As many of you know, I am currently on a mini European tour for 2 weeks, shooting weddings and a few portrait sessions.

I was lucky (blessed!) enough to have the groom of my Swiss wedding be a pilot for Swiss Air. I have always loved Swiss air, but now I love it even more! Being that I have some of the coolest clients in the world, he and his lovely Mrs. flew me BUSINESS CLASS from JFK to Zurich and then on to Copenhagen. Lucky girl am I!! I am pretty sure the entire Business Class section knew that I obviously did not belong in there or that it was my first time, because I was taking pictures of everything. Unfortunately, I only had my 85mm lens with me in the cabin, so I couldn’t really get any good wide shots of the awesomeness that I experienced.

Now, I have to tell you – I travel. A lot. Like a lot, a lot. To date I have been to 25 countries (one for every year of my life!). As many times as I’ve traveled though, I have only ever flown coach. Because…well…I can’t afford the extra thousand(s) of dollars to fly in business or first.

As I was waiting for my flight to board, I picked up the book I recently started reading – “Purple Cow” by Seth Godin. Great book. In this book, Mr. Godin outlines the importance of making your business remarkable, as opposed to ordinary (unless of course ordinary is, in and of itself, remarkable).

I stepped onto the plane and was greeted by name with a glass of champagne. Wow. From that moment, I knew flying business was going to be a remarkable experience, and one I would never forget. And, indeed, I was not disappointed. From the heated electric blanket, to the chair-turned-bed which had a massager inside as well as pressure control, to the menu that I was able to order from. The entire experience was nothing short of ordinary. The stewardess always addressed me as “Miss Candelora” and was at my beckon call for the entire flight (don’t worry, I was very kind to her!). For a brief moment in time (well, ok, 8 hours), I felt ….important. I felt like she really cared about my needs. It was…remarkable.

And it made me think. It made me think about my family. It made me think about my friends. It made me think about the amazing man in my life who chose to love me. It made me think about my clients. And I began to wonder if I treat them in a way where they feel better about themselves just by being around me, a way where they feel remarkable. I was challenged to step it up and love more, care more, try more. Because they deserve to feel remarkable, and to know that they are remarkable.

So, here is to the remarkable ones in my life who I am blessed to call family, friends, love-of-my-life, and clients. Thanks for being you. Thanks for enriching my life. And thanks…for being who you are. Because you are REMARKABLE.

This would be my seat controller. I pretty much sat there playing with the buttons the whole ride…just because I could!!

Wine, cheese and grapes. My appetizer, which I didn’t eat because #1- I am not a huge cheese person and, #2- I was to busy chatting with the really nice guy sitting behind me.

Dinner. Oh my gosh…DINNER. So, they brought me this menu which I could choose my meal from. Naturally, I selected the beef dish, thinking it would be those chopped up fatty pieces of something they call “meat”, and I would try to actually find the little bits of meat amongst the fat in between my gagging spurts. Oh no. They brought me a FILET MIGNON. And to accompany it- spinach (my all-time favorite food, together with broccoli)  with dried apples, a nice salad with a vinaigrette, saffron rice, and unlimited wine.

…and then came the dessert. Oh the dessert. Vanilla pannacotta, topped with two cute blueberries and a strawberry. Oh and the Swiss chocolate.

…and the little sachet they gave me with a laundry bag (had no idea what to use that for…did they have washing machines on board?), ear plugs, a full sized toothbrush, toothpaste, facial cleanser, face cream, breath mints, and an eye-thingy.

Lastly, a coat hanger with my seat number on it 🙂