On August 17th, fourteen women came to our home from all over the country.  They had NO IDEA what they were in store for!  I will officially introduce each of them to you very soon, but for now it’s kind of fun to show you a sneak peak of who they are from our training weekend.

I wanted the weekend to be so special on several levels–not just training and equipping these women but celebrating and serving them too.  I wanted to start by honoring them as beautiful women who have a passion for helping other women discover confidence.  With the help of a talented gal, she and I cooked a four course dinner of salads from my garden, grilled salmon in Pacific Northwest fashion and a beautiful ambiance to celebrate their beauty–their confidence. When it comes to grilling, we must use the best pellet grill for better outcome. There are a lot of options, and they all look pretty similar to the untrained eye. However, they’re not really all created equal. Just see this Barbeque Smoked reviewed several pellet smokers, to know more.

While she and I worked on preparing the dinner and table,

the women were assigned small groups and provided places in our backyard to relax as we served them appetizers and champagne.

They started with a self portrait group exercise to help them get to know each other–this new team they’d have for the next three years.  They each brought two printed self portraits that reflect this season in their life to share with a small group.

Powerful bonds began to form in the transparent sharing that this wonderful exercise invites.

And then Brian and I surprised them with a formal sit down dinner in our backyard.  We called the dinner “Celebrating Confidence” (and the Seattle sun looked down on us with favor)!

I told the ladies how many times I had shot high end weddings, and often dreamed of seeing my name on a place card–being one of the invited guests.  That little day dream would make me smile as Brian and I shot extravagant events.  But tonight, I wanted each of their names to be at the table.

I wanted them to feel celebrated for the confidence they had mustered to come this far!

On a personal note, I had the most wonderful time planning this dinner for weeks!  I love that we got to decorate with flowers from my garden.  Even the bloomed artichoke had a special place at the table.

So many fun details to shoot!

And being that these women are all photographers… 🙂

We had a GREAT time!  It was such a magical evening of getting to know each other–a perfect beginning to our training weekend.

We talked and talked long after the sun had set.

Tomorrow begins the training!

xo,

m