FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 25, 2026

“Something Blue”: First Music Video Filmed at The Alice event venue in Destin, FL to Premiere at the 2026 Destin Songwriter Festival

A deeply personal story carried for decades becomes a song, a Nashville recording, a music video and a documentary film about the healing power of songwriting & storytelling.

DESTIN, Fla. — September 25, 2026 — What began as a few deeply personal words written in the notes app of an iPhone has traveled from Destin to Nashville and back again.
“Something Blue,” co-written by Kristin Sullivan, Jessie G and Matt Wynn, will premiere its official music video Sunday, October 25, 2026, at 6:15 p.m. at The Alice event venue in Destin, FL during the VIP night of the 2026 Destin Songwriter Festival.

The production is the first music video filmed at The Alice, a waterfront wedding and special event venue on Choctawhatchee Bay in Destin, FL. A documentary chronicling the story behind the song and its creation will follow.

At its heart, “Something Blue” is a story about fathers and daughters, absence and love, and the unexpected ways that music and storytelling can give a voice to experiences carried silently for years.

“Music can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.”
— Leonard Bernstein

Where the Story Began
For Kristin Sullivan, General Manager of The Alice, a wedding industry professional with over three decades of experience and a published author, the story behind “Something Blue” is intensely personal.

Writing itself is not new territory for Sullivan. She has co-authored three published books and written two of her own wedding planning journals and wedding wellness guides.
But “Something Blue” was different.

In October 2025, Sullivan met Matthew Pennings and his family in Destin while Pennings was in the final stages of planning the Destin Songwriter Festival. Through that connection, Sullivan also met Megan Caulfield, founder of The Heal Reel production company.

The true inspiration for what would eventually become “Something Blue” ignited when Sullivan attended the Destin Songwriter Festival and experienced the power of storytelling through music firsthand.

She listened as songwriters shared the deeply personal stories behind their songs. Of particular impact were the stories surrounding Operation Song, a nonprofit organization that brings professional songwriters together with veterans, active-duty service members and military family members to help transform their experiences into songs.

“Operation Song is incredibly proud to return to the Destin Songwriter Festival for our second year. There is something powerful about bringing songwriters, veterans, and a community together around stories that deserve to be heard. As Operation Song continues to grow our presence across Florida, events like this give us the opportunity to introduce more people to our mission and, more importantly, to honor the men and women behind the songs. We’re grateful to be part of what the Destin Songwriter Festival is building and excited to help carry this mission to even more veterans and families across the state.”
— Mike Byer, Executive Director, Operation Song
1SG, U.S. Army (Ret.)

For Sullivan, hearing those stories demonstrated how music could give language to experiences that can be difficult to express in ordinary conversation, creating connection, understanding and, sometimes, healing.

At the same time, another experience was affecting her on a much more personal level.
Sullivan had watched Pennings interact with his two young daughters. The tenderness and love within that father-daughter relationship touched something she had carried quietly for decades.
Sullivan never met her own father.

For more than 30 years as a wedding professional, she had worked only a few feet away from countless father-daughter moments: the first look, the walk down the aisle, the dance at the reception and the behind-the-scenes connections.

She had built a career helping other families create those precious memories while knowing she would never have those particular moments herself.

“I spent over three decades as a wedding planner, constantly surrounded by that father-daughter bond,” Sullivan said. “I never met my father, so those moments have always affected me differently. Hearing the stories behind the music and experiencing Operation Song showed me how powerful it can be when something deeply personal is finally given a voice. Then watching Matt with his little girls brought something to the surface in me that needed to be released.”

From a Phone Note to a Song
Shortly before Thanksgiving, the group gathered at The Alice.  Sullivan began writing.  There was no book proposal, professional assignment or intention to publish what came out. Despite being an experienced author, she didn’t approach the words as a writer creating something for an audience.  She simply needed to write them.

The words went into the notes app on her iPhone. She didn’t edit them.

Sullivan later sent the piece to artist and songwriter Jessie G, Pennings’ wife, as a thank-you for sharing her gift of songwriting and storytelling and, perhaps most importantly, for sharing her family.

Jessie G (jessiegmusic.com) is a Nashville recording artist that has had multiple singles in the Top 20s and 30s on MusicRow Radio Charts.  She’s toured the U.S. and internationally, and her music videos have topped CMT’s 12 Pack Countdown on several occasions.  She’s been featured in Rolling Stone, People and Country Rebel performed the National Anthem live on Thanksgiving Day for the NFL in front of 30+ million viewers.  Her rent duet with Grammy-winner Gretchen Wilson, “Like My Whiskey” earned national acclaim.

Jessie saw a song inside the words.

She asked Sullivan for permission to turn the piece into music for the For the Love of Songwriting, a Destin Songwriter Festival event held at The Alice, and brought Nashville songwriter Matt Wynn into the project.

He said yes.

On February 12, 2026, Sullivan, Jessie G and Wynn gathered after hours in the Bridal Suite at The Alice.

“Something Blue” was born.
Two nights later, Jessie G and Wynn performed the song publicly for the first time at The Alice, with Sullivan seated front and center before a sold-out audience.

“She’s so brave to let me tell her story in front of a sold-out crowd,” said Jessie G. “People came up afterward telling me how much it touched them. I knew we had to record it.”

The Blue Bear Behind “Something Blue”
There is another piece of Sullivan’s story woven into the song and the music video: a blue teddy bear.

Sullivan’s father left the bear for her when she was born before disappearing from her life.
It became the only tangible connection she ever had to a father she never knew.

The blue teddy bear appearing in the “Something Blue” music video is an intentional reference to that childhood connection.

For a woman whose professional life has revolved around weddings, the symbolism eventually intersected naturally with the familiar wedding tradition of “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.”

Then came another coincidence.

One of the existing Cottages by the Bay at The Alice had already been named Something Blue years before Sullivan became part of The Alice.

Sullivan did not name the cottage, and its name had no connection to the creation of the song. Yet the fact that a cottage carrying those same words already existed on the property where the song would be written, first performed and ultimately brought to life on film became an unexpected full-circle detail in the story.

From Destin to Nashville — and Back Home
Following the response to the first performance, “Something Blue” traveled to Nashville.
The track was recorded at Sound Stage Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, transforming the song first performed at The Alice into a professional recording.

The next chapter brought the story back to where it began.

The official music video was produced by The Heal Reel production company, a Destin-based production company founded by Megan Caulfield (megancaulfield.com) “Something Blue” marks the company’s first music video production.

The Heal Reel promotes healing through the art of cinematography and the catharsis of storytelling — a mission that closely mirrors the journey of “Something Blue” itself.

“The entire process has been so therapeutic and healing,” Sullivan said. “From writing those first words, to creating the song, choosing wardrobe, designing the sets and actually playing a role in the video itself, every part of this journey has uncovered another layer of the story. Something that began very privately has connected me to people in ways I never anticipated.”

The video features an entirely Emerald Coast cast led by Kiana and Miguel Caraballo as the bride and her father, with Anthony Litscher portraying the groom.

In another fitting connection, Kiana and Anthony were among the first couples officially married at The Alice, during the same month “Something Blue” was written and first performed.
For a song inspired in part by decades of witnessing father-daughter moments at weddings, the story was now being portrayed through a real couple whose own wedding story was connected to the very place where the song began. Along with a Dad who cherished his little girl, Kiana's Father is another wonderful Dad.

Coming Home: The Premiere
Now, nearly a year after the experiences that first inspired Sullivan to put her story into words, “Something Blue” is coming home.

The official music video will premiere at 6:15pm. Sunday, October 25, 2026, at The Alice during the VIP night of the 2026 Destin Songwriter Festival.

Megan Caulfield and all three songwriters: Kristin Sullivan, Jessie G and Matt Wynn will be present for the premiere.

The moment brings together the people and places that helped move the story from private words to song, from song to recording, and from recording to film.  And it brings the journey back to the festival where Sullivan first experienced how profoundly a personal story could be transformed through music.

PREMIERE DETAILS
“Something Blue” Official Music Video Premiere
Sunday, October 25, 2026
6:15pm
The Alice
109 Calhoun Avenue
Destin, Florida 32541

Presented as part of the VIP night of the 2026 Destin Songwriter Festival.
Tickets for the entire evening are still available online:
eventliveus.com/event/10349/destin-songwriter-festival-2026

About The Alice
The Alice is a private, resort-style waterfront venue on Choctawhatchee Bay in Destin, Florida, created for destination weddings, celebrations and elevated events. Set among tropical landscaping along the bay, the property also includes Cottages by the Bay for overnight guests.
Learn more at the-alice.com.

About the Destin Songwriter Festival
The Destin Songwriter Festival brings Nashville songwriters, artists and rising talent to Destin for live performances and the stories behind the songs.
The 2026 festival takes place October 24–25, 2026, with a portion of proceeds supporting Operation Song, a nonprofit organization that uses songwriting and storytelling to serve veterans, active-duty service members and military families.
Learn more at destinsongwriterfestival.com.

About Operation Song
Operation Song is a nonprofit organization that connects veterans, active-duty military members and military family members with professional songwriters to help transform their experiences into songs.
Through collaborative songwriting and storytelling, the organization provides participants with another way to express experiences, memories and emotions that can sometimes be difficult to put into words.
The stories Sullivan heard through Operation Song during the Destin Songwriter Festival became an important catalyst in her own decision to put a deeply personal experience into words.
Learn more at operationsong.org.

About The Heal Reel
Founded by Megan Caulfield in Destin, Florida, The Heal Reel promotes healing through the art of cinematography and the catharsis of storytelling.
Throughout our lives, we construct personal narratives through a multitude of stories. Some are small pieces of everyday life, while others represent moments that forever alter our existence.
The mission of The Heal Reel is to raise awareness of how sharing our stories can serve not only to heal ourselves, but also to promote healing in others.
“Something Blue” is the first music video production for The Heal Reel.
Learn more at thehealreel.com 

MEDIA CONTACT
Kristin Sullivan
General Manager
The Alice
109 Calhoun Avenue
Destin, Florida 32541
Phone: (850) 460-0425
Email: kristin@the-alice.com

Video, production stills and interviews with Kristin Sullivan, Jessie G, Matt Wynn and Megan Caulfield are available upon request.