Jasmine Star and Me..... and 19 others

It's half past ten on Thursday night as I sit here writing this... I arrived home at 8pm- somewhere between 12 and 24 hours after everyone else- and I am tired. I am baffled. And I am overwhelmed!

I am also unsure of how to write this post. I'm not a fantastic writer, and I don't always explain myself very well. (It's something I'm working on) But mainly I don't know how to write it because I don't know if I can match what everyone else has said, or if I can match the gorgeous photos they have shown. In fact, I know I can't. So I guess I will just begin...

Hopefully by now, if you follow my ramblings, you will know of Jasmine Star, and that I had secured a place on her hugely popular London workshop. If not, you had better get reading! ;)

Well, Tuesday morning I caught the train at 11am, arriving 45 minutes late into London Paddington at 6.20. By 7.20 I had made it across London rush hour, checked into my accommodation and caught a taxi to the Sanctum Soho Hotel for introductory drinks with the other members of the workshop and of course Jasmine, her husband JD and Kat from Rock and Roll Bride (who initiated and organised the workshop!)

And from there it was a blur really. Until I left the restaurant last night that is. Just after Jasmine and JD left the restaurant I walked over to the bathroom and watched them leave... it was honestly quite heartbreaking for me and brought the end of the day in quite emotionally. In the end I was very grateful for the evening and long day of further travel to myself. Some alone time. Not to think or process, just to be. After such an amazing day, and quite frankly (for me) an overwhelming day, it was necessary for me to just be. (And edit!)

But I still haven't said much about the actual day... and I'm 3 long paragraphs in! I know, I know. I suck at this! So as my words fail me, here are some images I shot from the day....

  

I think what I want to say most about the Workshop, and the experience in general, is what I have learnt about myself. You would think that by listening to someone talk about themselves that you would learn more about them than yourself, but strangely it was the opposite for me. Being put into a new situation really helped to show me a bit more about who I am. I struggled during the day. I reaaly struggled. With the shooting and my confidence; I felt so weak and unsure about myself. But I powered through and am very happy with my results! When I sit and look at them full screen, on my nice HD screen they look amazing. Sadly they don't look quite as great through this platform, but none the less I am proud to share them :).

I now know, at the end of a long week, that most of all what I want to do is run a business; a thriving, fun and successful business. Thank you Jasmine for teaching me this about myself and for pushing me further and further! I will be back later on in the week with more about what I learnt, as I still need time to not only write it up, but to digest and recognise it first.

Thank you also to the following people who helped to make the day happen;

Alicia and the team at One Marylebone
Flowers from Pollen Nation
Cute cupcakes (not shown here) from Restoration Cake  
The stunning floral cake from The Art of Cake
All furniture supplied by Great Hire
The yummy food we ate all day (plus some specially made for me, dairy and wheat free delicacies) was provided by The Recipe  
Gorgeous hair was done by Severin Hubert of The Hepburn Collection
Make Up was done by Elbie Van Eeden
Behind the Scenes Video (to come soon!) by Richard Wakefield of FX Films 


Plus of course massive thanks to Kat Williams from Rock and Roll Bride for organising the whole event, Jasmine herself for flying all this way just to pay us a little bit of attention :), and to her wonderful sidekick-  JD who is just amazing and is the perfect partner in their team. You guys are amazing together and JD thank you so much for spending time talking to us and helping us through the day. 


Lastly, I cannot forget to thank all the other workshop attendee's who I greatly enjoyed meeting, and am so happy to now be your friend and peer and cannot wait to continue learning from you! You are all WONDERFUL!!





Abiento x