May 2015
In third grade I decided I wanted to be on the cheerleading team at my elementary school. I tried out and made the team which at the time was the most competitive team in our town. Now competitive cheer is a WHOLE different world. Our team would travel to Carowinds each October with us little girls running around in sponge curlers and begging our parents for dip dots ice cream.
“We would stand backstage feeling like at any moment we were going to throw up and them bam. It was time to run on that stage. And that is where my friendship began with this girl. Beth Spangler.”
This particular post is very special to me. It will shed light into fashion and the bond of a friendship. And how you could be filling someone's cup when you least expect it. Beth and I became friends when we were 10 years old and we have stayed close throughout all these years.
“Beth and I have a special bond, a friendship based on faith and grace. We believe in something bigger than us. Bigger than love.”
No matter how much time goes by we pick up where we left off and that is what life is about. Surrounding yourself with others who build you up, encourage you, and support you with unconditional love. We learned some life lessons together. We made some great and bad decisions. I am thankful for each one we made because it led us to exactly where we are in this moment. And there is no where else I'd rather be.
As we got older anyone and everyone around Beth began to see that she had a gift. Beth could sing her ass off!!! This was not something she was growing out of, this was real. And at this point in our lives, we didn't have social media outlets. American Idol had just started. We kept pushing Beth to go and try out, you'll make it for sure! But there was something that made her nervous. Something that makes us all nervous. The option of failure.
Time went on and we all kind of forgot about Beth's gift. She kept it to herself.
At a funeral to wish a dear friend goodbye, Beth sang, "His Eye Is On the Sparrow". And once again, her voice filled our hearts, our minds and our bodies. The power of her voice is immeasurable. Finally, we all just looked at her and said, its time. You have nothing to lose. We don't know what tomorrow holds so lets take a chance. And she did. Beth began the chase after her passion. And then before we knew it, she was on The Voice.
The night Beth debuted on The Voice. I was a nervous damn wreck!!! We watched her for 20 years with this gift that we knew needed to be shared with the world and finally the world was going to get a glimpse into her talent and grace. When she came on the screen and started singing I just started balling my eyes out. I was so happy for her I could not control my emotions. This was HER moment. After all those years of running onto cheerleading stages, sitting in our cars and singing our hearts out when we learned to drive, burning up the interstate to get her clothes for her first promotional shoot for marketing, it lead to that moment. Beth defined that moment, she didn't let the moment define her. She owned it.
“When Beth returned home from The Voice she hit the ground running, continuing to write and record her own music and win Belk’s Southern Musician Showcase at the Fillmore in Charlotte, NC.”
Shortly after Beth's big win she schduled her first concert to be held in our home town of Aiken, SC. Here is where we get to talk more about the FASHION. We wanted to present Beth as a professional package however, we don't have J-Lo style budget. YET!! We styled the whole concert with only spending $60. I wanted to share with you how we did that.
We wanted to portray Beth for what she is, a professional spunky package but without digging deep into our pockets. There were items we knew we needed to purchase and possibly borrow others (like from MY closet). These practices of hunting the right pieces to update your wardrobe apply to all of us in our everyday lives.
Beth's first request was she needed new combat boots for her opening look. She only dances in those and her current pair was holding on for dear life. Thankfully, for me it just happened all the stores were marking down boots to create room for Spring inventory so that was perfect timing for me to hunt! I found the pair she is wearing above at Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse for $14.99 marked down from $90. SOLD!! The opening number involved a lot of moving and dancing which led us to go for leather shorts from Forever21 that were $15 and the sequin crop which I found at some random store in the Columbiana Mall for $30. Overall we wanted Beth's opening look to be hip, relatable and fun.
Sidenote: I brought Beth my leather shorts to wear, but they were too big so we made an emergency run to Forever21 to find those, HOWEVER Beth had just gotten a spray tan for the concert so I was literally trying on all of her clothes for her while she sat and watched. A DIVA is born!!!
Changing her out of this look and into the next look was one of the funniest moments of my life. Because it had to happen fast! We didn't want to lose the audience! If you could have recorded what we were saying to each other backstage in this dark hole and listened to it out of context, you wouldn't have had a clue what was going on?! It went something like this:
Beth: (Running off stage trying to shut off mic so the audience doesn't hear us.)
Lyv: UNZIP YOUR SHORTS!!! GIVE ME YOUR EAR PIECE!!!!
Beth: (Elbows me in the face.) OH Lyv!! I'm so sorry!! (Tries to pet my face.)
Lyv: BETH!!! YOU CAN SAY YOURE SORRY LATER! TAKE YOUR DAMN SHORTS OFF!!!!
Beth: (Laughing uncontrollably at me.)
Somehow we got her changed and she continued to rock the next set of songs. Which started off with her covering, "Cowboy Casanova". We wanted this look to be BOLD with leather leggings. DEFINITELY leather leggings. We paired them with a red crop, a statement necklace and a badass BCBG jacket. Which all came from my closet so we didn't have to purchase anything. Cha-ching!!
The next set of songs involved some easy outfit changes. She started off the set with, "We Found Love" and a few ballads. For "We Found Love" I wanted her to be in something that was easy to move in but also had a presence on stage. Flowy and airy. We bought those black jeans from Forever21 for $15 and the tops were from my closet, however I was very pleased with the flow of the scarf vest (which I purchased last summer from HauteLook) and how it moved on stage with Beth. The transition was into Michael Jackson with a sequin blazer from Bebe paired with classic socks with black flats. Because you CANNOT FLOOD WITH NO SOCKS ON!!!!
Last we had Beth close the show singing, "Bigger Than Love" in our FAVORITE (including my husband) leggings from my BCBG days. However, we needed a bright top so I found this awesome coral top for $12.99 from TJ Maxx and I paired it with a nice neon yellow necklace to contrast the color for an extra pop with leopard heels. And that was a wrap!!
So why did I chose to write about styling Beth's concert this month? Because this weekend I hit the road to Atlanta to go get our girl ready for the release of her EP, Audio Selfie. It brings me to tears even typing this now. I never imagined Beth would be releasing her own original music and here we are. When I sat in my bedroom that night Beth came on our TV for The Voice it was just such an inspiration to follow your passion whether it's great or small. She was filling my cup without even saying anything to me. And that's what this blog is to me. It's MY passion. And no matter how many people read it I am so thankful for the time you took to believe in me. After all, we only have one life to LYV.
-LYV.ROX.STYLE
