@birdiephotoco

You do not deserve to have queer couples model for your retreat if you will let attendees treat them like that. At least send them back to the Airbnb, do not make space for discrimination to happen. Mean girl energy is rampant and disgusting.

this retreat no longer has an Instagram page up and I hope that’s because madison will never host a retreat again if I am being completely honest. This was a week from hell. To start 2/6 couples canceled & were replaced with “free time” and a couple that lacked the diversity marketed. During the sailboat shoot there was too many people on the boat and had to split our time— so the couple was too cold by the second leg of photographers. These are my petty problems, it gets worse.

During an engagement shoot with a queer couple some of the photographers refused to shoot. The photos that they did post from that set cropped out any telling signs of the couple being two women. After that photoshoot I watched the host litter A WHOLE FUCKING BIKE on the the beach because she didn’t want to bring it back home..

we were promised a private chef & were given low quality catered food like a football team or a funeral. There was one case of water bought, one box of Diet Coke, and not enough food for everyone to eat a whole breakfast as promised. We were asked about allergies and attendees shared that they are pregnant or allergic and cannot eat shellfish.. so the host purchased an expensive raw bar service.
We were also promised transportation on the island so it wasn’t possible to go and get food.

The hosts were obviously all fighting and were gossiping with attendees, it felt like I was supposed to pick a side, two of the hosts left to go to the bar, one stayed in and was basically begged to show up to shoots and not hide in her room, we were told she stopped planning the retreat half way through and they had to finish the rest.

they put five attendees in a room with two bunk beds. Model couples stayed with us and had their own rooms. There was racist comments made by an attendee in front of a host and I think it should have been a bigger deal. It was a shit show!

it’s okay to cancel things and give money back. shit happens, life happens, you need to communicate though.