User:Thepurpleflute/sandbox

Monica Nikchemny Monica Nikchemny (born June 19, 1987) is the daughter of Lilya and David Nikchemny, the cofounders of Monica's Bridal based in Brooklyn, New York. She stems as the 3rd generation in her family’s history of dress design and works as a seamstress and social media manager for the bridal store of which is named after her. She has significant upcoming plans to customize a kids speciality clothing line and expand brand awareness of the uprising MBridal Private Label.

Early Life Monica was born in New York, however her parents were Ukrainian immigrants and thus her first language, spoken widely in the household, was Russian. She did not understand English by the time she began kindergarten. Through television and socializing with the other kids, it took her about 6 months to catch up quickly. Both her mother and grandmother Simona were passionate seamstresses. Growing up she always enjoyed doing arts and crafts and had sown outfits for her dolls as practice. During their progress of rebranding their business, her parents had renamed their store to Monica's Bridal as tribute to Monica whom Liliana was pregnant with during that time in 1987. Monica grew up artistic, preferring to draw over playing with dolls. She considers sowing and design to be "second nature". She went to school with an emphasis in the arts. In middle school she passed an entrance exam for a specialized school for gifted children within the arts spectrum. She attended Edward R. Murrow High School and specialized in their fashion program. Throughout this time and every summer in high school she would help out at her family's store. Her mother gave her tasks to help out with the custom dresses, such as bedazzling the gowns with gems.

Young Adult Life She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2004- majoring in fashion design and minoring in business merchandising. She had her first job outside of Monica's Bridal with Saks on 5th Avenue, New York, NY as a sales consultant while she attended F.I.T. Her aspirations at this time was to be a well known name in the fashion industry. At an early age she wanted to follow her mother's footsteps, but she wanted to take her name and brand further into success. She expected of herself to work at the store of which she is the namesake, however it was never pushed on her and she had family support to explore any career path she wanted. In December of 2010 she met her husband Felix, a business finance consultant. They were engaged 6 months after meeting and married a year and half post engagement. Their two children, a son and daughter that are 2 and 4 years old as of 2018. Monica feels they are too young to tell whether they will grow up to participate in the family business. She will guide them in whatever career or passion they may choose. On the side, Monica tutors her son, believing that parental guidance in education establishes better retainment of knowledge and fuels their family bond.

Monica’s Bridal 2 weeks later after Monica graduated in 2008, Monica's Bridal officially reopened after relocated to a bigger 11,000 sq. ft. building and she immediately took part in the store. She manages the social media accounts, while working alongside her mother in dressmaking and designing custom gown. Monica has a particular interest in speciality custom clothing for children and often times takes on customer request for designing first birthday gowns. She has aspirations to excel the brand MBridal Private Label to be a highly renowned name and the store more than a warehouse for other brands.