I decided to do my Bachelorette in Barbados.

In fact, I decided to do a Bachelorette week in Barbados because a couple of my girlfriends thought extending the trip would be fun and… I didn’t disagree.

So the vision was: the first half of the week will be chill and include more spirit-goddess things like having circles, meditations, yoga, sun time, and nice dinners out.

The second half of the week will be when everyone is together and we can do more activities like my favourite boat day tour, go to my favourite outdoor beach bar one night and dance on picnic tables, and have a fancy dinner out.

Why Barbados?

I absolutely love Barbados. I’ve been here 3 times before, and every trip has been 10/10.

When my friends asked what I wanted to do, the honest truth was that I wanted to get a house in Barbados and for all of us to go together. I thought this was too much, but they all happily were on board and so excited about getting away someone.

I also thought Barbados was so fitting for my Bachelorette because all 3 of my last trips came at big pivot points in my life and really encapsulated my life before Chris.

Trip One – February 2007

The first time I came here was with girlfriends in 2007. Another friend of mine was on exchange here and it was third year University.

I had been going through a weird time in second year University, and this trip marked a time in my life where I was finally feeling my confidence come back.

Not surprisingly, I had started doing yoga religiously about 6 months before and it had truly helped me to get to a way better place mentally than I had been in a long time.

Needless to say, we had the most epic beach.

The island was SO fun, we were so excited to be together, and we had the most incredible week.

I literally cried when we had to leave because the week had been so epic.

It was peak young single Catie – a bit irresponsible, very boy crazy but also REALLY fun.

The trip really shifted me back into myself again. Something changed in me that trip to remember who I was after having been in sort of a dark period, and I came back feeling a newfound sense of confidence, freedom, and connection that I had been missing. That feeling lasted with me long after the trip, so Barbados always held a special place in my heart.

Trip Two – Law School Grad Trip

Fast forward a few years, and I’m in law school, and another one of my friends is once again on exchange in Barbados.

A group of us decided we wanted to do a law school grad trip, so got a couple of apartments together in this one complex.

Once again, the trip was 10/10. We were a bit older and wiser, and so while we still explored and went to the different beaches, we also focused that trip on going to a lot of the great restaurants on the island.

That trip to me really encapsulated who I was at that time, and a shift to finally finishing up law school and getting excited about the next chapter on the horizon.

Trip Three – January 2019 Right Before I Met Chris

So then fast forward to January, 2019, and I just knew meeting my husband was around the corner. If you want to know how I knew that, I walk you through that process in Big Love.

I had booked to stay for 10 days in Barbados solo because I wanted to escape the winter and had finally built a life of freedom to work from wherever – but my parents decided they wanted to crash my plans.

I couldn’t say no, and thought it would be fun to spend that time with them.

After all, I was about to meet my husband, so I was soaking up having this time with them before my life shifted the way I knew it was about to.

I spent that trip literally telling my parents to soak in our time together because life was about to shift for me – I just knew it!

They just definitely knew that I was off my rocker, and had heard for years about my ongoing quest for love so were not too phased when I shared that.

But I was right!

Those 10 days with them were really special and I’m grateful to have had the time. While I still get to have time with them, of course, a lot of trips we now do together as a family involve Chris too.

I even had a short lived romance on that trip with a guy who told me his nickname was Good Luck Chuck because every girl he dates meets her husband after they break up – I was both horrified but also intrigued and saw this as just another sign that my soulmate was en route. Ha!

Sure enough, my next trip after that one was the trip that I matched with Chris.

That trip I was really intentional about saying goodbye to single me – I did truly know, intuitively, that my life was about to change and I was going to be meeting my partner. It was a deep, visceral knowing.

And, truly, if you had overheard my conversations at that time (which my Dad remembers!) I would have told you his name was Chris, he lived in the New York City area, and that I was going to meet him that year.

It happened!

Revisiting

Because of that – I thought it was so fitting to return to Barbados for the Bachelorette trips.

My last trip was truly about releasing single me, and now I was doing another shifting into a new energy of marriage.

I just like to be intentional about things in my life. I know that a lot of wedding traditions are weird or overdone, but if I was doing a Bachelorette, which I wanted to, I wanted to be thoughtful about it. This included where I went, why, how long I spent there, and the overall vibe of it.

I’ll share in another post where we went and what we did, but in the meantime, here’s a photo of the deck last night.

Stay tuned for what happened!