by Marcela Murad, Co-Founder of the FABAIC
Amongst the creativity, color, and inspiration- Love is always in the air at the Face & Body Art International Convention! Attendees of past conventions have fallen in love, gotten engaged, and even married at the FABAIC. Many of us have found lifetime friendships that we cherish and created extended loving family that we look forward to seeing every year!
Back in 2003, Paola Paredes came to FABAIC on a scholarship and met the love of her life Tom Shenk. The next year we held a contest where we asked people to paint themselves in matching designs. Unbenounced to her, she was already the winner because the prize was that Tom was going to get on his knees and propose. She said YES and is still living her fairytale dream very much in love with her prince. Paola went on to become our beloved children’s track director.
One day I suggested to two of our instructors, Lea Selley and Wiser, that they should get married at FABAIC. Before we knew it, we were planning the most extravagant and fun wedding ever! We decided to keep it a surprise to the attendees, the only thing they knew was to come to opening ceremonies with their face painted in a Sugar Skull design. Some painters volunteered to paint the ones that were not so sure how to do it. Others went out of their way and came in complete costume. To make a long story short, there were over 300 Sugar Skulls that attended the wedding, an 11 piece Mariachi Band, and the most beautiful wedding party I have ever seen- not to mention TONS of fun!
The same year Jeff Simon made a surprise proposal to Caty Goda and she also said YES! We had the best couple bodypainting artwork that year. It was awesome.Some couples have spent their honeymoon at FABAIC, rather than miss it, and as I said before some of the most beautiful friendships have flourished at the convention. We would love to hear from you. If you have a love or friendship story you like to share, please send me an e-mail to marcela@fabaic.com.
Love always makes me happy!
Can’t wait to meet you at FABAIC 2017! Expect love to be in the air.
