Ashley Gain Featured:: SHEKnows.com

Do you know? Well, you should. Because I do & SHE does!

It was a little over a month ago that the beautiful Alison asked me if I wanted to be featured on SHEKnows.com as a wedding planning expert. Miss. Alison is the sites Managing Editor who runs an killer team who delivers some of the best national content on the web!

Find out. Have fun. Be you.

I couldn't agree more!

This is the philosophy of SHEKnows.com that literally lives deep in my soul!! So, of course, I just had to say YES {and not to the dress but the site}!

As women we have an inward desire to connect with the outward world around us. Friends and family define who we are and make us want to work hard toward each and every one of our goals. I wanted to give back to the community that has made me so strong: the women everywhere who just want to be empowered in their lives and in their dreams.

{That's ME on the SHEKnows.com Wedding's Homepage!}

I believe in the power of amazing women coming together to make life more meaningFULL. I feel blessed to say that I am now a part of the SHEKnows team and will be giving expert advice each month! *happiness*

Inspired Inspiration:: Lady Gaga

Each song tells a story, listen to the lyrics. Reread the text. Study the fine print.

She still lives in the same Manhattan Apartment that she lived in before she was famous. She doesn't want to loose the inspiration that created her as who she is.

That inspiration comes from the streets of New York:: the lights, the colors, the ugly and the pretty.

She believes in the people around her.

She believes in herself.

She is Lady Gaga.

This is not an infomercial for Lady Gaga. This is my platform to explain something that I call Inspired Inspiration.

So many times in the wedding world people are inspired by other people's work. They save pictures of other weddings, cut out pictures from magazines, and spend hours upon hours on

wedding blogs.

Lady Gaga is such a huge inspiration for me. You don't have to like her to understand my thoughts. If you put in her CD and listened to it from song 1 to song 14 you would hear something totally and completely different on each track. Original Talent.

Weddings are art. Their designs are created by artists. To achieve a beautiful authentic wedding design you must genuinely hold those ideas and inspiration inside you. Anyone can open a wedding magazine and duplicate, it's not hard. True talent and art can't be duplicated, they are authentic and original.

Since the day I began in the wedding business I always thought it was strange that wedding industry peers become inspired by other people's work within the same industry. Could you imagine Beyonce trying to do what Lady Gaga does? All music would sound the same AND it would destroy their individual talent.

I'm totally and completely inspired by outside inspiration. Things that make my heart beat fast. Like a store window, the cover of a magazine, a pair of shoes, a song, a bride's favorite movie, a groom's favorite restaurant when I begin the design for a bride's wedding.

When you start planning your wedding choose artists who can transform your heart and dreams into every detail of your wedding day.

It shouldn't be easy. It should be well thought out. Your wedding should answer the question:: "Who is this bride & groom?" It should be on your tables, in the lighting, in the songs being played.

This quote from Lady Gaga is how I feel in my heart.

How I will someday be someones inspired inspiration just like she is mine.

LA Mayor Villaraigosa predicts:: It will be an absolute nightmare.

This summer I have been blessed enough to spend a lot of time in beautiful California! Working with amazing brides on amazing weddings with amazing vendors and escaping the Arizona heat.

California, known for it's sunshine, beautiful beaches, Hollywood Glamour and TRAFFIC.

For those of you not familiar with Los Angeles traffic than you are probably not familiar with the 405. Considered one of the busiest freeways in the country that over 500,000 cars a day travel on is going to be SHUT DOWN this weekend.

Literally, it looks like this ALL the time::

YES, even at night.

After 4th of July it literally took my hubby and I 4 hours to get home after fireworks. Arriving at 1am after 9pm fireworks. CRAZY!

CARMAGEDDON. The 53-hour shutdown is expected to create hours upon hours of delays as a ripple effect on LA's dozen other major highways.

Somehow in that small time frame the freeway widening crew will start and finish a $1 billion freeway-widening project. We are all a little nervous as to what happens if it doesn't get completed.

So, this weekend we will sit tight in our Hollywood home-away-from-home and will be walking to our destinations!

From the west coast with *love*. Wish us luck!