DAY TWO // WPI Spring Retreat 💜

If Day 1 was about getting closer to the question, Day 2 was about getting honest with the answer.

We came back together over mimosas and morning hugs (a WPI staple at this point 😉) and got right back into refinement — this time turning the lens inward. What are you actually building? And are your standards, your pricing, and your daily reality all telling the same story?

The member gives went THERE. We talked about how a systems strategist can help you untangle your process, and how saying no (A LOT) helped two photographers book better weddings.

I spoke about two important topics: setting standards and nervous system – two topics that have become very important inside WPI!

In between these conversations was room for the good stuff: small group breakouts, real talk, a few happy tears, a homemade Caribbean lunch (those pressed sandwiches 🤌), and an afternoon of feet in the pool and brains fully stretched.

Not pictured was the homemade Guac I whipped up and other poolside treats!

All these gorgeous moments captured by our retreat photographer + my business bestie @c10ike 💜💜💜

You might see the highlight reel and think ending up here was always my plan all along but you’d be wrong.

Like any good career, there have been lots of pivots and hiccups, and lessons that had to be learned the hard way. 

Not seen here? The time…

- I forgot to add chairs to a rental order and ended up footing the $2,000 bill
- A client sat across from me crying that I ruined her wedding because her parents table had a low centerpiece
- I had to borrow $4,000 from Grandma Vera to make payroll, because I didn’t pay attention to my numbers
- About a hundred “dream clients” hired a different planner than me and I felt like an absolute failure
- I cried in my car before a wedding because I was completely and totally overwhelmed with the amount of responsibility on my shoulders (OK, maybe I did this more than once)
- My seasonal launch of The Planner’s Playbook completely bombed and I felt like my entire business was falling apart

…and roughly 700 other moments I’ve chosen to leave off the highlight reel.

So if you’re at the messy, nothing’s-working stage right now? Just know that if you have been to one wedding in your life, you are starting with more experience than I had. 

I’m getting ready to embark on an exciting new chapter that I cannot wait to share with you… it’s big, and scary, and I’m sure in another few years I’ll have a lot more lore to share… but in the meantime…

Cheers to all the ups and downs I’ve experienced over the last 19 years!

And a special thanks to the photographers who made a lot of this lore possible: @c10ike @allanzepedaphoto @stevedepino @withincreative @robertandkathleen @thebrandedbosslady 💜🫶🏼😘

I’ve come to realize that many of us want to have a village, but we don’t recognize that we have to be a villager first.

My friend carla @c10ike is one of those rare exceptions and I want to introduce you to her!

When I started my planning business, I had no contacts and no real idea what I was doing. I was so green it makes me laugh to look back on it now!

And somehow, I got lucky enough to be taken under the wing of this incredible woman who showed up for me then when I was a little baby business owner, and has kept showing up ever since in more ways than I could possibly count.

She’s taught me so much over the years, and I don’t mean in the traditional sense of teaching someone something. She simply lived her life, and I paid attention.

She modeled what it means to be a friend.
A sister.
A daughter.
A wife.
A mother.
A business owner.
A boss.

I learned generosity by watching her be generous.

Compassion, connection, leadership… none of it came from advice. All of it came from the way she carries herself and the way she treats the people around her.

She has taught me more than she will ever know by the sheer act of living loudly and joyfully in every corner of her life.

I am so lucky to call her my friend. So lucky to be one of the many, many people she has been a villager for.

Carla thank you for letting me grow up right beside you. I love you. 🤍