“It was very emotional. We were all set to go. All the venues, all the vendors were paid,” Siracusa says. Siracusa now plans to get married in March 2021 and is working with Braun to custom-design a dress.As the calls from distressed brides came in early March, Braun began getting calls from friends working in hospitals around New York and New Jersey who were desperate for masks. Braun believed she could help.
“The silver lining of my business during COVID-19 was definitely the opportunity to meet other people that I never thought that I would,” Braun says. The new work also helped Braun get closer to her husband. Because her seamstresses were working from home during the pandemic, Braun had to take on a bigger load herself. Her husband, Emilio Mazzucotelli, who had no experience sewing prior to this year, stepped in and helped her make the masks. “We did whatever we could,” she says.
Word of her masks began spreading among the community in Hoboken. Soon she was not just donating masks, she was also selling them to the general public. Now she makes more elaborate masks for wedding parties as well. All the attention Braun has gotten brought her new potential customers. People who were already married or who had no plans to wed asked how they could support her. So this summer, Braun began designing children’s clothing and summer dresses.Braun’s advice to other businesses struggling during the pandemic – ask yourself: “What are [you] good at? What tools do [you] have in your hand to go and take other steps?” And then adapt and be flexible, she says.
So she's done more for the pandemic than trump?
Bless you