I thought a lot about this post and how I wanted to recap my “Coachella” experience this year.   This year marked my 5^th trip to the desert for the event.  The past two years I have attended the actual music festival. This year I decided to opt out of the festival and make the trip with another blogger (Briana Nicole, she is AMAZING, go follow her blog right now!) for what I refer to as “Fauxchella;” the events and parties that take place surrounding Coachella.  All kinds of companies and brands sponsor these events for brand recognition and exposure.  It can be their biggest marketing opportunity of the year.   Some of these parties are open to the public, and some are so exclusive people are willing to sell their unborn child at a chance to attend and possibly rub elbows with the likes of Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid (I’m joking….but not really)!

I had done “fauxchella” before and somehow made my way into these exclusive parties where I actually did rub elbows with these girls, the Biebs, Leo, and more.  And while I am not going to lie, this was a pretty cool bragging right, it wasn’t the reason I was going. I really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to shoot some great content and hopefully meet and network with fellow bloggers.

I don’t have 500k Insta followers (yet 😉 ) and I’m definitely past my prime and “been there done that” (for many years) when it comes to the whole party scene but I still managed to get our names on a couple of lists to some events (I still got some magic left in me 😉 ).

I knew this would be a totally different “Coachella” experience than I was used to.  I told myself I wasn’t there to just have “fun,” but I was still excited, especially for putting together my outfits.  As I explained in my festival inspo guide, it’s one of the reasons I love it so much.  Come Coachella week, the excitement started to grow, but so did the stress.  I stayed up late every night planning and getting ready. I was already mounting unnecessary pressure on myself.  I wanted my outfits perfect, I needed my shots to be perfect. I wanted to my Insta stories to be the envy of everyone watching.

One of my favorite authors Harlen Coben always references the phrase “Man Plans, God Laughs” in his books, and it’s become one of my favorite sayings to quote. You can plan all you want to for something, but fate always has a way of take it’s own course.

This was the epitome of my experience before it even started.  The day before I left, I forgot my phone at home when I went to work. I tried the express spray tan formula which turned me completely orange. On top of that, Aunt Flow came for a visit that left me bloated beyond belief. I seriously felt like an Oompa Loompa.

I felt defeated before I even made the drive out there Friday morning.  I let that emotion overcome me and dictate the tone for the rest of the trip.   At the first event, I found myself in an awkward situation when the host had me mistaken for one of her paid influencers.  The second event we waited on line for an hour to get in, continually getting cut in front of by all those obnoxious people I try to avoid in LA.  I lost my driver’s license, the lighting wasn’t cooperating with my photos, I couldn’t sleep, I didn’t sleep, I had bags under my eyes, my bloating got worse. I could go on and on…but let’s just say the trip was a culmination of misfortune events.

On the way home I was frustrated and disappointed to say the least.   The experience had not lived up to my expectations.  I felt completely defeated. But then a phone call to my mom helped me take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

I realized I set myself up for disappointment.  I became consumed with all the wrong things and lost site of the reason I had started blogging to begin with.   What did I expect anyways? The goal of my blog has never been to get a million likes on a picture.  It’s never been about showing off to my followers about what exclusive party I’m at or make them envious of all the free shit in my goodie bags.

I started this journey because I wanted to cultivate a community and form genuine connections with like-minded women.  I want to inspire women through my personal experience with fashion.  I want us to feel good about our bodies and confident in any style of clothes, even during our worst day of our time of the month. I don’t want you to feel you have to like or emulate my style, I want you to follow me because you APPRECIATE my style and it provides inspiration for YOUR OWN personal style.

My hope is that I will earn your trust through my commitment to only sharing brands or products that I use and absolutely love, and think you might too. I want you to buy brands or pieces I wear, not because you think I look good in it, but because you think YOU will look good in it too. I want to be someone who’s relatable, authentic, and genuine.  I want my photos, stories and videos to elicit delight and joy, not envy and FOMO.  I want my success and accomplishments to motivate you to go after your dreams and goals.   I want my losses and failures to remind you that you’re not alone. 

A week later I looked back and realized I was viewing the experience all wrong.  If I could go back in time would I do it all over again exactly the same way?   Yes. Absolutely yes. Coachella wasn’t a disappointment; it was a gift.  It gave me a new found friendship with Briana. Memories of us laughing and crying at the absurdity of Day 2, all while singing along to the Pop2k and 90’s radio station on our hour long drive back to where we were staying.   It gave me an opportunity to exercise my creativity when my outfits didn’t fit like I expected, or I couldn’t get to the location of the shot I wanted to take. It gave me a much needed reminder that the road to success is never easy, and it doesn’t happen over night.  It helped bring me back to my goals, and gave me greater motivation to achieve them.   

So what do you do when Coachella gives you lemons?  You make some Beyonce flavored lemonade! You adjust your expectations and roll with the punches. You learn from your mistakes.  So what if I didn’t take the perfect shot?  So what if my outfit didn’t turn out exactly as expected? That’s life.    I still got great content that I got to share with all of you.  So thank you Fauxchella for helping me regain sight of my dreams.  And thank YOU for the support you give me each and every day.  I would not be here without you! Let’s continue to push each other to be the best version of ourselves and stop at nothing to make our dreams come true.

I hope you enjoyed all my outfits! I really mixed it up this year with a whole range of different styles and looks which was really fun! You can shop all of my looks and pieces below!