Good evening everyone my name is Ylondra Marrero and I want to welcome you to A Night of Elegance and let you know how much I appreciate your presence, love, and support. This event marks the one-year anniversary of my dream JEM Fab Fashions and just to be able to celebrate this dream with you here today means the world to me. For those of you who don’t know the meaning behind JEM let me start by sharing that with you. I took the initials of my three daughters: Jazzmine, Elena, and Mia, and decided to honor them and show them how much I love them by including them in my life’s passion. It is because of them, after all, that today I am able to call myself a mother. For me, motherhood has been such a beautiful and amazing experience, it was this experience and the incredible responsibility that came with it, that has pushed me to want to be the best mother and woman I can be. My goal has been to set a positive example for them and show them that dreams really are possible when we believe in ourselves and are willing to put in the hard work and give it our all.

   JEM Fab Fashions has been years in the making but last year I gave birth to this incredible opportunity to not only share my Fashion on the runway but to live my passion which is inspiring each and every person I come in contact with to celebrate their beauty. The purpose of JEM Fab Fashions is to use style, trends, and fashion as a means to achieving self-confidence, embracing personal beauty, and practicing self-love not only when we wear the clothes but on a daily basis. I have this dream that through JEM I can touch others and impact them in such a way that they embrace the power of Self Love as a lifestyle and not just as a label that’s trending on social media. My goal is to be all-inclusive on and off the runway. I want to celebrate beauty in all shapes, sizes, ages, flavors, and colors. I want to incorporate unity, brotherly love, and humanity into the JEM message along with self-confidence, courage, and feeling Fabulous every time we walk out the door and face our day.

   But I want to be honest with you in telling you that the realization of a dream is not an easy accomplishment. It took me years just to believe in myself and my own abilities in order to arrive at the place of creating JEM. It’s taken countless sleepless nights, lots of hard work, sweat, tears, along with an incredible investment of time, energy, and every last bit of my life’s savings to make this dream come true and even more just to keep it alive. Every day I continue to convince myself that I’m on the right track and that I can do this. Every day I push away fear and self-doubt and replace them with faith and self-love. Every day God gives me the courage and the strength to keep going and then he sends people my way to remind me that I am important to them, that my message matters, and that they need the inspiration that I offer in my words and in my actions. I want to be honest with you in telling you that the people we think will support our dreams and have our back isn’t always going to be the ones who show up, contribute, invest, like, and share. Not everyone will believe in you, not everyone will support you, not everyone will speak love and empowerment into you so you have to make sure to do that for yourself every day.   

   I want to tell you that your dreams are possible and even if your family doesn’t have your back and doesn’t support you, God will send you a spiritual family that does. He will send you a powerful tribe of amazing friends and incredible fans and supporters that will see your light and embrace your love and believe in the power of your message. I want to tell you tonight that if I can do it, so can you. I want to inspire you to discover your passion if you haven’t already. Believe in yourself and in your ability to make a difference in the world with your own gifts and your own abilities and through your own greatness. I want you to know that you are special, you are beautiful and you are not alone.

   Today I want to thank each and everyone of you for being my spiritual family. You have shown me all the love I need today. You believed in me enough to join me tonight and show me your support and tonight I am making a commitment to you that I will never give up. I will always do my best in sharing my love to the world through JEM Fab Fashions and in everything I do. I want you to know that I believe in you and you have all of my love and my support.

   I want you to stop waiting for others to celebrate you and learn to celebrate yourself. Today I want to thank you for joining me in the celebration of my 40th birthday because this is a very important one for me. This year I am embracing my personal power, I am believing in myself, I am living my passion and I am walking daily in Self Love. This year I decided that 40 is Fabulous and I have so many reasons to celebrate. Because of you, this will definitely be a night I will always remember!

   I also want to thank my sponsors and my JEM team because, without them, this night would not be possible. I am grateful to my mom and dad Soreyda and Carlos Marrero for all their love and support. I offer my deepest gratitude to Monica Garcia Saenz from MGS Designz, Ariel Vazquez from Visuals by Fame, ABC Learning Center in Fort Myers, and Tina Boulton – Romance Author. I also want to thank Rafael Cruz from Rafael Ramon Photography, and last but not least Charrise Edwards from Flawless Designz by Charisse who is our Hair Stylist. Special thanks to all of my beautiful JEM models who did an amazing job tonight modeling my 2020 collection. I am very grateful to our MC and DJ Brian Franklin Jr. and our live entertainment which you are about to enjoy here shortly. 

  Lastly, I want to give special recognition to Mike Sealie and Ariel Vazquez (can you both please join me for a moment) I just want to say how grateful I am for your generous contribution to JEM with your one of a kind art pieces that beautifully showcase my message of Unity and coming together as One Race – One World. I also want to say that these amazing designs are exclusive pieces that are only available through my JEM Fab Fashions line.