About Me
My life, my expertise, my background.
All you need to know about Magnolia is here!
Benvenuti
My name is Silvia and this is me
Just a few things about me so you can get to know the person behind the screen...
Before the “Long Story” let me recap in few words why you are here:
I help you to connect to your core roots without all the pressures of your busy lives, people around you and distractions, destroying your fake facades to understand your true vision, wishes and dreams.
Then I use my 20+ years of expertise, skills and talent to translate your vision to a material plan
Connect with your true vision and you will materialize the dream
It’s simple, stay with me and you will get all the whys you should fall in love with this process.
The Long Story
sit down, it’s approx 10 mins reading time
If I have to be honest I cannot really add anything interesting to the place where I was born: Firenze. There have been in the history of the world so many books, poems, blogs, articles, history books, love letters, notes not mentioning movies, Tv shows, documentaries to the newer communication methods as reels and selfies, that seems all words have been said about my home. But if I start with Firenze, my long bio, is because it has been incredibly important for who I am.
Is it romantic? Yes in many ways.
Is it O.O.A.K? Absolutely yes.
But no one usually considers the influence a city like this has on all its natives: the love for beauty. In all its aspects, not only art and architecture, not only music and paintings.
Beauty is a drug.
When it flows into your veins, you cannot control your self and you will look forever and ever for beauty in everything from a simple flower to a t-shirt, from a song to a sound, from a word to a complete wedding, but moreover beauty is an emotion.
It’s joy, it’s completeness.
That’s why Firenze is important for me and for what I do, hence it’s important for you my wonderful prospective clients.
Yes correct I am now middle age, cannot be more proud of it. Yes ok I need to work everyday on my flexibility and I am happy friend of many supplements, but there is something about this age that really is important on any business, can be the “who really cares of useless dramas?” fil rouge that permeates days now, but there is more: the clock that is ticking supports more than anything else taking decisions and learning to love yourself. F U L L Y.
More than this: 50 is the moment in my life I have started to conjoin my path, who I truly am, my lights and darknesses to my business to step into my real mission: be a balanced successful professional because I have worked on my personal dramas accepted myself in every single aspect, have found what I am serving in the world and not less important what triggers me, why and how to work around this triggers to be always on balance for my clients.
My mission is now to expose myself, to reveal all parts of my process, to show the world that it’s important to be talented and to find our true passion and follow it, but talent is nothing if we don’t love ourselves in all possible ways.
Let me list you some important facts of my life and career:
- My education was based on math, accountancy and PC programming and I have worked as Accountant Manager for Filofax Italy to then being a solo entrepreneur on accountancy. Well seems nothing interesting and I can confirm that I have felt restricted by that job, but it has been vital (as we can tell of all difficulties of life cannot we?) to my skills now: for as much as we all try to focus on beautiful flowers and landscapes and that delicious salami pizza for your welcome party, it’s all about numbers baby. Yes: first and foremost numbers. So yes you can count this part of my life as a long preparation to my wonderful skills on budgeting and investments for your project. More interesting now isn’t it?
- I got married in Fiji Island in February 2005 - 28 long - looooong - hours of flight from Italy - I am not going to focus now on all the “whys” we have landed there for our life changing moment, but the “how” is far more interesting for you: as you can imagine I have been wedding planner of myself including all legal paperworks and I have been the worst client I have ever had honestly, with all the pros and all the enormous cons of doing it by myself, but hey I did it and it was the starting point of my education on wedding planning since then and of my career at the end of that exact year. So if you are looking for someone who can understand your fears in being far away, well ladies & gents, here I am.
- Since then I have started my educational program (back then there were only few online courses and I jumped on the most reliable Event Academy in Santa Barbara CA) and the old fashioned, but so useful, mess tin of endless wedding seasons along side - in the behind the scenes - with all kinds of vendors, from caterers to photographers, of course wedding planners and even Djs. Because it’s important to forge your talent and create an expertise, to understand everything about all frailties and strengths of all services, what are their difficulties, their needs, how to get the best from them and how to be the best support for all my team.
And now, more than 20 years have passed like a blink of an eye.
Silvia Bargagni
Founder & CEO Magnolia Wedding Planner
Why my approach is different?
My career has been a pretty funny/dramatic rollercoaster.
I have experienced (in no particular order):
And last but not least among many other experiences on my skin, I have been through the storm of Bruno Mars for first dances, via Ed Sheeran for ceremonies to now Taylor Swift being the absolute leader of all dance floors.
(To not mention the caterpillar tables that, can I express frankly? Are not my cup of tea).
We can safely say I have seen many things.
Can you see a repetitive underlying factor in all these things above?
It took me a lot of time and a lot of work on myself to understand this recurrent pattern of ups and downs that no my beloved, were not just “normal life” or better yes it’s what we perceive as normal, but it is not.
I was not self aware, conscious of myself and from this came every fails and every deep low state that blew my mind and knocked me at the floor too many times. I have doubted my future, my talent, my skills, my mission more than once, more than hundreds of times, to the point that in 2022 (pressure of pandemic has been probably the pushing end part) I was near to close Magnolia and retire.
Despite all the successes and great weddings I was creating.
And we are now at the real turning point of this new cycle: my personal growth, my connection with who I really am, my incorporating all my bright parts and my dark parts.
I can hear you asking “And who cares?”
If you have come here on this website only to know my name, my expertise, my portfolio, my skills, history and professional backgrounds to rest assure that you will be delivered honesty and quality (and I do), you miss a HUGE part of the deal, as much as you would miss it from every other websites and services you take a look at: you would miss ME, who I am, all my “whys”, all my “hows”, my emotions, my values.
You would miss all the reasons why it is so important to know the human being in front of you, how I have reacted to life, how I handle responsibilities and how I can support you to create not only the wonderful event you dream of, but moreover the life changing experience of planning deeply your one in a lifetime event.
There is a huge difference between a skilled Wedding Planner and a skilled deep connected Wedding Planner and you are here - I hope - on these pages to get more understanding on this difference.
I invite you to sit down with a good caffè or a nice vino glass, take time to read carefully all the other pages of this little corner of my world, my virtual home, that is filled to the top of me, of my life, my mission, my expertise, my talent, my experiences, my values, my new appassionate approach.
All those information are exactly what you would need to know and read about any professional you wish to have by your side: from a plumber to an attorney, from marketing strategist to a wedding planner.
Anyone.
Believe me.
Because it’s a completely different experience for you that will reflect also onto the delivery of the event and not less important your personal experience of the process.
When your Wedding is YOURS in the real sense, being based on your vision and on your selves, you cannot get it wrong.
Do you think this comes only from knowing all about budgeting and all vendors needed or being creative with a florist and being excellent with creating a detailed timeline?
Think twice.
There is more.
I have worked on myself for all my life, but lately I have worked and invested time and effort (and money) so much on my soul, my persona, on finding back who I really am to understand how to come out of all the dark lows I have lived.
I have understood that my lows were just part of my reactions to triggering things happening and the key was not solving these things, trying to avoid them to happen, or to try to not being triggered anymore, but to work on being self conscious to understand my physical and psychological reactions to triggers, to recognize when they happen, how they happen and to what they are attached.
I may have not solved my problems, but I am balanced now.
I face things differently and in a more connected and fair way.
This is exactly what you would need to expect from your Wedding Planner: a person who knows what she/he is doing but who also will not sink in their low moments risking to destroy your project or ruining your relation with your planner, that would lead you to the worst experience.
I now create the most personalized and real “you” events, because my couples trust me and connect with me so deeply that I have access to their true vision, their dreams and through my expertise I materialize them.
We connect.
This is more than just wedding planning.
Why do I always refer to “my mission”?
Wedding Planning is my passion and my love, my natural born talent, but it is also my instrument through which I can widespread the importance of connect deeply with ourselves and incarnate our true self with no barriers to achieve the greatest goals.
You find more in depth infos on my methods, my life, my mission around this virtual home of mine.
I just underline how grateful I am that you have come so far in the reading, this means everything to me, your attention to who I am, the message I have, the real ways I can assist you in a deep and qualified service.
Hoping to be part of your journey and to have you as part of mine.
With all of me
Silvia
