10 Questions with Myrdith Leon-McCormack of World Bride Magazine

1. What inspired you to start World Bride Magazine?
My heart's response to this question is I am a sucker for love. I love everything that leads to the path of marriage, from the moment two people meet to the great expectation-- the wedding day and their life beyond that momentous occasion.The technical answer is my own wedding experience of planning my second marriage to my then-husband to be who is Irish/Mexican. As a person of Haitian descent, I noticed that there was a lack of images of diverse couples and their weddings being featured in "mainstream" publications, except for few celebrities or socialites that looked like us. It was that AHA moment, that I stopped complaining about it, and decided to use my own resources; then 10 years in the fashion industry and took the leap of faith and gave birth to the creation of World Bride Magazine with the help of seasoned professionals in this industry.

2. What were you doing before you launched?
I started in this great industry as a celebrity manicurist. I had the honor of being represented by the nation’s top agencies such as Jump Management, Ford Agency and Factory Downtown who we committed to mentoring and preparing me for who I am today.

Those humble beginnings led me to work with such industry icons as Annie Leibovitz, Walter Chin, Peter Lindberg, Marc Baptiste who worked for the nation's leading publications such as Vogue, Glamour, Elle, and Essence Magazines which prepared me for what was involved in producing and creating beautiful content and the importance of having a strong team.During my spare time, which was very little, I found time to write a blog for Huffington Post for six years which built up my journalism and production skills to interview, chase stories, work on deadlines and use my creativity.

3. What is the focus of the topics of WBM?
WBM's primary focus is to share the beauty of the diversity of in a variety of cultures traditional processes of planning a wedding. We learned about formatting from watching and learning from the industry standards such as Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, Brides Magazine, Instyle Magazine, and Vogue Magazine. It is their level of excellence that intrigued our team, yet, we knew that our success would be to offer what wasn’t available in the market - we knew that for us to be committed to diversity and including a variety of perspectives and content from around the world would clearly be a game changer. We knew that the world is full of perspectives and we wanted to share these wonderfully, intriguing stories in each issue to our website.

It was imperative that our readers believe and feel that their culture and custom is respected, appreciated and their beautiful wedding customs, traditions and designs were indeed worthy of celebrating and sharing to the rest of the world.

WBM truly wants everyone who reads our magazines to feel inspired by these different cultures. We know and want to share that we all have much more in common than not! What a better time but when planning one of the most festive of occasions-- ones wedding to try something new.

4. How often is it produced?
When we initially started some 16 years ago we were digital. Way ahead of our time. But in order to be in the same arena with the big boys, we decided to print and we did so quarterly. It was wonderful for a while, it gained us a place in the magazine world and the respect and recognition we needed to survive for the past 14 years. But as we are finding out in this ever challenging industry of publishing-- print is becoming more and more difficult to sustain when so many are driven by the use of technology. WBM leadership decided to return to what we knew worked; we went back to our original plan of digital. The flexibility of digital has allowed us to be more nimble, we expanded much quicker than we could have done without being under the umbrella of the other publications we have admired and were inspired by.

We currently work on weekly stories with content coming from all over the world. We are grateful to our international team of writers from all over the world such as England where our Creative Director Dave Wise is holding it down for us. We have on the ground presence in France, United Emirates, Spain, and The Netherlands to name a few. This allows us the flexibility to live up to our name WORLD BRIDE MAGAZINE authentically.

5. What new trends are you seeing in weddings today?
Our readers seem to go beyond just following trends. We find they are becoming creative thinkers. They are either honoring their heritage and paying homage to their culture-- or creating their own trends on their terms.

Their wedding is more of an experience they are sharing with their family and friends. The new hotness for a lot of brides and planners are destination weddings which gives them the flexibility to find designers that complement their esthetics based on their location of choice.

But make no mistake brides from around the world are all inspired by the fashion that they see we report on; which is why we are very cautious and selective of the fashion designers we feature. We make sure it is reflective of our international audience and their respective cultural requirements.

We definitely have our favorite designers that know how to mix things up and they are appreciated by our audience. The likes of Isabelle Armstrong, Reem Acra, Ines Di Santo, Ziad Nakad, Tony Ward, and now a newcomer to the American Market Yemi Kosibah who we are proud to have interviewed and introduced to the American Market some four years ago and who will soon be showcased at Mark Ingram Atelier in New York City.

In our upcoming edition, we are proud to introduce four French designers from (CITY) France this season, who mix both modern and classic looks in their designs for our modern bride.

6. What's trending in Bridal Fashion?
In our WBM world, our brides are creating their own trends-- some are choosing to bring back lace and modernize it to their taste. While others are choosing to bring volume like the dress that Lebanese great designer Elie Saab's created for his daughter-in-law, Christina Mourad. Filled with sequins, lace, and volume. Such a sharp contrast to what the Duchess of Sussex Megan Markle choose for her wedding to Prince Harry, she opted to keep it simple and clean.

But we have noticed that todays brides are not afraid of adding a bit of color to their bridal attire-- gold, champaign colored dresses. Even my daughter when choosing her wedding dress from the house of Pronovnas wanted to have a bit of color to her not so white dress. Their theme was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance so there was a lot to play with. We had the expert guidance from Liz Salassie of Designer Loft who was able to guide us through the process. Even as an editor I rely on the experts. I just have the luxury of hearing from both sides of the fence-- what the bride wants, and what the experts can realistically provide or create.

7. Any particular popular column that stands out as most viewed?
Our beauty section is the most powerful portion of the magazine, followed by the travel section and of course, our fashion always draws our readers, in part, because of our bold covers-- Black model wearing a yellow dress on a bridal magazine is bound to get attention. That particular cover really made a powerful statement for us. We also had the honor of shooting that on location in the designers' hometown, Colombia. Francesca Miranda another one of our favorites was extremely supportive of our mission.

Then there was our cover where we shot in Cairo, Egypt with a Nubian model in the middle of the market. The Egyptian tourism spared nothing to accommodate our request to feature all local designers for our Middle Eastern Inspired issue. Another of my all time favorites was our Asian inspired issue celebrating the beauty of the bold red dress modernized by Isabelle Armstrong that showed the modern Asian model wearing a red ball gown in celebration of the traditional red dress attire that a bride would wear of the Chinese culture, that we shot here in New York at the gorgeous St. Regis Hotel.

We are grateful to say, we have so many positive responses as we celebrate the beauty of our brides and their other cultures and their customs.

8. What do we have to look forward to in the upcoming issue?
We have already explored featuring men on the covers of our magazine. Men are getting married too after all. Why not talk to them about their wedding daydreams.

We are so over the moon about the upcoming cover. It is our Ageless Bridal Issue. This issue celebrates the beauty of the bride that can and will get married any age she deems right for her. Love is ageless, timeless, colorless so why do we humans continue to put it in a box of who does what and when?

As advance as mankind has become we still seem to limit ourselves in so many ways. WBM's goal is to continue to redefine all of it--respectfully while educating all on one platform.

9. What is your favorite part of your job?
Discovering new artists and introducing new experts to our global market. We are currently interviewing a brilliant cake designer who is based in Dubai who designs wedding cakes inspired by the runways of the fashion world. Reema Siraj is a young talent who is originally from Sri Lanka, but lives and works in Dubai, who like countless other gifted artist are limited not in talent but by lack of exposure.

By traveling across this nation and the world, we are learning about all the brilliant creatives individuals that just need to be given the opportunity and platforms to share their work with others and make an honest living at it.

No greater joy than doing what you love and watching others enjoy it.

Ask any bridal fashion designer where they get their greatest joy and they will unanimously tell you seeing a bride choose one of their creations for their wedding day.

10. Tell us about the conference you are hosting during this October Bridal Market?
Where do I begin!!!! We are over the moon about this season's show. It is not enough to know we are now proud members of the Bridal Council, but we are hosting our very first conference that will engage wedding professionals from the industry we love so much. On October 2, 2019, we have partnered with our team members who have their own businesses, founders of the Wedding District who we have partnered with to create a wonderful opportunity for the greatest of France to engage with the greats of the American Market.