your job kind of reminds me of like, being a tattoo artist where you're like, you know, you kind of help someone pick something, but then you, you know, you're kind of the professional too. So you're like, I know it's going to look good. Yeah, but I don't know if that's happening in tattoo parlors. I'm sure they do. I'm sure they do. But I'm know you're in this room during these years. Is there a problem that happens or a blessing that happens more than often? And. But that's pretty cool. Can you guys are there? You get to see are there any particular special shoes for a bride? Nope. Well, this is really nice because anyone could wear whatever they want. They're like people now. I had a bunch of brides were like, I'm just not going to wear shoes. I'm more comfortable that way. I sure would. Oh, well, they're like getting married at a beach now. I don't know. I don't know if I'll wear shoes or even even even me not wearing heels, nothing, Just going to my own wedding. I'm like, Now I might wear very, very little makeup. Any excuse not to wear. She. Oh, I'm on the beach. Yes. Oh, it's at my house. I know it. I know this floor on the beach. You're going to, like, die. A lot of people are wearing like Converse Now to throw some crocs under there. Have some class to only if it like, put like one little rhinestone on the crocs. Well, yeah, you know, I'm just not going to wear shoes to my wedding. Okay. It should be like the Lightning McQueen crocs. Have you seen those? No, they. They look like the animated car with, like, the eyeballs and everything. Oh, my God. I'm so my chagrin. There's, like, 18 different versions of Croc. They've made Crocs and the flip flops sneaker you have to get to. That's. That's saying I never got all that. Hey, this is about to be worn, crocs. Oh, yeah. When none of them you know, you got this. I never knew the croc. Okay. Yeah, I like them. I just. Now I'm new to them, but I have them on right now. My dog has decided she's going to be a part of the little nice. This is a silly question, but where's the puppy? What is? When does something not become a boutique? What is it? Boutique? Is it only for weddings? What is a boutique? What? What? What can I call a boutique? And what can I can that boutiques are typically a small business or like has just a couple of locations. A boutique also has more of a like less. It's less corporate feeling. I see. Okay. And I imagine that sometimes you can get merchandise that you won't find in the regular department stores type setting. Yeah I today a stop did a I guess you'd call it boutique store. I want to get a gift for one of my daughters and I didn't want to just go in and get, you know, the regular dresses and whatever shirts. So I drove quite a distance to a particular store that has, you know, more unusual type clothing. So that I guess that would be considered a boutique or take. Yeah, definitely. And Grandpa, I wanted to ask, is it really surreal that like you, you remember me as a baby and now you're on a podcast with my partner? Um, no, Um, no. It just feels natural to me. Just. It just feels natural. I mean, you know, you were fun. Fun when you were a little kid. Do I remember? I think we went. I forget if it was I think it was a bar mitzvah or a wedding. And we were rolling balls down a hallway in a in a moat in a hotel that I remember way back when I was like 14, way back when. No, no, no. You were quite a bit younger than that, I think. I think so. So why are you not on the on the screen brand then? Are you in the space? No, I'm I'm here. I'm sorry that I had to film from my car today, but I appreciate the flexibility. You you have what? I'm filming from my car. Oh, you're filming from your car. Oh, okay. Oh, but you were on a little while. Yeah. Cutting out with my video on. I say. Uh huh, Oh, you stealing your neighbor's Internet? You know, they're all My power was going out several times today. You know, the flickering and the Wi-Fi router would go out. So we have additional guests on today, too, like Rosie's a regular, but my dog now sitting in the room, like, staring at me intensely because all she can hear is like just me talking. She thinks I'm going crazy. Come here, sweetie. What? What kind of a dog is she? Or he or whatever? Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Oh, cute and real cute. Yeah, It's like I'm on the podcast, too. I guess I'll bring it up a little bit. No, Come here. Yes, It's our podcast. Grandpa was a rare animal collector. Oh, What's the craziest animal you collected? You're talking about who you talking to? Big to you? Oh, well, I've had very large snakes. One almost killed me. You know, And I've had camera shot a jungle cat. That was very spooky. I think it looked like a large domestic cat. I was very shy. Well, interesting cat. I don't know. I've had a number of animals, but your dog is real cute. And. Oh, thank you. So is Phines’s dog. And she's one of four. Shapiro! Oh, really? You have four dogs? Yeah, I have four. Wow. Yeah. So nice seeing Shapiro. Phines? All four of our dogs are. I miss hanging out with you, but more than that, I. I think about SHAPIRO all the time. I really miss walking through. Is such a sweet guy. You give me really, really good luck. You get out with me getting out. He would always take five shits when we walk in. Yes, That's my boy. He's so cute. So do you walk all four at the same time? Sometimes. Oftentimes it takes two people. They're very misbehaved. One takes two and another one takes so poorly, it's so hard. Walking is only gotten worse since COVID. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. They forget everything. They pull on the leashes. They they misbehave constantly. But they're so cute. They get away with it. Yeah, baby. But Holly, the one who popped in to say hi, she's the oldest. She is. I think she's 12 now. 12 or 13. So she's an old lady. And then the youngest is six. So you've had them for quite a while? Yeah, we. We raised all of them from puppies. I think we got Holly when she was. I would love to have a dog. Why don't you get a dog, Grandpa? It makes sense with where you're living and with the birds. I can't. They don't allow them in my building and you saw what happened. Oh, really? In the world. I could probably get a physician's note, but it would be very hard to walk every day from the Condamine would be very difficult, especially in the cold winter winter. But I would love to have a cavalier thing because they don't need to go on walks all that often now, huh? No, they're they're lapdogs. They do what you want to do. They'll just like curl up and snuggle with you. Looks like a little Britain. Oh, my God. Yeah. Oh, I wish the other ones would come up so you all can meet them. But they're. They're great dogs. They were. They were the official royal dog of the British royal family until the corgi thing. All the goodness wiggle room with the cord. Because I don't know about this. Queen Elizabeth, the second. The one who passed away fairly recently. Mm. She loved Corgis. Absolutely loved them. So she changed the official dogs to Corgis. She farmed on farm Corgi. Oh, yeah. She had something like 20 different corgis. Are your dogs boys or girls? They're all girls. All girls. Mm. They were. They were actually breeding dogs. We did. We didn't breed them. But there is a, like really reputable cavalier breeder near us and what she does for the dogs that she wants to breed as she finds them homes. And then you do something called the foster program. So you take care of the dogs like every other heat. Maybe she breeds them. She maybe does like three litters off of each dog. So she's not like breeding them like crazy. But while you're fostering them, she pays for all their food. She pays for all their vet bills. She takes care of them when you can't. And then after four years, she asks if you want to keep the dog. And we obviously said yes four times. And she pays the dogs, gets them a two year cleaning, and then they're yours and you don't have to pay for them. I need to try to get my birds, my other birds in bed, get them in the cage. So I'm going to be gone for a few minutes. I'll be right back. Okay. Did Brendan leave again? Brendan believe? All right. What? You got me a big wedding singer. be excited. That already pops through my veins. Can't mentally fathom having my own wedding, let alone going, barely going to a wedding. Not even close to having my own wedding. You know, I'm probably going to do a lot. It's so much. It'd be one thing just planning, like trying. Just pretending that you're going to be that it's possible to have, like, the perfect ceremony, the perfect, like, event, important public event. But then the part where you have to invite all these people in, like make sure that the people that you invite aren't like secret freaks that like to ruin wedding day. And then you have to deal with all these other people from like your partner's side of the family. And it's just, I would never be a big wedding bitch. Like, it's probably going to be a quick courthouse sign and a nice dinner, and then we'll just plan like a regular party and you need to venmo me or give me gifts at the door. It's just going to be courthouse reception for me. It's just too might have been doing that, which is awesome. So it's too much. Just I'd rather put all of my money into open bar for like 20 of my favorite people and call it a day. Yeah, I got to agree with you. Yeah. The idea of walking down the aisle and I'm not even I'm starting to get more light on like how much it is for the women that I'm like, I wouldn't want to put my wife through that either. I'm just walking down the aisle and like, there's no way. No, this is let's just. Let's just start. I'm going to trip. Yes, It's too late. Yeah, it's already happened. Ass sweater. It would never work out. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's not likely that I'm going to sit down. I'm going to ruin everything then. And I've never I haven't been able to wear I haven't worn anything white I think since I was. There's literally one picture of me. I was like, I don't even know, like an 18 month old or wearing like a frilly white dress. I think that's the last time I successfully wore white. I don't it's literally never happen. It's begging for problems. I'm not going to be a white dress person either. It's probably going to be something like it's going to be any kind of color, any other kind of color, as I do. Like seeing like they're more and more options. Yeah, I love seeing people who, like, don't go like traditional wedding dress. I do like those. I'm obsessed with the Black wedding dress of Sam. I think there's I'm not going to get sued. I'm just going to get to be a jumpsuit, blazer, bitch for my wedding. Yeah. And they're like, more options for that now, too. I'm like, Honestly, no matter what kind of, like, ceremony situation you want to do, like your house or, like, big thing or anything. What you wear in your wedding for, like, both the groom grooms or bride slash brides. It's going to be one of the most self expressive things you ever wear in your life that you It's really fun getting to like, remind people of that when like moms are like, well, you should be wearing a traditional all lace dress and it needs to be a ball gown and you have to have the blusher that goes over your face. That's the like piece that goes over your face. And they're like, You have to do this, and I won't let you get anything else. And then I look at the bride and I go, You're wanting a pink dress, right? And fitted. And she's like, Mm. Well, it's always like seeing people go like, Wait, I can stand up for myself. And this you're, you're Elsa from the menu? Just when she gets to tell those guys. No, no, no, I love it. No, I said I wanted bread. I know. I said no, no, you heard right. I said, No, no, I. No one an icon. It's a tortilla tortilla. She is. It's water and flowers, sir. Water and cornflour friend. You've you've never heard of poetry, dear bro, we never found out what the girlfriend's tortilla said. That's the only thing that will always haunt me. Oh, I'm sure until the truth. I'm sure. I said, Wait, You're going to die, right? I'm. I'm sorry. She looked down. You'd be. It's a the basket for, like, the old married couple. It was the same thing for both of them. And then for the actor guy. It was also the same thing for both of them. Oh, so you think it is only for one person, right? I think it's targeted towards like, table wherever it's going to do the most damage. Yeah. Okay. Personally, okay. I've only watched it three times. This is just mind to look back at the meal and see what is there. I'm I think, though you're right, because besides that, the meals were really different parts. Oh, yeah. I went he just put it like a single raw scallop on top of a rock. I live where I live. Yes, it looked. It's just making things up, you know? It's just making things up. Like the camera pans over it, like it's still fuzzy. I'm like, Wait. I was like, That looks like just a rock. Like what? And it was too big. I was like, because he keeps giving them. He's feeding them like one bite at a time. So I'm like, Well, there's no way they're getting that much food. And then it comes into focus and I'm like, Oh, it's literally an aquarium rock flick is we found these on the shore and we took a bucket and then we scooped out some seawater. We put that in the freezer and then we scooped again and we got some weeds. And so there's that one and that oil they got every time too, that they showed the food. It was like one of those camera shots from Iron Chef. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like the competition food pieces. If you are so good, you have to watch the menu. Spoiler alert was full on the game right now. Way past the spoiler alert. Actually, not that far, but we didn't do that much. Like we didn't. We didn't ruin any major out of context using everything. We didn't say much of anything. Yeah, you've got to watch the menu. Whatever. Whatever thought you had about why, you probably don't need to watch the menu. I'm just going to tell you I had that thought and it was we were wrong. You just need to watch the menu. It's a lot about art. Yeah, go ahead. Boobies. That's been released recently, I think it's literally in the top three feet, and it was really good. It's the ending for me to get to. You did not like the ending. It's not a fan. This was. This was so cartoony. But that's all right. It's a great film that they did a really good job that the cast was fantastic. You? Yeah. Yeah, it was really fun. Fun. A fun ride. I think anybody I think everyone to enjoy it. Roller coaster. Oh, yeah. The one hold up. Boom. Yes. Oh, Graphene's. Amazing. Every time I see him all I can think of is good boy. Really cool. Oh, oh, Every time when I know him from he's Voldemort. Yeah, right. Oh, what an icon. Oh, my God. And I can't. I saw him in a play in London, and it was like Antony and Cleopatra, I think at The National is a huge thing. And there's this part where Anthony, just like this play, is 400 years old. I'm not spoiling anything. Like he screams out in anguish because he heard that, like, Cleopatra has been captured and like, they're going to kill her. So he's hearing all these terrible things and he screams out in anguish. And the way that he did it, all I could think of was Harry Potter, because every time Voldemort got mad, he would scream out and go, Oh, instead of no, or like, Ah, it was Nia. And he did the exact same thing on stage as I was like the only one who laughed. So I guess. But it's like, I wonder if Brandon knows he's not here. Brandon, do you know that this is one of those times where you think you're a part of the call, but really you're not in the call at all? If you can hear me, you should refresh your screen or something. Or is he a part of the scene? How would he know he's been like it? Let me check. Sometimes you think you're in the call, but you're not really in the call. Like it doesn't say it's recording. I think on your screen is not showing up on a you're not here, you're a ghost, right? Yes. Are you talking to Apparition? Yeah. I would say you're Brandon. Are you just taking. It's kind of dark. I'm like, Who she talking to? If you're out there, Brandon, if you're going to hear it, if you think you can hear is if you can refresh your vibrations through the universe, start over. Start over on your phone or whatever you're doing. You know what honestly might have happened? His phone probably died. Oh, that sounds about right. I just constantly. Yeah, well, since he's not on, I can say that I when I said you're like child Peyton, I was, I honestly thinking that he's like 45 years old. That's funny my thought process grandpa complimentary drinks and it's he basically is I mean he turns I think it does he turned 29 this year. No he is either 28 or 29 this year We have that old Well, now I know it's weird thinking he's like 40 or something. Then feels like it sometimes. Honestly, though, between him and me, I think I'm the owner of the two of us because I just. I always want to stay home and in bed and I want to sit with my knitting and read a good book. And he's like, Let's go party books. Go down on. He always has to like, drag me out to places because I am boring. So this is totally off the subject. But what do you think about about this very huge judgment against Fox News Corporation? I haven't heard about This is bullshit. It's the largest, the largest suit, the largest amount of money ever awarded to anybody for this type of a suit. They just got fined like $789 million. They agreed to it. And and it's going to change. It was for lying about the election. And it's really going to change the way a lot of, you know, stop some of this lying that these with them was about them claiming that dominion voting machines were were rigged or something like that. The media was saying they're going to for lying. The Fox News people were Fox was saying that the voting machines didn't work. Yeah, they were adding votes. The machine would glitch out. It would go be blue bob and it would change the votes, change people's votes. They were saying that it was just adding random votes out of nowhere and they can't be trusted. And they kept making up these stories about these random like real people that were like who could definitely be doxxed for this. Like, yeah, so and so Jimmy Smithson, you know, snuck into the snuck into the election hall or the church, wherever they have the election, wherever they were having, you know, ballots at wherever they set up the machine. You know, he snuck in their late at night and he put an SD card in there. And then he took it out and then he blew on it. And then he put the SD card back in. And that's why all that's why Biden won. That's why right there. And so and because and because they're Fox News and a lot of quote unquote, viable stories for people to get their media and information from about the world, they're getting sued for that. Yeah. Is that is what I'm hearing. Dominion sued them and there's another who is that dominion is that was the was the manufacturer and supplier of the voting machines and they were rigged and they mean they were but they also had emails from from employees of the company knowing where they knew that they were lying. They that's one reason that they agreed to settle with with Fox News agreed to settle with dominion. But the largest loss, largest amount of money ever won in a lawsuit of that type. Did it did it go to court or did they settle? It went to court. And right before the hearing was to begin, the the two parties agreed to a settlement. The guy that I think his name was Murdoch that runs Fox News was was subpoenaed to testify. And he obviously didn't want to have to testify. So he he's the one that controlled what happened with Fox. But I think it's a great thing everybody in the news media now is talking about it with regard to the amount of money that then it's going to cost. Fox News. But just as important in my mind is the fact that these reporters or whatever you want to call them, are not going to be able to lie. They're going to think twice about lying. Now, you know, yeah, that's huge, especially with the election cycle that's coming up. That doesn't seem like enough money with an election cycle coming up. I don't know what I don't know what happened in the last 48 hours. But Dominion had been saying since this started like, well, first of all, I'm mad because Dominion was suing for like $20 billion. Wow. And they were suing for $20 billion. It was very easily provable. And they were what they were what they were suing for because, you know, they blatantly lie. And then we later got to see all these emails and stuff like Grandpa said, they were literally talking shit about, Yeah, I can't believe we let that group like it would be people like Sean HANNITY and that one. Oh, who's the who's the Knoxy lady? Laura Ingraham would be like in their texts and emails being like, Oh yeah, you know, I can't believe we let that crazy bitch on F or that was crazy. She was a total crackpot and and it would be like Cindy Powell or somebody like they were like they have all those receipts and like, they were supposed to sue for 20 billion, and then they settled for less than one. Do you mind if I. If I get to agree with you about the amount. Okay. If they they sued for, for a billion and a half for one and a half billion and they settled for approximately half of that amount. One and a half billion. Billion. Wow. Still that amount of money matter like that still goes on. I will never see that amount of money in my life. Now, you got to sell a lot of dresses, you know, a lot of downs, a lot of Crocs shoes for the suit. Oh, yeah. I got a copy of the Crocs shoes. We also have, like, sticky boobs, so I'll just send like, yes or no? Those are all like, well, you never know. I mean, you know, if you're if you're stay with Brandon, you guys stay together and he makes a big, big success, which you never know what's going to happen in life. You know, You never know. Yeah, well, I'm not planning on going anywhere. I'm sticking with him for a while. Okay? His old man. So, yeah, one foot in one side. I texted him. I was like, Hey, where are you? No response. It's delivered. He hasn't even read it yet. So I think some die. Fiona, are you an autistic person? Very autistic. She didn't need to here as well. Or play an instrument or, you know, or do embroidery or whatever, you know? Yes. To all of those. I paint, I sketch, I embroider, I do bead work. I so clothing. I play flute, piano, ukulele, pitched percussion, organ. I'm a classically trained vocalist. Before I was in the wedding industry, I was an actor. I used to design and make sets and costumes for different shows. I'm a very creative and artistic person. Yeah, go off and you don't want to stay in that industry, the entertainment industry. I made a move away from it right around when COVID hit because before COVID, I actually I was diagnosed with a lot of different severe chronic illnesses. And with COVID hitting, I was severely immunocompromised. I went into a very strict quarantine. My family very strictly quarantined for like the first year and a half of COVID and like, slowly eased our way in. Honestly, one of the only people, like new people that I met during that first year of COVID was Brandon, And that was I went out on a limb on that. I was so nervous, but it definitely worked out for the best because here we are several years and you guys stay together. I hope you stay together. We're not planning on breaking up any time soon, but we're we're very happy together. We get to like we're not perfect because no one is. But when when they're like things that we have to figure out together, it's always a process of like, we're going to figure out what makes sense for both people and we want to grow from the experience. So like, I feel like we grow really well together. That's really nice. I also put up with him being crazy, so he puts up with my crazy. I put up with his. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue. Oh yeah. Oh, all the time. And sometimes it works out good. You know, he's the he's the best. Even if somebody is unreasonable, you just keep your mouth shut and then they become more reasonable later on, you know, maybe. Oh, yeah, we, we know when to walk away from conversations and when to come back to them. And most of the time it's us talking about like a movie or TV and we're just what we want to watch. We're like, okay, we got to come back to this and like, we get a group. Yeah, regroup it. Most of the time it's he he reminds me constantly that I need to eat food to survive. You need food to survive. Is that what you say? Yeah. I forget to eat all the time and will, like, be sitting down trying to pick, like, a movie or a TV show to watch. And I won't be able to decide on anything. And I'll get like, Well, I don't want to watch this kind of thing. And he goes, Okay, so when was the last time that you ate? Because I think right now your stomach's taken over your brain a little bit and he's right. The end, like every single time. But then we like, get a snack and then we figure out what we want to do. Yeah, he's he's a really great guy. I'm very sorry, because I lived in Roswell. It's very nice area. Yeah, it's beautiful Now, the is the only issue getting up and down for, gosh, very heavy traffic. There's a lot of construction on 400 right now, too, which makes it even worse. You have the boutique that I work at is right in like the historic downtown Roswell. So I can street. It's really nice. It's 10 minutes from where Brandon lives, which is really nice. Oh, cool. We are just a 10 minutes from where? Bren I thought Brandon lives down and down towards the center of Atlanta. He. He moved and I wasn't. It was his lease. Yeah, his. He moved, actually, right when Jared came to visit. Oh, okay. In September, his his lease ran out, and it's just he wanted to get out of the building and handed out finding a place in Roswell that he really likes. So he, he's been there since September. Oh, I say, Jared's cute. Yeah, it's. He's hysterical. Cute guy. He's so funny. It's been really nice getting to know him better and getting to know him better. But it's honestly, Brandon got annoyed with me one time because I spent like an hour and a half on the phone talking to Marissa without him. She was like, Why are you talking to my sister so much? It's like we're talking about love is blind. Gosh, you wouldn't understand. Such love is blind then either. He's watching you say, Why are you saying what I want you? He's like, hooked on it. It's so funny. So, so funny. Now. Jared's great. So is Marissa classically trained musically, I think you said. Yes. Yes. You're. Were I proficient at reading music? Yeah. I even write some of my own stuff, too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And my brother is a classical composer, so he writes as well and he plays like 13 or 14 different instruments I just recorded a few weeks ago and I'm going to be recording him again. It's called American Kaleidoscope. Oh, you'll see. Steve Kramer If you go on YouTube, you'll see he's fine. He's really a very fine cellist. He's played for the Philadelphia Orchestra and whatever, so we're have to look it up. And that's what I recorded him. And he's coming. He's living in it. Oh, he live. Wait, wait a second. Where, you know he's living in Florida now? Yeah, Florida. Mm. He comes up here, too. Did you go all the way to Florida to record him or did he comes up here? No, he wanted me to go down there and record a symphony orchestra. And I'm just too old to be carrying all the equipment down and dealing with it lot. Yeah, that would be a lot. Yeah. But we've done several recordings, and if you can hear them on American Kaleidoscope, Steve Kramer. Steve Kramer. Okay, I think it's hysterical that Brandon just like, dipped into not a word, not a email thing, you know, And I, he's trying to get us to build bands better. And I think Billy Preston couldn't even run into a Starbucks and hook on to their wife. I'd be like, Hey, all it's it's it didn't work out well. He like, he doesn't even go to the only time he goes to Starbucks is for me because he doesn't drink any caffeine. So no coffee, limited teas and he he doesn't like super, super sweet drinks. So all of the like options at Starbucks that he would get. He doesn't like he gets like the hibiscus tea. And so he goes and he's getting me something. Can you teach him to dance? Yeah. Yeah. I have been trying. It's he's gotten a bit better. He's been asking me to teach him how to sing, but we're not allowed to do that. I taught him a few dances. I taught him a few swing steps because I do swing dancing. Ooh, that sounds fun. It's so much fun. It's, like, really creative, and it's all about, like, intuition. You totally have to trust your partner because all of a sudden, you could be in the middle of the air. It's just like, Whoa, is this the flow of man? Oh, yeah. Now I've taught him some basic swing stuff, but I haven't taught him much more. It's been a while since I've danced, but I do miss it. I think with the industry that he's in, it would be helpful to be able to dance a little. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. His. His rhythm's getting way better. He now, like, sways to the beat a little bit more like. And you have to know how to move your hips. Oh, yeah. He knows how to do that, though. So he's good. Shh. Guys, I'm a guy tonight. I had a long day, and I think we're at the wrapping in, but it's almost 830 anyway, and the playoffs are going on, and I've been trying my best not to talk about basketball in — I’m reading the room. I'm looking at my watch like the Memphis Lakers game is on right now. You figure it out. You figure out the Memphis and the Lakers. Thanks for coming, Fiona. Yeah, thanks for having me on the show. Let's have a final word for thinking about coming on the show. I'll do the last things like you have to eventually. Yeah. Grandpa, do you have any final thoughts? Yeah. Yeah. This is Grandpa. Didn't you just send us off? This is Grandpa and chill, and we like. Can you this that because you were coming out? Oh, I would think this is Grandpa & Chill is it is it me? Right. Okay. This is very positive. And really, we're very outgoing. Really? We're ending the show. Right, right, right. Well, you you can give the final. But I just want to say to Fiona that I hope we'll see you on again. Yeah. Yeah, definitely more often. Okay. Yeah. Brandon was like, You have to do this eventually. So I was like, Okay, Phines, can you can you finish it up? You're a good radio announcer. Hello. Thank you for listening to listening to Grandpa & Chill. This is I want to thank Fiona for coming on this show and explaining this more about boutiques and that and all the great things that you can find in there and how great weddings in and love is. And yeah, thank you, guys. Thank you, Fiona, for showing up. Thank you, Sierra, always for producing an amazing show and dealing with our terrible audio. You're God. You're great, Phines. Yeah. Thank you. Fantastic. Have a nice week, guys, for having me. You guys, we are.