Community Magazine January 2014

KELLY JEMAL MASSRY “You Need a Chance in Life” Norma expresses a debt of gratitude to the Sephardic Community Center, where she spent years as a youngster volunteering and planning large-scale events. As a 12-year-old, she began her tenure at the SCC, working on plays, parties, fashion shows and other soirees. She delegated, she organized and she got her first taste of what it was like to make things happen. Even then, her strength wasn’t design, but rather organization – but isn’t that why so many of us turn to party planners in the first place, because we need someone to diminish from the overwhelming nature of the event we hope for? This is where Norma shines: at the helm. But no matter how talented a person may be, Norma says, “you still need a chance in life,” and “for someone to trust you with their wedding, they need to take a chance on you.” Norma received her chance when her friend’s daughter was engaged to be married. Not knowing if another opportunity would ever come again, Norma seized the moment and created a night that she would never forget. “I did her engagement party in her backyard and the wedding in Shaare Zion,” she proudly recalls. “It was the first time lighting was used to change the ambiance of a room.” Though she is known for her glamorous vision, Norma says she only became a designer within the last 15 years. “All of the sudden I started to draw things, and I’d never drawn anything before! It just came to me; Hashem just gave me this talent. Now I can take a space and totally change it.” What clients expect of her varies. Some use her as a complete service, asking her where to go for hair and make-up and where to buy their dress. Knowing as well as anyone that weddings hinge on these ornamental details, she tries to have the information available. Other clients take care of the shopping and appointments themselves, and put the event in her hands. Norma shares a funny story, in which these two elements remained separate and then combined in an unexpected way on the day of the party. It turned out that the hostess’ gray, organza ombre gown completely matched the back of the chairs – unbeknownst to both of them, it was the same material! “But it was totally okay,” Norma says with her customary verve and confidence. “It ended up seeming like I matched her dress.” When Clients Become Friends Charlotte Cohen, who was educated at the School for Visual Arts, began her career as an interior designer and still does 80 percent of her work in the home. As mentioned, it was her clients who first urged her to put her creative and artistic talents to more widespread use. “I was afraid at first because this was 22 years ago. Very few women of my generation worked and surely very few began their own businesses.” But the allure of that chance was too promising to resist. Charlotte took a risk, put herself out there and began. She admits that if she had known then how overwhelming her business would become – how much devotion she’d need to give it and how she’d need to juggle to balance work and family – she might have become too intimidated to do it. But looking back on it now, she doesn’t regret working for a moment. There is so much she has taken away – so much to be proud of and cherish. The most treasured memories, she says, are not the events themselves, but rather the people. “I’ve gotten to meet and be in the homes of hundreds of people in the community,” she marvels, “all on a very personal level. I never would’ve gotten to meet and know all of these people if not for what I do. They learned a lot from me and I learned a lot from them. When I no longer work, that will be the most precious thing that stays with me, the connection I made with each of them.” Norma and Charlotte both mention how invested they get in their clients – in the human face of the business. “My clients become my friends, my family,” Norma declares. “I feel attached to all of them – especially the brides.” Similarly, Charlotte remarks, “The weddings are always a process. When the bride finally marches down the aisle after planning the wedding for all of those months… it’s a moment for me.” No matter how talented and organized a wedding planner is, ultimately it is the client that needs to be convinced and willing to put the most important event of her life in another person’s hands. Norma Cohen and Charlotte Cohen, two premier party planners in our community, owe their start to the faith placed in them by their clients. “It was my clients who first asked me to do special events for them, because I knew their homes so well,” says Charlotte, who got her start in interior design. “My clients were very encouraging and I just jumped in head first and was aggressive.” extraordinaire We dd i ng Planners 64 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE