I was trying to manage school and training for the Olympics and ended up not doing well at either. That was a big lesson in my life. My mother expected both.

I see myself as an arbiter of taste.

I want people to see the dress, but focus on the woman.

Brides today are increasingly sensitive to the tastes, feelings and finances of their attendants.

Just because you're from a city ten miles outside of St. Paul. It doesn't mean you don't read magazines, or the incredible Internet, and what's going on in the world. I never, ever take a client, or women, for granted.

They never ask the celebrities why they don't wear their own clothes on the red carpet.

When brides ask me, "What's the best advice you can give me on my wedding day?" I always have the same answer: "Be yourself." Someone's marrying you, they love you for who you are, and they don't want you to be someone else.