Turning 40 in the Happiest Place on Earth

By the time you read this, I'll officially be 40 and somewhere in Disney World with my husband, my son, my best friend, her family, and, because apparently this is just how our lives work now, one of our K & Hart couples.

There is obviously a story here. 😂

We met this couple at a styled shoot, immediately hit it off, and they eventually booked us for their hiking elopement. Somewhere between then and their actual wedding, he re-proposed to her at Disney World. At some point after that, I casually threw out the idea that we should all go back for my 40th birthday.

It was one of those things you say because it sounds fun, everyone agrees it would be fun, and then you're all supposed to go back to your regularly scheduled lives.

Except we didn't.

Schedules lined up. Families were game. Plans started becoming actual plans. And somehow a completely unserious suggestion turned into plane tickets and all of us heading to Disney World together.

Honestly, that feels like a pretty accurate representation of my life at 40.

This Wasn't Exactly the Plan

I don't know what I pictured 40 looking like when I was younger, but I'm fairly certain this wasn't it.

I definitely didn't picture owning a bridal beauty company with my best friend. I didn't picture traveling for weddings, doing hair on mountaintops, or meeting people through work who would eventually become people we'd willingly vacation with.

And I definitely didn't picture celebrating 40 at Disney World surrounded by this particular collection of humans.

I'm really fucking glad I was wrong.

Azzie and I have been friends far longer than we've been K & Hart. She's not my business partner who became my best friend. She's my best friend who, somewhere along the way, became my business partner too.

That distinction matters to me.

We spend an absurd amount of time together. We work together, travel together, make plans outside of work, involve our families, send each other entirely too many messages, and somehow still voluntarily choose to go on vacation together.

If you've ever traveled with another adult and their entire family, you understand that this may actually be the highest possible level of friendship. 😂

The Part of K & Hart We Never Planned For

When we started building K & Hart, obviously we had plans for the business. We knew the kind of work we wanted to do, the experience we wanted our brides to have, and eventually the places we wanted this thing to take us.

What we couldn't have planned for were the people.

Wedding mornings are weirdly intimate. We're there before a lot of the day really starts. We're in the room while everyone is still in leggings and slippers, while somebody's looking for coffee, while Mom is trying not to cry yet, and while the bride is slowly realizing that the day she's been planning for months is actually happening.

You get to know people pretty quickly in those rooms.

Most of our brides eventually go on with their lives, we stalk their galleries when they come in, and we get ridiculously excited when we see them again for another event.

And then there are the ones who somehow cross that invisible line from "client" into actual friend.

Apparently sometimes so thoroughly that you end up at Disney World together before you've even done their wedding.

We didn't exactly put that in the business plan. 😂

But it's become one of my favorite things this business has given us.

Forty Feels Different Than I Expected

There's a lot of messaging around turning 40 that makes it sound like you're supposed to arrive with some giant revelation about life.

I don't think I have one.

I don't suddenly feel wiser. I haven't unlocked the secrets of the universe. I'm still probably going to make questionable decisions, overpack for every trip, and suggest things as jokes that somehow turn into actual travel plans.

But I do think I've gotten much better at recognizing when life is good while I'm actually living it.

That's something younger me wasn't always great at.

Right now, life is good.

I have a family I love. I have a best friend I somehow get to build a business with. I have work that takes me to beautiful places and lets me be part of people's biggest days. And somewhere along the way, some of those people have become part of our lives too.

None of it looks exactly like I would've predicted.

Maybe that's the best part.

So Today, We're Not Teaching Anything

There are no wedding timelines to fix today. No beauty advice. No hot takes. Nobody needs to know how long eight bridesmaids take to get ready or where the hell to put the hair and makeup table.

We'll get back to all of that.

Today, I'm 40.

I'm at Disney World with my husband and son, my best friend and her family, and two people who wandered into our lives because of K & Hart and apparently decided to stay awhile.

There will probably be long lines. Someone will get tired. We'll spend an offensive amount of money on food shaped like Mickey Mouse. And if history tells me anything, something will happen that none of us planned for and it'll probably become the part we talk about the most.

I can't think of a better way to start this decade.

Forty looks nothing like I thought it would.

It looks better. 🤍

Now if you'll excuse us, we've got a date with Space Mountain.